"You have to work hard to offend Christians. By nature, Christians are the most forgiving, understanding, and thoughtful group of people I've ever dealt with. They never assume the worst. They appreciate the importance of having different perspectives. They're slow to anger, quick to forgive, and almost never make rash judgments or act in anything less than a spirit of total love . . . No, wait--I'm thinking of Labrador retrievers!" David Learn, 1998

Monday, February 13, 2012

Grace Grieving 3: "76%" of one mind

     After the vote on February 5, John Anderson wrote the Watchmen, "In the days since the meeting I have reached out to Mr. LaBarbera, the chairman of the Executive Board of Elders.  I gave him my view of the vote as indicating a church that is sick.  Here is his response:
     “Contrary to your view regarding the reaffirmation of Elders and the ordination of Kurt, I see the results as a very strong endorsement of the current leadership and direction of our church. The lowest percentage received by the Elders was 76% approval, which in legal terms is a “super majority”. This endorsement is significant, due to the fact that we have a known group of members who are opposed to leadership and have tried everything they could to discredit them.”
     Back to John (an attorney): "Of course there is no such thing in legal terms as a 'super majority'.  That seems to be the only thing about the law he appears to know and it is wrong.  But you see, they believe they received a significant endorsement, like this was politics and not the church, and we are 'a known group of members who are opposed to leadership and have tried everything they could to discredit them.'  That is how your elders view you."
     Maybe in the corporate world "76%" is a "supermajority." But under the bylaws in effect when Lou became senior pastor, elders had to be approved by 90% of the vote. In 1992, the year after he came, it was changed to a two-thirds majority.
     In the body of Christ only "76%" agreement is a cause for grief. Acts 2:37-47 speaks of the early church being "of one mind." That unity was based on each member having been "pierced to the heart" by personal sin to the point of repentance and having been added to the church by the Lord on the basis of being saved. That church "continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine" (NKJV).
     We haven't heard sermons in this church for a long, long time that pierced any listener's heart with a sense of personal sin and the need for repentance. We haven't been continuing steadfastly or any other way in the "apostles' doctrine" regarding salvation. 
     The other night some of us heard, second-hand, the salvation testimony of a man over at Cal Heights Baptist Church. He was an ex-drunk, ex-addict, ex-atheist, tatooed-all-over biker and he got saved. I mean, he got genuinely, marvelously, once-for-all forgiven, set free, glory, hallelujah, dancing in the aisles, praise God, passed from death to life, delivered out of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son SAVED! 
     Made me nostalgic, even wistful. God used to do things like that at our church.   

3 comments:

  1. From elder John Moore:
    Hi, Jessica...

    Your blog post today is very misleading.

    You state:

    "But under the bylaws in effect when Lou became senior pastor (and probably in effect since the church began in 1913), elders had to be approved by 90% of the vote. In 1992, the year after he came, it was changed to a two-thirds majority."

    The 90% threshold required before Lou came here was for initial approval of elders, and not for reaffirmation. That 90% threshold first appeared in 1985 and was only in place for 7 years.

    Interestingly, the reaffirmation requirement only entered the bylaws for the first time in 1992, the year after Lou came. Prior to that, there was no mention of an annual reaffirmation of elders (or deacons, who used to fulfill the role currently fulfilled by elders) in any of the bylaws I've found (1978, 1976, 1973, 1968, 1961, 1949).

    By the way, back in 1968, pastors only needed 2/3 of the members to approve their call. That was the same in the 1961 and 1949 bylaws.

    --John

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John,

      I have deleted "(and probably in effect since the church began in 1913)". I haven't yet verified your statement that this applied only for initial approval of elders, not reaffirmation but my point still stands. Confidence ratings of our elders as low as 76% is a tragedy, not an endorsement.

      Wishing you and your family God's very best,
      Jessica

      Delete
  2. From John Moore, "On another note":

    http://dictionary.findlaw.com/definition/supermajority.html

    In case you don't wish to click on the link...

    From the Findlaw Legal Dictionary:

    Supermajority

    supermajority [sü-pər-mə-jȯr-ə-tē] n

    : a large majority [a provision requiring a vote — say, 80 % of the common shares instead of the usual bare majority rule "R. C. Clark"]

    Source: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law ©1996. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Published under license with Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

    ReplyDelete