You are baptised and confirmed here. You are a faithful member of your Connect Group. You attend Services regularly. You go on Mission trips. Even the monthly Church Prayer meeting has become a “must go” event. You tithe or pledge regularly. 

You are a Cathedral member: in your heart, feet and pocket.  

Now, if AGM attendance is the badge of membership, it seems so passé. In a church that breathes more like a community than an institution, the formality of AGM just doesn’t fly. After all, you don’t read about AGMs in the Book of Acts. 

You have attended some where you were driven to tears. You were candy-crushing or kindling throughout. Your only contribution was a “tick” on the list to make the quorum possible. You feel like you are a highly replaceable Lorem ipsum.   

Now that I have raised all the common objections, let me explain why I think you should be at AGM 2016.  

It will be interesting. In which meeting will you have an overview of how SAC is structured, her vision for ministry (especially in a “new season”) and what is going on across the rich spectrum of ministry and community life? What is in the mind of her leadership for this new season? What has the Lord been saying?

It will be participative. You get to raise issues, assuming they are concerns shared by the wider community. Or hear them. Carpark. Flaking paint and algae-d walls. Sound problems in the Nave. Or simply issues of thanksgiving as we affirm how blessed we have been.  

It will be intriguing. How does Cathedral manage and disburse the finances? What will she plan to do in 2016? 

It will be future envisioning. How will Cathedral develop her grounds for current and future needs? We are in a very strategic location. How can she participate in the process of urban renewal, especially right in the heart of this city-nation?  

It will be our shared responsibility. The practice of AGM follows our societal expectation of how charity societies are governed and regulated. Accountability and exercising it regularly help to safeguard the integrity and witness of the church. You can do your part to help SAC keep to her calling and mission. The more resources we have, the need for accountability is even greater. By taking an interest in SAC’s financial matters and ministry priorities, you are simply being a responsible member. 

If the list above does not move you, maybe think of the idea of family. Families don’t just gather perfunctorily. They simply gather. 

And now, get ready for the final biblical knockout punch:

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is… Hebrews 10:24,25

Amen. In old King James Version, no less. 

See you at AGM 2016.