Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Church Politics
Mark Lauterbach recently wrote about church politics in two parts. Here's the first and the second.
I want to first be sympathetic and then present a challenge. Mark is proclaiming "church politics" as a sin and then seeking methods for dealing with that sin as a pastor. I can relate. Many are the good ideas that end up sacrificed on the alter of "church politics." Many are the ideas that have ended up on the scrap heap because someone "who just doesn't get it," but is in a position of influence, has put the kibosh on it. I have felt that frustration many, many times. Coping with it is perhaps the greatest frustration in ministry.
And yet, when I set aside my personal disappointment at my personal agenda not being implemented and think about things objectively, I want to embrace church politics, not do away with them. I truly believe the wisdom of the whole is better than the wisdom of the individual. Having to put things through a process involving others, and that is all politics is, is a way to capture that better, corporate wisdom.
You see, the problem is not the political process, but the people in it. Too often we place people in influential position who "just don't get it" because we have not been about the business of MAKING PEOPLE THAT DO GET IT.
When church is about programs and plans and budgets and agendas, the unhappy, frustrating, irritating politics are a matter of course. Under such circumstances, everybody is looking to step up to the budgetary teat for their slice for their program or agenda.
But that is not what the church is about is it? The first qualification for leadership should be to understand what the church really is about - making disciples.
Does this mean there will not be conflict or disagreement or that some pet rpoject will not be killed in the process - of course not. But what it means is that the process will not be ugly, and as the disappointed one, you can have a sense of the reliability of the process.
I am all for church politics, but I am also all for making Christ-like leaders to execute the process.
Related Tags: church politics, Mark Lauterbach, process, leadership, discipleship
I want to first be sympathetic and then present a challenge. Mark is proclaiming "church politics" as a sin and then seeking methods for dealing with that sin as a pastor. I can relate. Many are the good ideas that end up sacrificed on the alter of "church politics." Many are the ideas that have ended up on the scrap heap because someone "who just doesn't get it," but is in a position of influence, has put the kibosh on it. I have felt that frustration many, many times. Coping with it is perhaps the greatest frustration in ministry.
And yet, when I set aside my personal disappointment at my personal agenda not being implemented and think about things objectively, I want to embrace church politics, not do away with them. I truly believe the wisdom of the whole is better than the wisdom of the individual. Having to put things through a process involving others, and that is all politics is, is a way to capture that better, corporate wisdom.
You see, the problem is not the political process, but the people in it. Too often we place people in influential position who "just don't get it" because we have not been about the business of MAKING PEOPLE THAT DO GET IT.
When church is about programs and plans and budgets and agendas, the unhappy, frustrating, irritating politics are a matter of course. Under such circumstances, everybody is looking to step up to the budgetary teat for their slice for their program or agenda.
But that is not what the church is about is it? The first qualification for leadership should be to understand what the church really is about - making disciples.
Does this mean there will not be conflict or disagreement or that some pet rpoject will not be killed in the process - of course not. But what it means is that the process will not be ugly, and as the disappointed one, you can have a sense of the reliability of the process.
I am all for church politics, but I am also all for making Christ-like leaders to execute the process.
Related Tags: church politics, Mark Lauterbach, process, leadership, discipleship
