They Said “Yes”

Have you ever been in a large meeting – church or secular – and the group is approving an institutional policy and your eyes start to glaze over as you read it?

A person or committee has written it, there is often a first reading, tweaks are made, details are discussed, questions are asked, and then the community finally votes it up or down.  At least this is how it’s supposed to work. 

Often, it actually goes like this:  the policy is written, nobody really reads it a first or a second time, nobody asks questions, people vote without really knowing what they are voting for. 

We might seriously want a Safe Boundaries in the Church Policy or an Administrative Leave Policy, or even a Bringing Our Pets to Work Policy.  But either the details bore us or we basically trust that what’s in there is good stuff.

And then, perhaps, we are surprised about the repercussions down the road.  Because we didn’t really know what we were saying “yes” to. 

I don’t think this happened last Saturday.

On November 19, an institution near to my heart approved a policy that Changes Everything – at least in terms of ecclesiology – in our particular midst.

The Presbytery of Chicago said “yes” to the new Policy Guidelines for Worshipping Fellowships, Pre-NCD Worshipping Fellowships, ad New Congregation Developments.  (I’ll include a link when the approved version is available digitally.)  It’s 16+ page permission-giving document which  acknowledges that traditional membership doesn’t work for all new communities, that some congregations are born organically, and that the leader might be called something other than pastor.  He/she might be called an evangelist, a convener, a mission worker.  It’s not that there are no rules about starting new churches.  It’s just that the rules are flexible enough to work in a 21st Century culture.

I’m so thankful.