Wherein lies the Life of the Meeting? Well, obviously, it is centered in Meeting for Worship on Sunday mornings. In fact one of the topics most often addressed in worship is the unique nature of the Quaker worship experience itself.  It doesn’t happen every Sunday morning like clockwork, but the fulfilling sense of a gathered meeting is far from a rare occurrence at 917 So. Cooper and those of us who experience it always take home with us a feeling of fellowship and profound gratitude.

Although our worship is unprogrammed and messages are expected to be leadings of the spirit, which is to say they are expected to be unrehearsed and seasoned with self-questioning, Quakers have traditionally taught that it is incumbent upon us to come to worship prepared.  Although Faith and Practice is likely to recommend devotional readings or solitary worship at home, one of the best preparations for worship has to be the development of a solid and palpable spirit of community in the meeting.

Happily the Meeting offers several regular, concrete ways to build community.  One is the twice-monthly Meeting for Learning during the hour before worship. Here we get a chance to talk to one another, but because of the habits developed in meeting for worship, the listening is also and inevitably careful, deep, and thoughtful.  No matter what the topic or who is the presenter, the sharing is always on a level seldom experienced in any other forum.  When can you talk with your colleagues at work like this? In how many forums can you share this kind of laughter?

Another opportunity for community-building is business meeting. Unlike other churches, our business meeting is a committee of the whole. In other words, every member and attender is a fully authorized participant and Memphis Friends is still small enough to keep that practical.  Although making decisions about budget and so forth may not seem particularly spiritual and perhaps not always very interesting, business meeting is absolutely the best way to see and practice Quaker decision-making in action.  Learning the discernment necessary for this kind of decision-making is perhaps as important as learning how to center down for worship on Sunday morning.

And, of course, there is potluck.  Some may say that there is nothing particularly Quaker about potluck, but surely it is as much about community for us as it is for any church.  Being welcomed in one another’s homes is a gift of community.  For how many other acquaintances do you know just where their kitchen is? That kind of intimacy is important and it grows over the years.

There are other opportunities for community building, like shouldering the responsibility for officer or committee work or attending retreats and so forth. All of this may seem like an over-commitment of time.  David and I often laugh that we can almost outdo those Baptist churches that sing and praise the Lord until 2 o’clock.  On many Sundays we start at 10 and don’t finish until 12:30. Do you know, I haven’t found a better way to spend a Sunday morning.