In Decent Order…
I’ll never forget the time that I saw a deacon stand up in anger at the leadership meeting and call another member in the meeting a “son of Satan”! That was nearly 30 ago, but the memory is fresh in my mind. Over the years, I have been involved in more meetings than I care to recount. Some of them were productive, some were a waste of time. Sometimes I wondered if the people were truly followers of Jesus, and sometimes I wondered if the walls were going to fall because the Spirit of God was moving among the people. The idea of a “meeting” can conjure up all sorts of feelings for those who have to attend. This Sunday is our Grace Bible Church Annual Business Meeting immediately following church.
How is a church to “conduct” a meeting? Most of us have become familiar or experienced enough of Robert’s Rules of Order in our culture that we have an emotional reaction to the very name! Who was Robert anyway? For some, it means a dry and boring procedure. For others, it is the only way to conduct business in our culture. My argument is not about whether or not this is good or bad, but rather an observation that the early church seemed to make decisions without having a Robert on their team, but I digress.
Our current constitution that we operate under addresses the parliamentary procedure that we use for our meetings:
ARTICLE XI. PARLIMENTARY RULES
We will not be bound by iron-clad parliamentary law; however, all business meetings,
whether routine or special, committees, boards or congregation, shall be conducted
decently and in order, with Christian love and courtesy (I Corinthians 14:40).
Our understanding of Biblical leadership and relationship should not be bound by iron-clad parliamentary law…I like that part of the current constitution. But, does that mean that we should cast lots and make decisions by random draw and leave it to the “fate of God’s hand”? I don’t believe that is a healthy way for a church to operate either.
We have been asked a few questions regarding the format of the meeting and how we will conduct business. So, what should you expect on Sunday?
Well, we love Jesus, but we like a little bit of Robert too!
The elders will introduce the discussion by introducing an amendment to the document that you have had access to. This will be made into a motion, receive a second motion, then open for discussion. After sufficient discussion, we will call for a vote to add this amendment to the revised constitution document that was posted on our website two weeks ago.
Next, the elders will make a motion to adopt the revised constitution. It too will need a second motion, then discussion can be made on that motion. At this time, we will be able to engage in questions and answers. This discussion is a healthy part of the process and the part where we call ourselves back to the spirit of conducting ourselves “decently and in order, with Christian love and courtesy”. If, through this process, there are other amendments that need to be made, they can be presented in the form of a motion. They would need a second motion, then that issue alone can be discussed and voted on before returning back to the original motion.
At the end of the day, we will call for a vote on the constitution to be ratified or rejected. Ratification will mean that it becomes the accepted rule of order and legal guide for how we conduct business at church. If it is rejected, then the elders would take the information that was discussed back to the drawing board and rewrite another revision that would be presented at a later date.
We hope that you have taken the time to look over these documents. If not, I encourage you to do so prior to the meeting on Sunday. You may find the link to both the current constitution and the proposed revision at the following link. Church Constitution Documents – Grace Bible Church McPherson, KS
Finally, thank you for being patient with the process. The elder board has been working on this document for long season of time. I will re-iterate what I shared in last week’s article (https://gbcmcpherson.org/moving-beyond), we know that this is not a perfect document. We hope that you can recognize the spirit of humility from the elders as they worked diligently to lay out a document that best represents the biblical calling of what church structure should look like and how it should operate.
Most importantly…pray! Pray for our church. Pray for our leaders. Pray for our pastors. Pray for our ministry volunteers. Pray for our families. Pray for our youth. Pray for our children. Pray for our future…that God will move us into a clear calling of ministry in this community. Oh…and say a little prayer that we all conduct ourselves with love and courtesy as we meet on Sunday.
In Christ’s LOVE,
Pastor Dwight