We did our annual business meeting on Sunday directly after church. I made my buddy TJ’s World Famous Tortilla Soup Recipe and Loughery Family homemade ice cream. One of our guys brought his own killergood jalapeno cornbread. Yum.
My goal was to recap 2003, the good and the bad, and then to talk about where I sense God leadning us this next year. And then in the end, provide a time of listening prayer, to ask the Lord to fill in the details, add some flavor and do whatever else he wanted to do. That was my big plan anyway.
What happened during that time was that the folks who were there wanted to pray encouragement and strength back into me (and then Shannon). I liked this – I need all the encouragement I can get – but I also felt a bit uncomfortable, like maybe the “what didn’t go so well this past year” piece overshadowed the “what went great” piece. I want to follow up with some of the attendees to see what they sensed there.
I’ll tell you, though – it’s very cool to end up a church business meeting with 5 or 10 minutes of listening prayer, and then having 15 people lay hands on the pastor to bless and encourage him.
pat loughery 
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