Committee on Committees

I just returned from visiting my local Baptist Church building.

At Focal Point we don't have an evening service... We have small groups called Connecting Points. Our Connecting Points meet during the week, not usually on Sundays. Because I didn't attend Focal Point this morning I thought I'd go and enjoy worship with another church. I made my way to the end of the street where a Baptist church meets (membership: approx 800).

Unfortunately tonight I stumbled upon a business meeting. I was prepared to worship outside of my preferred comfort zone but I wasn't excited to be a part of a business meeting. I decided to stay and observe how this works (It's been years since a church I attended held business meetings). I've been in non-traditional churches for about 6-7 years and during college I attended and served at Thomas Road Baptist (Mega-churches don't do business meetings).

So it's been at least 11 years since I observed a church business meeting.

Anyway the issue at hand was purchasing adjacent property. This church seats 1750 in their main building... (built about 3 years ago) Our area is exploding in growth so property is a hot commodity around here. Recently the property behind their building was bought and developed before the church was made aware of the deal. The church finance committee made a motion allowing them to offer local home owners "first right of refusal" papers. This basically would allow the church to get first access to any purchases of any property nearby.

Tonight reminded me of why I'll never pastor a church with business meetings.
Basically they were trying to convince 100 people of what had already been done in their committee. About 20 people spoke up for and against. I heard comments like "Are we trying to be a mega church? I heard that mega churches are falling apart... I don't want us to do that." Another comment was "What does adjacent mean? Is it immediately adjacent or does that mean down the road?" Another was "If we need parking we can just make another agreement with the YMCA across the street."

I'm so thankful to be a part of a church where people trust that God leads the Pastors and the Pastors Shepard the church. I'm thankful that we're not wasting time on business meetings. I'm thankful that we have enough faith to know that God brings down haughty leadership.

Tonight I wanted to worship God at a local church. If I were a non-believer I would have seen 'the church' in action and decided that all of my previous assumptions were true.

Does anyone else have stories of bad business meetings?
How about those of you in churches run by staff?