04.22.08
of business meetings and family forums
Unless you have not attended Seaford in the past three months then you know that we have had a lot more business meetings of late. Some of this is normal because there is a lot to discuss in this time of transition. For some years, we have operated with a business meeting once every quarter. However, at the business meeting at the end of March the church voted to conduct monthly business meetings.
It is my opinion that having more business meetings is not necessarily good or bad. What we do in these business meetings (or kingdom strategy sessions as I called them at our last meeting) will determine whether they hurt or help the church fulfill its mission. I have some concerns about how we are proceeding up to this point that I would like to share with you. Seaford follows a congregational system of church government, as do most Baptist churches, though there are some Southern Baptist Churches that use different models. A congregational system of church government means two things typically. One, such churches are autonomous—meaning there is no hierarchy that has authority over the local body. Second, every member has a vote in congregational decisions, as opposed to a group of elders making many of the decisions on behalf of the body.
However, as churches grow larger, they tend to move toward a more representative form of church government. It becomes impossible for such a church to discuss intelligibly all decisions that need making in an open business session. There are simply too many of them. This partially describes what has happened over the last fifteen years at Seaford. As the church grew, committees, elected by the church, made more of the decisions.
Some now feel that this development shifted too much authority into the hands of a few. I cannot address whether or not that is true in a newsletter article. However, if it is true, the healthy solution cannot be that all decisions now need full discussion in business session. One problem (there are others) is that if we continue on that path, it is difficult to see where it will end. There is a danger of moving to silly extremes, what constitutes “silly extremes” would differ from person to person. For instance, we could find ourselves debating the merits of leasing or purchasing office equipment, a discussion I witnessed in a business meeting in my earlier years at Seaford. It is my sense that many members at Seaford have little interest or tolerance for such discussions. A large majority of the now active membership at Seaford came to the church within the last fifteen years, during which time the church was not discussing such things openly. Theoretically, these church members trusted those given responsibility and authority to carry out those decisions to do so. It is my sense that many of these members are now growing uneasy with much of the discussion now taking place in our business meetings. To many of these church members these feel like a distraction from the real work of the church.
What is the solution? There is an interim nominating committee, elected by the church, and now working which will recommend a slate of officers and committee members in our August business meeting. We have a responsibility as a body to pray for them as they work and to come to that meeting prayed up and prepared to elect those we feel God has called into these positions. If church members have concerns about their choices then those members have a responsibility to share them at that time. However, once we elect these officers and committee members then we must trust them to do their work and should not in my opinion overturn their recommendations except in extreme cases. Otherwise, we will find ourselves mired in discussions that are divisive and driven by those who have the courage to make arguments in emotionally charged situations in front of many other people. Such a process largely eliminates the church hearing from our more quiet members.
We can effectively hear from a broader cross section of the church within family forums. Organizing such family forums into small discussion groups, which then choose a table captain to report to the large group, will generate far more opportunity for the body to hear from many church members. As we pray together and talk together, we should be able to more quickly reach consensus or be able to better define the big decisions we need to make as an entire body.
That said, our first family forum will be held Thursday evening, May 14th at 6:30 PM in the Family Life Center. We will then plan to hold a second on Wednesday evening, June 11.
