• Decisions/Theology in community?

    June 29, 2005

    One of the things that we have been trying to “do” here at The Well is think through and figure out how we can allow our entire community to inform the larger decisions and theological direction of our community. Going with the assumption that the Holy Spirit is actually at work in this community of people (which, by the way I think is a LOT harder to actually believe that it seems like it should be. its one of those things that is often easy to say but harder to live out) we want to be open and trusting to this reality.

    While we don’t necessarily want to go back to a “congregational rule” kind of government that, in my experience, just turns into battles of power, politicing and childishness, we do not want to “sit in the ivory tower” as leaders and just make decisions for the whole community ourselves. At the same time we value a leadership team that does give direction to our community. We have often fallen into the trap as leadership of making decisions without really taking into account what everyone else’s feelings, thoughts and beliefs are about a certain issue.

    With this in mind, we have taken up a practice we all “Community Midrash.” You can read more about why we do it and where we got this idea from on our Midrash section of our website. On this part of our site, we will be posting new meetings, notes from the meetings and also updates between meetings. We also have a section on the guidelines we use during these meetings. We currently have some stuff up from the first meeting we had where we were discussing denominations.

    We are still new to the Midrash idea and i am sure we will learn and grow as we go along. But, if you read some of the stuff on the site, you will notice how great it is to sit as a family and openly and passionately discuss issues that are important to all of us.

  • Comments on this Post:

    Comment by: wezlo


    1

    draw lots.
    Seriously, when a decision needs to be made discuss it down to 2 or 3 possible solutions, spend some time in prayer (like a week) and then in draw lots in the midst of the community. Talk about having to trust that the Spirit is at work!

    I like the idea of the Misrash section - as for direction and decisions, use the lots to figure out who’s called where and then let them do their job with the congregation’s blessing. Again, talk about TRUSTING….

    06/29/05 3:43 PM

    Comment by: Bill


    2

    Sounds like a great process. I’ll be interested to see how it works out over a longer haul.

    Don’t know that I’d be into drawing lots, personally. I understand there are problems with the “democratic” way of doing things, but does there have to be. After much discussion, can those who are in the minority learn to consent to the needs of the many? On the other hand, can those in the majority think twice about the needs/opinions of the minority? With the Spirit of God in our midst, one would think these ideals are possible.

    06/30/05 6:31 AM

    Comment by: todd


    3

    hey guys, did i mention something about drawing lots? or is this just a joke from Welzo? i missed something somewhere here…personally, i am not too much into drawing lots either.

    bill, we’re approaching decisions just like in any elder led church. however, with this we hope that those decisions are VERY much more informed and open to where the spirit is leading our whole church, not just a few people.

    i am also curious to see how this works as we continue to grow especially. what does this look like in a church of 200, 300, 400, etc. is it possible in those contexts? i don’t know. but, right now for a church our size something like this is important.

    thanks for the convo guys…peace.

    06/30/05 6:40 AM

    Comment by: wezlo


    4

    The drawing lots idea came from Bill Easum - and my first though was, “That’s stupid, why can’t voting just accomplish the same thing?”
    Bill responded to mine, and many other, objections and said, “Where do you see anyone voting in the Bible? When they had a decision to make they got it down to several possibilities and then let God decide the outcome.”

    I dunno, the more I’ve thought about it, the more it makes sense to me. There is no “minority” and no “majority” in the outcome - the congregation did it’s best to put forth paths (which is right to do because we DO have the Spirit of God) and then let God show which path to take. If people complain at that point, what are they going to complain about, that God got it wrong? What finally tripped me into thinking Bill Easum was probably right was when I thought, “But what if the wrong lot got chosen?” I could almost hear the Spirit say, “Are you that stupid?”

    Interestingly enough - this only appeared to happen for REALLY big decisions, most of the time people were in prayer and the leaders led.

    07/1/05 4:20 AM

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