Church Meetings - How we do them
Baptist Churches are distinctive. A commonly misunderstood feature of Baptist Church life is the 'church meeting'. Sometimes referred to in other Baptist churches as a 'business meeting' and often thought of as a 'democracy' in congregational government : both are unfortunate deviations from a biblical understanding of what happens when the church meets together to discern the Lord's will - for this particular congregation, in this particular place, at this particular time.
In Ephesians 5: 25-27 the Apostle Paul paints a glorious picture of 'the church' as not just a random gathering of (bickering) believers but as the church that Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has purified, loved, and one day will present to himself as pure, spotless and without blemish. When the church meets to discern the Lord's will for us we do so in Jesus presence and in reverence of his desire to one day see his pure and spotless Bride by his side (Reveleation 19:17-19).
At SBC we desire in our church meetings to meet together before God in order to listen, share, pray and agree together. We call our meeting 'The Gathering', which generally is scheduled on a Saturday morning in February, June and September each year. In November we hold our Annual General Meeting to conduct the necessary business decisions of a properly conducted charity, as reflected in our Articles of Association.
We encourage all members to come together regularly in fellowship to share with one another in our calling to serve Christ - in this church, in this place, at this time.
The following papers are a helpful guide to help us apply these principles and conduct our meetings in a properly spiritual and productive manner
Church Meeting - a paper by Prof David Bebbington
SBC : How we make decisions (presentation slides)