If not a democracy, then what?

My last entry opined that the church is not a democracy. That is, it is not to be governed by a majority vote of the people. A hard concept for people who believe themselves to live in a “democratic society” and think they just have to have a say.

So it is a fair question to ask, “If the church is not a democracy, then what is it? And how do you govern it?” Let me stab at answering these queries.

Obviously the church is Jesus’ church and should be considered a “Christocracy,” governed by Christ. He told the disciples he would build his church. Paul tells us Jesus is head of all things, including the church. Everything we do, everything, must be done not for our own benefit but because Jesus wants us to do it.

Luke chapter 4 gives us the what. Jesus said he was anointed and appointed to preach good news, to set captives free, to heal the brokenhearted and bring recovery of sight to the blind. This was the language of a conquering king who was setting up a new administration and setting right the corruption of the previous dictator. This is the stuff of kingdom business, bringing these qualities of resurrection life into the present, working by faith to materialize the kingdom.

Matthew chapter 28 gives us the how. Jesus told us that as we go we are to make disciples. We are to gather around ourselves people who will commit themselves to learning the ways of the kingdom and doing its work. Growing them in faith and maturity and Christ-like character so that they can join in the kingdom work described in Luke chapter 4. I have a feeling doing the stuff of Luke chapter 4 helps us attract folks so we can do Matthew chapter 28.

Let me emphasize to you that if we are not doing the what according to the how, we are not obedient to Christ. Period. It does not matter what we have always done, or what others are doing, or how well intentioned we are.

As for governing the church, for taking it in the direction Jesus wants it to go, I hearken back to a previous entry for the mechanics. What if we were to adopt the mindset that allows the pastor to lead, a board to govern, a staff to manage, and a congregation to minister? What if decision-making was streamlined and permission-giving so that more emphasis and resource could be placed on ministry? Perhaps I will deal with this in the next entry.

The Lectionary texts for the coming Sunday allude to this. In Mark chapter 9 Jesus’ disciples became alarmed when they noticed someone they didn’t know casting out demons in Jesus’ name. He said, “Let them alone! If they are not against us they are for us. If they do miracles they can’t soon criticize us.”

In Numbers chapter 11 Moses cried out to God for help. At God’s instruction he set aside 70 elders to be recognized before the people. The Holy Spirit fell, and they began to prophesy, always a sign that God is present. However, Joshua became alarmed that two men in the congregation were also prophesying, and warned Moses to make them stop. Moses said, “Are you worried about me? I wish everyone had God’s spirit and could prophesy!”

Democracy in the church is not in the deciding but in the doing. The Holy Spirit falls on some to give them direction for making decisions, and we call them elders. We owe them our respect and our cooperation. But the Holy Spirit falls on all of us to make us ministers, to anoint us to join into the kingdom work Jesus described in Luke chapter 4.

Is the church a democracy or not?

Well, I think I stepped in it Sunday. I said in my sermon that the church is not a democracy. It just came rolling out. I could feel everyone tense up in the room as I finished the thought with, “It’s just not in the Bible!” It was one of those moments where it momentarily becomes hard to breathe because all the oxygen was sucked out of the room because everyone gasped at one time.

I was talking about the fact that Jesus calls us to make disciples, not decisions, and how we are ineffectively organized to make disciples because we are so meticulously organized, through a plethora of boards and committees, to make decisions. Administration is top-heavy, ministry is almost non-existent. And where it does exist it is inverted and self-focused. I was talking about how I dislike this time of year, with the dreaded charge conference looming, and how we do the “names-beside-titles” routine every year.

The concept of democracy did not originate with Americans, but we have indeed latched onto it. Democracy is of ancient (pagan) Greek origin and it means “rule of the people.” People gathered into local assemblies to debate and vote on issues relative to the town. The Greek word εκκλησια (ekklesia, church) was unfortunately used in Greek translations to express what Jesus described when he said he would gather his people together (Matt. 16:18) to invade the gates of Hades. In the Greek (western) mind εκκλησια conjures up notions of gathering to discuss and vote; in the Hebrew frame of reference, from which Jesus speaks, the gathering is for organizing, preparing, and initiating war. A hierarchy of officers and chain of command is established. The mustered militia does not vote on these things. It follows designated leadership into battle. I have a really hard time believing that Jesus suddenly went pagan on the disciples.

