GA for Great Accountability

Last month I had the privilege of attending our partner church’s General Assembly. This year they started a system to have a GA in the Fall for deciding budget issues and a GA is the Spring for receiving reports of the various arms of the church. I was very excited for this Spring meeting because it sounded like some of the more dysfunctional programs of the church were reluctant to change, but were going to be forced to show what they’ve been doing (or not doing) for the first time and be held accountable. There were about 35 representatives from the different regions of the country and programs within the church, including about five women and one youth. The meeting opened up with a great mediation on wanting to be found faithful with what we’ve been given, and was followed by several breaks for prayer and worship throughout the meetings. I was impressed that even a group like this with a big task had an easy time laughing together, and many of the people who commented or asked questions told funny stories or added in something humorous to lighten the mood.

A panorama of the meeting room in the bright light of morning

I expected more big revelations during the two days of meetings, but found the number of controversial items to be pretty small with everyone seeming to treat each other very cordially. I was told afterward that it really was a very smoothly functioning meeting because there are usually more tears and arguments at these things, and one man even died of a heart-attack during a heated session a few years ago. Despite the lack of fireworks, I was pleased to see that many questions were asked after the reports, and some changes were brought about, for things like the poorly managed/utilized church book store and others. Overall, I felt privileged to attend as an observer because even just hearing the reports gave me a better understanding of where the church is currently, and hearing the questions gave me many insights into what is important to the group at this point.