Why Attend the Annual Gathering?
18th Annual Gathering and Convention | October 7-10, 2018 | Des Moines, IA
We are getting ready for our 18th get together in Des Moines, Iowa! I like to think of our gathering as more of a family reunion than anything else. It is a time for us to connect, network, renew old friendships and make new ones. But why would you bother to go? Why would you make the commitment of time and money to attend? There are some very good reasons, I want to share a few of them with you.
You Joined.
At some point in the history of your congregation you made a decision to join our association. You had congregational meetings, you had discussions and finally took a vote. We don’t ask for much, because we believe that the congregation is the front line of ministry, but what we do ask is this: be a part of God is doing in LCMC. You will not know what the Lord is up to in this church body unless you pay attention and participate. In our congregations we all have people who rarely if ever attend and yet they are on our “membership list”, for many of us, this is confusing. Why would you join something and not participate?
This is Different.
Our annual gathering is not like any other church body meeting you have ever been to. We don’t have long, drawn out business meetings. We don’t have one committee report after another telling us about things that really don’t matter to the life of the local church. We don’t have endless greetings from people who are not part of LCMC and who we will never see again.
We have some business to do, yes, but what we do applies only to the association, not to the congregation. We have elections to the Board of Trustees and we vote. We have keynote speakers who challenge and inspire us to carry out the work of the church. We have breakout sessions, each one designed to strengthen the ministry of the local church. We have times for prayer, worship, and singing. We have fun.
You Are Not Alone.
There are times when we feel isolated, disconnected and tired, both as congregations, as pastors and leaders, and as individuals. Our gatherings are meant to be encouraging to each other as we try to follow Jesus into our communities and around the world. Just as individuals, we are baptized into a family of faith, and are now part of the Kingdom, we are bound together in our association. We need each other. Attending the gatherings of our association help you to see that you are a part of something, you belong and you are not alone.
You can find all the information to register for this next gathering here. Come along, be an active participant in what the Spirit of God is doing in LCMC! We are in this together, we need each other and now is the time to join us October 7-10 at HyVee Hall and Convention Center in Des Moines, Iowa!
Early bird registration ends September 1st, so be sure to sign up soon in order to attend for the best rate!
Author
Mark Vander Tuig doesn’t sit still for very long, needs coffee, loves humor, and is passionate about Jesus. He is a resource to congregational leaders, pastors, and anyone else who calls; hoping to help them to catch the vision of the Great Commission. Growing up, Mark was expelled from his youth group and decided then that there had to be a better way to do “church”. For the future, he would like to see the people of LCMC strengthen the churches we have and plant the ones we don’t.
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