The Board Meeting
Albert Bogle
January 03, 2017
Add to Favourites
Acts 1:7-14
He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’
Matthias chosen to replace Judas
12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk[a] from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
The basecamp today is called “The Board Meeting”. Making decisions and sticking with them is not always easy. Real commitment kicks in when it is no longer easy. Making commitments and sticking to them is often the basecamp that eventually leads to success.
It was a cold November evening in the early 1990s. I was chairing a board meeting of Branches, the Charity Shop we had started some seven years earlier. The balance sheet didn’t look healthy sales were down and the best advice from our accountant was close the shop. I was ready to accept this advice and recommend the proposal when one board member spoke up. He wanted to give the shop another year. He believed in the project. He reminded us what the shop was all about. If he had not stuck to his commitment there would be no Vine Trust today. Board meetings and committee meetings can be basecamps that shape the future.
Lord Jesus,
I’ve heard it said
“God so loved the world
that he did not send a committee”
The phrase always raises a smile or two
But it can be disingenuous
For you left a team behind
A kind of board or committee
Disciples
Apostles
To watch over the gospel
You didn’t put one person in charge
You built a team around yourself
And when you left
You told the team
To gather together
To wait on Your Holy Spirit
to guide them into all truth
Today Lord
We pray for all who serve the church,
Sitting on boards and committees.
Give to each the confidence to speak out
To challenge
To be the prophet
Holding to the vision
Giving an alternative
To the accountants at the table
Lifting faith before profit
Turning figures into gospel facts
Login to comment.