The Annual Meeting (with qancakes)

On the day of Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection, we are told that the apostles were gathered and a mighty wind blew through the place where they were meeting and the Holy Spirit, like tongues of fire, landed on each one.

Wow! And that took place at a meeting. Now I can’t promise that anything like that will happen next week at our annual meeting, but no one can say that it won’t. So, that’s right, this is me ramping up the idea that it is our responsibility as members of St. Paul’s to meet together in worship and at events like our annual meeting. The essential purpose is to evaluate what we’ve done and to plan for what’s next.

For those of you who don’t like meetings I ask, would you really deny yourself an encounter with the Holy Spirit? It is often at meetings that God’s Spirit becomes obviously present.

It is our responsibility to consider our situation; the programming we’ve done and our finances. It is our responsibility to make plans for the coming year (and beyond).

And I ask, would you really deny yourself the fluffiest pancakes ever made? Okay, I can’t promise that will be happen either. But maybe this year we will have both: fluffy pancakes and the Holy Spirit.

The saying about minding our ps and qs can be about being attentive to the details. One explanation dates back to the old fashioned printing presses required the printer to think of the letters backwards (like how they’d appear in a mirror). It was easy to mix up the letters p and q, because they are so similar, especially when printers had to think of them backwards too. Often the mistake would only be discovered after 100s of whatever it was, was printed.

The annual meeting inevitably brings out our best efforts of making sure the details are accurate and as intended. That’s a good thing, but the annual meeting also can’t lose sight of the bigger picture.

The saying, “God is in the detail,” predates the phrase, “the devil’s in the details.” Either way, it is intended to convey the message that it is important to be attentive to details. So, if God is present in the details then God is there in the bigger picture too.

All I ask is that we not lose sight of the Good News in every bit of the annual report and everything that happens at the annual meeting. God is there. God is here. God is not through with us yet.