We ’ll be moving beyond the playoffs this coming Sunday here at The Neighborhood Church as we hold our Annual Business Meeting setting our course for the entire calendar year ahead.  We will adopt the 2022 budget and vote on two important amendments to the by-laws.  This Annual Meeting will be our first such gathering in two years.
 
Transacting the business of the church is always vital for undergirding and providing the resources of our ministries.  Business meetings can often be boring, but they can also be the occasion to launch us into an exciting future! 
 
Here are adapted words to an old Methodist hymn, “On Our Way Rejoicing”.
 

“On our way rejoicing, covenant people stand 
For Christ’s call to service all throughout this land. 
Is there need and struggle for the way of peace? 
Let God’s kingdom move us, caring never cease. 
Chorus: On our way rejoicing, people called in love. 
Serving one who touches earth with heaven above.”

 
I’d like to suggest we adopt “On Our Way Rejoicing” as our theme for this year’s Annual Business Meeting. We have so much to be grateful for – and so much to celebrate!  These past two years have certainly caused a great deal of pain, struggle and sadness…where discouragement has abounded.  And yet, our faith affirms that ours is also a way of rejoicing.  The Apostle Paul knew tremendous hardships and disappointments and yet he could write, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!”
 
If you feel safe enough to come to worship this Sunday, January 30th (when we will all be masked) – I hope you will join us afterward in the sanctuary for this brief and important meeting.  A quorum will require 50 voting members and your participation will make a difference.
 
My hope for the year ahead is that we will faithfully follow the Lord – On Our Way Rejoicing!

“I love to live rejoicing,
I cannot live lukewarm.”
 - Anonymous (which could be any and all of us)
 

  Joyfully,

Rev. Dr. David D. Young
Senior Minister

This piece first appeared in The Wave on January 27, 2022.