Comments on: Mega-meetings and missional communities

By: Robinmsf

Robinmsf — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 03:44:00 +0000

Mega-Meetings? Can you name any unprogrammed Friends Meeting with over 500 members?

By: Martin Kelley

Martin Kelley — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 04:09:00 +0000

In reply to Chris Mohr. @Chris: that's cool. My experience is mostly Philadelphia area meetings, of course. San Francisco meeting feels less isolated and more engaged with the diversity of Friends than its "mega-meeting" counterparts in Philadelphia YM. I can think of half a dozen reasons why but they'd all be speculation. Here's a question: do you see any kind of "missional" Friends work happening there? If so, is it happening under the umbrella of SFMM, either formally or informally?

By: Chris Mohr

Chris Mohr — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 03:41:00 +0000

You wrote: “I think some larger Friends meetings have mega-church-like dynamics.” This is an uncannily accurate description of San Francisco Meeting! We have super-organized name tags, as of six months ago (a mini-saga unto itself). I do believe we are deeply rooted in our Quaker spirituality AND quite heterodox at the same time.

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:20:00 +0000

Unless the Quarterly, Half-Yearly or Yearly Meeting become intentional about such support, there may be a few more Buddhists around, and a lot more unchurched folks. Many Friends from smaller meetings will join with Unitarians or Mennonites. For 30 years or more, one of my sorrows about Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has been the lack of attention to smaller meetings, and many are of the opinion that smaller meetings should simply be laid down. Were that true in Canada, most Friends would probably be UCC, and in the intermountain west, most would be Unitarian. Been there. I have a passion for smaller meetings. It may take a few of us being intentional in our support.