Unafraid to Be Honest (about Annual Meeting)
Reflections on Annual Meetings Registration
With the exception of perhaps my first year as your Conference Minister, I have wondered about the registration numbers at Annual Meeting and what it said about our common life as “The Conference.” I wondered if it said something about my leadership or the direction of the Conference. I ask myself: Is the decrease in annual meeting attendance about the cost or does it reflect the reality in the decrease in the number of churches, or both? Or is Annual Meeting registration about something entirely different? Perhaps this year, the low registration is about a weariness from the pandemic and virtual meetings? Maybe it’s about a weariness and discouragement about life in general?
There are 81 Authorized Ministers who are expected to attend annual meeting. As of Monday, 33 have registered. There are 51 active churches in the Conference; each church has a minimum of 2 voting lay delegates, so there are a minimum of 102 lay delegates. Registration for Annual Meeting could be 102 lay delegates and 81 authorized ministers. That’s not the reality today. The challenge in getting people registered for annual meeting is not new; it’s not even particular only to Kansas-Oklahoma.
In past years I would send out individual emails and texts to authorized ministers encouraging (okay, begging) them to register and encouraging them to get their lay delegates to register as well. But this year, I have decided to be honest about the reality. Because I wonder if there are bigger questions to be explored about Annual Meeting that are also related to other big questions about church. Questions we have to be (do I dare say it?) UNAFRAID to ask. We have gone from a meeting of Thursday evening to Sunday worship; to Friday noon to Saturday lunch, and now to virtual meetings. As we’re seeing, it is a challenge to get people to register for virtual annual meetings.
I have never been publicly honest about the annual meeting registration reality as I suspect they aren’t unusual to any Conference Minister and I didn’t want to make a huge deal out of them, but they have felt more significant to me in a small Conference like K-O. Some might say that I really should not be asking these questions as I leave. That’s one opinion. But one reason to name them now is that there is sometimes a tendency to look back with fondness on the past that does not exactly match the reality. My hope is that naming this reality helps to avoid that temptation and possibly opens the door for a generative conversation about Annual Meeting.
The Annual Meeting Planning Committee has planned one of the best programs of all the years I have been here. They have zeroed in on a core piece that holds us back in so many areas and have dared to challenge us to be UNAFRAID – in our leadership, in our witness to the gospel in our own communities, in our own churches, and about our own need for help. And so, let us be UNAFRAID to name what needs to be named. May it be so.
I hope to see you at Annual Meeting.
This year, Annual Meeting is virtual, less expensive, and easier to access than ever before. The Planning Committee has done a really fine job of planning a program with an excellent keynote speaker as well as thoughtful and engaging workshop leaders. Responding to feedback from last year’s meeting, the Planning Committee has retained early morning prayers, and shortened the number of days of the meeting. And as always, the actual business session for K-O is fairly short. Please register today… don’t miss out!