There are two biblical references to an attempt to take a vote on action in Scripture. In Numbers chapter 14 the Israelites became anxious when they heard the promised land was full of giants too great to conquer. So they said to each other, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt” (v. 4). They took a vote to remove leadership appointed by God. Apparently it was a majority vote. But God did not ratify it. God was so angry that he wanted to destroy the entire nation and start over with Moses. Moses interceded for them, and God said he would preserve the nation but let the people who voted “no” die in the wilderness over a 40-year penalty for disobedience. Not a happy day. The kingdom was delayed 40 years because of a congregational vote.

In the Gospels Pilate stands the beaten Jesus before the people gathered at the Praetorium. He takes a democratic vote. “Do you want me to release Jesus or Barabbas?” The people, worked into a frenzy by the overactive priests and elders, vote for Pilate to release the insurrectionist Barabbas and to crucify the true Messiah, the Son of God. Democracy prevailed.

The problem with Greek-style democracy is that we get the impression that we can vote and by majority vote tell our authorities what and how to do. Many times we get the impression that we can vote to tell our authorities to do what we should be doing, and to wait on us hand and foot.

Another serious problem with democracy becomes obvious from the biblical examples. Simple democracy lends itself to government by those who vote from emotional reaction instead of informed thought and reason. Too often, we look to avoid controversy and satisfy the least mature so they won’t create more disturbance. Sometimes they simply outvote us. As with both the Israelites in the wilderness and the people in Pilate’s courtyard, the reactive emotion governs the day. The fact is that democracy is a short step away from mobocracy, or rule by mob. Is this what we want in the church?

But the major problem with Greek-style democracy is the simple fact that it is totally foreign to biblical thought and practice. The two times it appears it is presented to teach us from the negative consequences of applying it. We can call meetings to discuss and vote or we can do God’s work but I’m afraid we can’t do both.

We must remember that it is Jesus’ church, not our church. We must allow him to direct us, through divinely appointed authorities, into the mission of the church. We are still gathering to organize, prepare, and initate war against the strongholds of the devil. What we do at church is what they do in military briefings. We train, equip, encourage, give mission orders, and mobilize.

But there is a sense in which the church is democratic. We are the kingdom of priests each involved in ministry. Everyone needs to help lead worship. Everyone needs to be involved in outreach and witness, deployed to take down the defenses of Hades and transform lives for the kingdom. We don’t pay the preacher to do that! Hebrew democracy means we are all part of the militia, all part of the effort of making disciples.

Jesus called us to make disciples, not decisions. So let’s make one last decision. Let’s decide to make disciples. Together.

What’s that in your hand?

When God commissioned Moses to return to Egypt to bring the Israelites out from bondage, Moses naturally wondered how he would be able to pull off such a monumental task. He was intimidated by potential credibility issues. He feared his own people would not take him seriously.

“What’s that in your hand,” God asked.

“A rod,” Moses responded, referring to the crude implement he used for tending sheep.

“Throw it down,” God said. “I will use it to convince them you mean business.” Essentially God told Moses to use what he had at hand.

I believe that is good advice for us also as we go about the mission of making new disciples for the kingdom. While it is human to make excuses and moan about what we don’t have and what we can’t do, God is interested in how resourceful we are with what we have. Jesus underscores the idea with his parable of the talents. The moral is, “faithful in little, ruler over much.”

So what do we have in our hand? The story of Pentecost teaches us that we hae the presence of the Holy Spirit, manifested in specific God-breathed abilities, to provide the horsepower to accomplish the mission. Jesus promised the disciples at his ascension they would receive power to be witnesses. That promise was fulfilled on Pentecost Sunday.

Natural Church Development (NCD) has discovered that churches are most effective in making disciples when members discover and use their spiritual gifts in ministry. Not only are they more productive, but NCD says gift-oriented people are more fulfilled in their relationship with God.

NCD also notes that when we think institutionally, we create a list of job titles and then try to recruit people to fill them. This is what I call the “names-beside-titles” approach. We force a bureaucratic organizational structure, and then pressure people into taking organizational positions.

In my experience this has never been effective in making disciples. It has been great for filling out forms to send to the Conference and making every slot has a name written by it, but it has never helped us become more fruitful in kingdom building.

As a pastor, my job in ministry is to help people discover what is in their hand, and then coach them on how to use that. God has given us far more than is needed to get the job done. I’d rather have a slim organizational structure with lots of permission-giving, and emphasize an anything-goes ministry that encourages people to do what they are called and gifted to do.

Uneducated, lower-middle class Galileans turned Jerusalem upside down in just one day. A fugitive shepherd with low self-esteem, rough-hewn stick in hand, pulled off the greatest single management task ever accomplished. All this was done by the power of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who now fills us and equips us to do good work in Jesus’ name.

So, what’s that in your hand?

