A Closing Ritual for a Call Committee

Gather the call committee for a meal. Then following dinner sit in a circle around the table with a book, Kithchen Table Wisdom, a bow, a candle and an ivy plant on the table.

Put the following in large print for all to see:

Wordswithoutspacesarelikelifewithoutreflectioninthatmeaningsarenotsoeasilydiscerned.

Read the story, “The Meeting Place” from Rachel Remen’s Kitchen Table Wisdom.

•	The places we are met and heard are of great importance.
•	The interview process was a place where we were met and heard.
•	It is good to name and celebrate meeting places so their power and meaning is not lost.
Invite members to share a place where they have been met and heard.

A call committee brings together a group of people with various gifts. Sometimes gifts emerge as the group meets challenges along the way to calling a new pastor.  Pass around a large bow.  Name a gift that you feel you brought to this committee.
•	Allow time for others to affirm that gift or name other gifts.

God is constantly making things new.  How has God moved among us through this search process?  What is God doing in our congregation?
•	Pass around the candle and name where you see God at work in our congregation.

We are thankful for our time together.  We know that because of the interview process that call committee and pastor share a special relationship.  Now the call committee is being disbanded and that relationship will change.  Our constantly calling God is inviting us to use our gifts in new ways other than this committee.

•	Each person takes a cutting from the ivy plant to put in water to root and replant as a symbol of the new ministries that God is calling them to.

Close in prayer.