I have already given my bit about the bylaws change, but would like to think a little bit about the meeting at which these bylaws were presented and voted on. The leaders of the denomination did their due diligence, but only just that. They sent out a copy of the bylaws to every church on CD and he them posted on the web. It was up to the pastor to be sure that these changes were given to members of the church. A tutorial was not offered, learning sessions were not offered and this was a dense and complicated document. Many times those who were on the writing team could not answer questions about the bylaws that were asked. Many people just seemed to not know anything about the bylaws. The basic was done and not much more.
At the meeting the motion was presented and then all of the presidents of the various boards, including the president of the denomination said how much they liked and supported the changes. No one said why the changes were needed, no one said anything about struggles or difficulties that were in the proposed changes, just that they were awesome and everyone should just trust the leaders and embrace the change.
As a note, I think this was a at best out of line with Robert’s rules and at worse a cheap way to push an issue. There was to be a debate later on where each person would only get five minutes to speak. The overall time for the debate would be limited and each pro would be balanced with a con. Yet all the mucky-mucks were given ample time to speak in favor of the changes, from positions of authority showing a lack of respect for the process. Poor form!
After we were dazzled with the bulls**t, there was a time for questions of clarification. Did anyone have a copy of the bylaws here for reading? No, they were posted on the web (there was no internet access in the hall). Did anyone have a list of the delegates that were on the voting bloc and was that list available during the biennial? No. Wait, yes The general secretary had one list to pass around the hundreds of people. How will we know if International Ministries and National Ministries would maintain a connection with the denomination after they were made independent? You have to trust them. Do they have new bylaws emphasizing their relationship with the denomination? No, not yet. Can anyone explain in simple language the changes? No, maybe, well I can talk about the mission table.
This went on for some time until the president had to stop the questions so there would be time for debate – four against and one in favor. Over, the whole process was awful.
There are a lot of conclusions one could draw from such a debacle. Pure ineptitude and incompetence could be one. Attempts to push an issue with a happy and vague presentation could be another. Yet here is the larger message that I took away from the process – a lack of trust of the local church. The local church was not a part of the writing process. The local church was not given any opportunity for feedback in the process. We were given a document that could not accept any amendments and told to trust the leaders and just vote for it. The actual document was not even present at the meeting nor was a list of directors we were to vote for. The local church was not told about the dire financial position of the denomination, just told that the change is needed. It almost seemed that the heads of the denomination forgot that they are there to coordinate mission and to serve the local church, not to tell us (the local church) what to do. The denomination begins at the local church and ends at the local church, yet the local church was not in the picture at all.
If they are to do this again (God help us), I would hope that our leaders would learn something from this process and engage the local church from the beginning. The leaders need to trust the church, as risky and difficult as that may be.
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