Two votes and vision

Beautiful double Azalea in a rose pink

Last night was our final TT meeting until fall. Our congregation is taking a summer break from our transitional work. In that spirit, we have decided to take the summer to visit other churches in our area, both within our denomination and others. We want to know whether others are also struggling with the issues that we have been facing as a congregation.

Before beginning the work, each TT meeting begins with our transitional pastor giving a meditation and lighting a lamp. The lamp signifies God's presence with us as we work.

The first part of our meeting was the taking of votes. The voting eligibility amendment and the use of women in leadership were the two issues that were voted on this time. We decided as a congregation, with the recommendation of our leadership, to dramatically expand the eligibilty of voting to allow all active participants to vote in elections and restrict membership voting to only active members and active associate members. We also decided to allow only men to be considered in the lead pastor role with the most qualified candidate (male or female) to be considered for the second position yet to be determined. This position has been put on hold because of our decline in attendance. We may decide we need a youth or associate pastor in the future.

The first vote needed to pass by at least 75%. It did pass with more than 79% of those voting, who were current active members. The second vote only needed a simple majority for selecting which candidates can be considered by the Pastoral Search Committee. The full congregation will be voting for/against that candidate when the time comes.

The rest of the time was spent discussing our vision for the future. This was done in small groups. Each individual previously filled in a questionnaire listing our preferred vision in priority fashion.

Meantime our congregation is still "bleeding" with at least two couples leaving within the past several months. We are wondering about the merit of our transition process, since it appears that everything of consequence is still just coming down to a congregational vote.