Structuring for disciple-making

It is the time of year most United Methodist pastors look forward to with about the same anticipation as a root canal. The dreaded charge conference will come up next month, and we have to have several committee meetings to nominate leaders, pass budgets, and suggest pastor’s salary before then. The archaic and beauroctratic administrative structure means a lot of effort is taken away from ministry to focus on administrivia.

Over the years we have created and embellished a church system that makes it seem we relish making decisions over the work of making disciples. There is great emphasis on committees, procedures, and voting. We have huge administrative committees and little emphasis on ministry. Of the three ministry areas we are supposed to address, most of the effort centers on nuture (ministry to our selves) and almost no attention is given to outreach and witness (ministry to others).

What if we could organize the church’s work around its mission instead of its paperwork? What if we emphasized ministry instead of maintenance? What if we focused on making disciples instead of making decisions? More to the point, what if we simplified the administrative part and placed a premium on doing what Jesus told us to do?

Two great books have stimulated my thinking. The first is Bill Easum’s Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers. The subtitle says it all: “ministry anytime, anywhere, by anyone.” Easum’s premise is simple but profound. Let people who sense a prompting of God do ministry. Together. In ad-hoc teams that organize for a purpose, do a ministry task, and then disband where people go on to something else. He pounds the point that the decision-making process should be simplified and permission-giving. The sacred cows of “the way we’ve always done it” should be turned into gourmet burgers. Hear! Hear!

John Edmund Kaiser gives more nuts and bolts for organizing congregations to succeed in mission. Winning on Purpose uses athletic metaphor to describe organizing and training a sports team to be successful on the playing field. He gives a great plan for paring down the decision-making part, letting people do their jobs unhindered by administrivia and tradition, and emphasizing mission and training people to do the works of ministry. The whole thing sounds like what Paul described in Ephesians chapter 4! Less voting, more ministry.

With these two concepts in mind, here’s my thought. What if we began to see ourselves as not the object or purpose of ministry (consumers) but actually ministers on the front lines ourselves? To facilitate that, what if we provided a basic structure where the pastor leads, the council governs, a paid and unpaid staff manages, and the congregation ministers? Wouldn’t we come closer to our mission of making disciples? Wouldn’t we actually come closer to doing what Jesus wants us to do? My plan is two fold:

Decision-making

Administration is necessary but it need not demand all our attention. I think a leadership team (church council, etc.) of 11 members could do the job and fulfil the requirements of our Discipline. Five would be ex-officio members, required by the Discipline, including the chair, lay leader, annual conference delegate, secretary, and treasurer. These would be joined by six at-large members each serving three years in staggering terms arranged so that two are replaced every year.

The administrative functions required by the Discipline would be handled by this team, with different persons designated to facilitate conversation on each function. It would meet quarterly with the pastor to hear and sign on to the pastor’s vision, set goals for ministry and authorize action for ministry, set budgets, and hold the pastor accountable for agreed-upon objectives.

Disciple-making

Disciple-making becomes the focus of ministry, seeking to draw the unchurched into committed learning relationships and encouraging them in growth and maturity in Christ. The entire effort is facilitated through networking.

The pastor would lead a “staff” (paid or unpaid) in the three areas of ministry our Discipline requires: nurture, outreach, and witness. My tag for this team is the NOW team, an acronym from the three areas. These people are accountable to the pastor and work in their respective areas. But they must work in a collaborative way to involve the congregation in a balance of the three. They are facilitators and equippers of small group leadership.

Disciple-making is actually carried out through a network of small groups organized around interest, need, and relationships. They can be long-term or task-specific. Every month the pastor and NOW team gather leaders for training, encouragement, and fellowship.

The model for group function is inspired by Paul Borden’s Direct Hit:

Prayer. A small group of people who pray regularly for the church, the pastor, and its leadership, specifically for ministry and disciple-making.

CARE. Another small group of people who work to discover needs in the community and think of ways to address them in accountable disciple-making. They are meeting with local officials, driving through the community, and talking to people outside the church. CARE is an acronym for community awareness research and evaluation.

Dare. The network of small groups comprised of the members of the congregation who dare to do something that brings the kingdom into the community with bold ministry. God’s touch in the world. These folks are informed by Prayer and CARE. They are inspired and led by the pastor and NOW team. They are empowered by the leadership team with money and permission to do hard things, to fail and to try again.

If we’ll begin to think this way I believe we’ll replace ecclesiastical consumerism (the church is here for me) with ministry (the church is here to make disciples and change lives and I am here to help). We’ll actually be faithful to our mission and do what Jesus has asked us to do.

What do you think? Click the comments link below and join the conversation.