Some may think that the Church Annual Business Meeting is not a very important event. Certainly, it often does not feel that exciting. I have heard national church leaders describe Annual Conference or Annual Meeting with the sentence “We survived another one.” A meeting in which there are not major problems is one to be appreciated. On a local level there can at times be controversies but we have not had any difficult meetings in many years. If our annual business meeting has good attendance, appropriate questions are raised and responded to and good decisions are made. It is then alright if the meeting feels a bit boring with no major controversy. After all, it is good to have reports on the work of that the church is doing. We know much of this already, but it is good to be reminded. We do not desire to operate the church like a business, but we do hope to have good business practices in place to meet the legal expectations for church corporations. We expect today’s Business meeting to be typical in these regards because of the good and competent leadership we have in boards, commissions and deacons as well as in other working groups. If the atmosphere is open, compassionate and thoughtful at the meeting an occasional peaceful yawn would not be a bad thing.