AGMs and Assault

Blog has rather missed out this week, as I've been preoccupied with Annual General Meetings: 3 of them! It's not as bad as it sounds, as the agenda is pretty much the same. You get on a bit of a roll really. What's interesting though is the best-supported is the smallest church. I haven't got the exact figures, but it may even have been the second-best attended as well. Their total membership roll is less than a third of the other two, and yet about half of them turn up for the meeting. Furthermore, when it came to elections, there were 6 nominations for the 6 places. Well more than either of the bigger churches managed. And...3 of those 6 were under 40! How good is that?! Definitely signs of life there.

The truth is, it's easier to lead a smaller church - in this case, a membership of 70. There is more sense of cohesion, unity of purpose; less sense of 'plenty of others, they don't need me'.

There were no major problems at any of the meetings, and all were able to end on a positive note, with a major challenge to face in 2013. For two of them, there's the possibility of a new heating system for next winter. I think we're all realising that one reason for falling attendances (but only one) is that's it's just too cold in the winter! Ok - so you can argue that it's always been like that, but people's expectations these days are higher.

As part of each meeting, we showed the latest video from the Church Mission Society, 'Does it matter if the world knows Jesus?' It was only 6 minutes long, but took us to Tanzania, Argentina, Nepal and...Hull, UK! It demonstrated how the Good News of Jesus requires actions as well as words. At one meeting, when I invited comments, one person simply said 'wow'! Interested? See www.cms-uk.org/knowjesus.

By contrast, I was frankly appalled by the biting incident last weekend of Luis Suarez of Liverpool FC. It's the kind of behaviour you expect of a child. In any place of work, such an assault would lead to instant dismissal for gross misconduct. I am sorry that Liverpool, with it's history of experiencing injustice, did not take the moral high ground on this occasion and dismiss him. Their 6-0 thrashing of Newcastle yesterday shows they can perfectly manage without him! Sadly, as several people I have heard on TV or spoken to have said, 'there is no morality in football. It's all about success and money.'

Mind you, yesterday's result leaves me, as an Evertonian, very nervous about our chances at Anfield next Sunday!