He will turn my board meeting into dancing

My first experience with a church board was did not instill much faith in the system. I was on staff as children’s ministry director at a contentious church. The Youth Pastor and I decided to take up an invitation from the Senior Pastor to sit in on a board meeting. It was the first and last board meeting either of us went to of our own accord. They first vehemently denied the pastor any options the pastor gave to assist with his retirement, they didn’t want to encourage him to say any longer. They then dug into me and continued to rake me over the coals for an hour. I was just beginning my experiments with The Disciplines then and was in the midst of an extended fast. That I maintained my cool and sat in submission to the beating had to have been because the disciplines had placed me squarely in Grace. Nothing but grace can account for it. I went home and prayed psalm 119 several times, it was all I could do for solace.

Thinking about guidance brought those memories and feelings up again. I believe this is not the way a board should operate. Instead of viewing themselves as the empowered representatives of the congregation, I believe they are men and women chosen for their maturity and willingness to seek the will of God. Board meetings should be worship, times devoted to the discipline of corporate guidance and firmly rooted in the celebration of who we are together in Christ.

In the West, especially in America, we have been acclimated to Democracy, even to the point of seeing its spread as our sacred mission. Our two party system of representative governance provides us with checks and balances, but it also provides us with winners and losers. Each election sees half the country demoralized and the other half victorious. This is not how the church should operate.

Corinne McLaughlin suggests that a “spiritual” approach to politics would seek a synthesis of ideas. She suggests that synthesis is more than compromise, because in compromise both sides loose something. “A spirit of goodwill towards those with opposing views, a win/win rather than win/lose approach, a release of self-righteousness, and a compassionate, healing spirit are the keys to this new politics.”¹

Of all places a healing, compassionate spirit should be found it should be in the church. The discipline of corporate guidance provides us with the key. Instead of Robert’s Rules which are built on the win/lose model, I would like to take a system like The Handbook For Consensus Building² and infuse it with liturgy.

Guidance is a corporate discipline so it is appropriate that it fit in the context of worship. Foster points out that when sending out Paul and Barnabas as missionaries, The church at Antioch came together in prayer and worship. “Having become a prepared people, the call of God arose out of their corporate worship: ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”³

I envision a spiritual rule for board meetings. Like Foster says this must be in the “organic and functional sense.”⁴ It cannot be empty form or cold corporate policy to be any different from the contentious politicking of the past. The Short Guide for Consensus building suggests stages such as convening, assessing, discussing, deciding and implementing. Building into that the liturgical elements of convocation, worship, meditation and celebration create a mystical format for a spiritual body to use.

Celebration is important. It intersects with guidance in the organizational because we must begin with the joyful understanding of our identity, that we are one, the body. Jesus commanded that we love one another, “that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”⁵

For example, as I read The Divine Embrace, I must confess I was put off by Webber’s mostly negative view of the places his stone “skipped across the water of history.” He spent much time in the first half of the book, “rescuing” spirituality from this danger and that.⁶ His melody had a harsh tone in my ear. This is partly because Foster’s Streams of Living Water still plays there. Foster celebrates each of the traditions before touching on the dangers and so has greatly impacted my thinking. Both authors offer true guidance to me, but the celebratory style of Foster (and the second half of Webber) was much more gratifying to me.

So it is as we gather to seek God’s face. Without celebrating him and each other, we risk turning one another off to hearing true guidance.

Celebration is a powerful thing. This week I spent three quarters of an hour dancing before God on the platform of my church! Discretion is advised here, I signed a paper stating I would not embarrass the Assemblies of God and if any one saw me dancing they would be embarrassed for me! Needless to say I was alone. Most of the music wasn’t of the Christian sub-culture suggested by Calhoun in her exercise⁷, but it was amazing how“Tell Me Something Good” by Rufus can usher one into God’s story of love.

How wonderful it is when celebration can happen with others and not just alone. How I long for the Spirit of celebration to permeate my next board meeting!

1 McLaughlin, Corinne. "Beyond Right and Left." The Center For Visionary Leadership. 2004. 20 Dec. 2007 <http://www.visionarylead.org/articles/beyond_lr.htm>.

2 Susskind, Lawrence E. "Short Guide to Consensus Building." Harvard Public Disputes Program. 9 Aug. 1999. MIT. 20 Dec. 2007 <http://web.mit.edu/publicdisputes/practice/cbh_ch1.html>.

3 Foster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline. San Fransisco: HarperCollins. 1980. Pp. 177-178.

4 Foster. 175.

5 John 15:11 (NIV)

6 Webber, Robert E. The Divine Embrace. Grand Rapids: Baker Books. 2006. Pp 31, 57, 79, 101.

7 Calhoun, Adele Ahlberg. Spiritual Disciplines Handbook. Doweners Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 2005. Pg. 28 (exercise 1).