Oh, give me a pity, I'm on a committee!

As senior pastor of a growing church, I spend some of my time each week attending committee and board meetings.  While the work of committees is very important and service on such committees a genuine way to serve in the church, I often tell people that the real joy of serving is being involved in a church ministry.  There you really get to see the Lord at work in the lives of His people.

A number of years ago I came across a poem that seemed to capture the frustration that sometimes comes when serving on a committee.  It went something like this:

O give me a pity, I'm on a committee, Which means that from morning to night...We attend and amend and contend and defend, Without a conclusion in sight.

We confer and concur, we defer and demur, And reiterate all of our thoughts...We revise the agenda with frequent addenda, And consider a load of reports.

We compose and propose, we suppose and oppose, And the points of procedure are fun...But though various notions are brought up a motions, There's terribly little gets done.

We resolve and absolve, but never dissolve, Since it's out of the question for us...What a shattering pity to end our committee, Where else could we make such a fuss!