Ecclesiology
This blog is for pastors and NCCers (or anyone suffering from insomnia) who wants a better understanding of our church government. It amounts to a theology of ecclesiology. Forgive my meanderings and ramblings, but I know that many churches wrestle with "church government" issues so here are some random thoughts.
April 2, 2005 was an historic day for NCC. For nine years we functioned as a "home missions" church that was governed by the Presbyters of the Potomac District Council of the Assemblies of God. But they pushed us out of the nest :) We became a sovereign church that is self-governing on Saturday. We've worked on our bylaws for so long that it seems somewhat surreal to have finally ratified them. It was definitely an Ebenezer moment--hitherto the Lord has helped us.
Here are some ecclesiological reflections:
When I first started pastoring National Community Church we didn't really feel like a church and I didn't really feel like a pastor. And I distinctly remember talking to my father-in-law, who had planted and pastored a church for more than thirty years, and telling him we were trying to form a board and bylaws. He said, "Don't do it." It's some of the best advice I've ever received. I think I wanted a board and bylaws so we'd "feel" or "look" like a "real" church, but he told me to focus on the mission of reaching people. And that's what we've done. I think it's kept NCC from becoming a bureaucracy. We're a movement because we're focused on mission.
One of the benefits of being a "home missions" church with the Assemblies of God was that for the past nine years the Presbyters of the Potomac District have been our board and we've been governed by their bylaws so we haven't really had to worry about those "legal logistics." We could focus on our mission. Over the last few years, however, as NCC has matured and grown, we've sought legal counsel and done an extensive research into church bylaws and I think we've drafted a document that "fits" NCC.
Our ultimate goal was to create bylaws that really reflected who we are. In other words, we wanted them to be descriptive as well as prescriptive. My greatest fear all along was messing with our genetic code and ending up with mutant bylaws. The worst thing that could have come out of this process would have been changing who we are.
I still remember my first conversation with our lawyer. I said, "We don't vote on stuff. We don't do business meetings. And we don't have members. Can you draft us some bylaws for us?" He laughed. By the way, I know that many people read that and it almost sounds heretical. But can I remind you that the concepts of voting, business meetings, and members are nowhere to be found in the New Testament. There isn't a single reference. There are lots of prayer meetings, but no business meetings. There are lots of servants, but no members. And they either "cast lots" or "appointed elders." I'm not saying that any of those things are unbiblical. I'm just saying they are abiblical. By the way, one of the challenges of living in a city like Washington, DC is that we tend to superimpose our governing system onto Scripture. Church isn't a democracy. It's a theocracy and there is a chain-of-command that is called "spiritual authority." That can make those of us who live in the epicenter of democracy a little uncomfortable, but Scripture often does that. Here's the catch. Leadership is always expressed through servanthood. Power is always expressed through grace. And leaders--the ones vested with spiritual authority--are the servants of all. When a church functions that way it's an incredible thing to behold. At the end of the day, trust is part of government. Someone must be entrusted with spiritual authority. It's the risk God takes on us. And it's the risk we take on each other as a church. I don't know that anything weighs on me more heavily than my responsibility as the under-shepherd of NCC.
So we drafted our bylaws to avoid becoming a bureaucracy. I've seen too many movements become bureaucracies. We wanted bylaws that gave us fluidity and adaptibility and allowed leaders to lead rather than legislate. We wanted bylaws that could continue to grow with us as a church. The goal of the bylaws was to safeguard us against becoming who we're not. We're not a "congregational" church that votes on everything. Some churches vote on everything from color of carpet to brand of piano. We never want to major in minors. I think our bylaws enable us to continue to major in majors.
One of the major lessons I've learned in leadership is that there is always a "bell curve" in any group or team or church. There are innovators and adopters and laggards and resisters. And that's ok. You can't expect everybody to agree on everything. That is certainly true when it comes to church government. There are lots of different people with lots of different opinions. As Abraham Lincoln said, "You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time."
I think one of NCC's strengths is our decentralized approach to ministry. We empower leaders to get a vision from God and go for it. In some churches, membership is equated with voting privileges. At NCC, the buy-in is vision not voting. Our leaders don't function in a legislative capacity. Our leaders function in a missional capacity. We empower our leaders to focus on the vision God is giving them for their small group or ministry.
Here is one of the challenges every church and every person faces. Am I going to be who I am? Or am I going to be who I'm not? Early on when NCC was still in its infancy, I tried to conform NCC to fit the picture of everybody's perfect church. I wanted us to be all things to all people. But I eventually realized we can't be. I've long since given up trying to be who we're not. That doesn't mean we don't have lots of growing and changing and morphing to go through. We're only nine years-old. We haven't even hit puberty yet! We don't know who we'll be when we "grow up." Our "voice" will change. We'll go through a variety of life stages. But we aren't going to mess with our DNA. Our values are our genes. Our personality will continue to develop, but it won't fundamentally change.
Here is what I've learned from experience. Everybody who comes from a church background has a mental picture of what they think church should or should not be like. Too often they try to superimpose that old picture onto their new church. They try to conform their current church to what their old church was. In some instances, they have some wonderful ideas to bring to the table and those ideas can be adopted or implemented. But I've met my fair share of really well-meaning and God-loving people who want NCC to conform to their picture instead of conforming their picture to NCC. We expect our leaders to not just conform to NCC, but to become NCC ambassadors that promote our church culture to the congregation-at-large. It is an expression of loyalty and integrity and unity. I've always believed that life is too short to be part of a church that you're not excited about. That may be right at the top of the list when it comes to leadership qualifications: how excited are you about what God is doing at NCC.
One of the things that makes NCC unique is that our Executive Leadership Team (the Board of Directors) can be staff or laity. Here is one of my fundamental convictions: the people who have been called, trained, and hired to serve as full-time ministry staff ought to be empowered to cast vision, make day-to-day decisions, and be in positions of ultimate authority and influence. We always have been and always will be a pastor-led and staff-led church. That doesn't mean we're hierarchical or dictatorial in any sense. It simply means we're lead by the pastoral staff instead of a group of elders or deacons or a lay counsel of leaders. The truth is: NCC is about as decentralized as any church I know. We delegate authority. And we empower our leaders to get a vision from God and go for it. The long and short of it is this: we made a decision not to disqualify our staff from serving on the board just because they are staff. So our board is a hybrid of staff and laity. It just didn't make sense to disqualify people because they are staff or because they aren't staff. And as Forest Gump said, "That's all I have to say about that."
April 2, 2005 was an historic day for NCC. For nine years we functioned as a "home missions" church that was governed by the Presbyters of the Potomac District Council of the Assemblies of God. But they pushed us out of the nest :) We became a sovereign church that is self-governing on Saturday. We've worked on our bylaws for so long that it seems somewhat surreal to have finally ratified them. It was definitely an Ebenezer moment--hitherto the Lord has helped us.
Here are some ecclesiological reflections:
When I first started pastoring National Community Church we didn't really feel like a church and I didn't really feel like a pastor. And I distinctly remember talking to my father-in-law, who had planted and pastored a church for more than thirty years, and telling him we were trying to form a board and bylaws. He said, "Don't do it." It's some of the best advice I've ever received. I think I wanted a board and bylaws so we'd "feel" or "look" like a "real" church, but he told me to focus on the mission of reaching people. And that's what we've done. I think it's kept NCC from becoming a bureaucracy. We're a movement because we're focused on mission.
One of the benefits of being a "home missions" church with the Assemblies of God was that for the past nine years the Presbyters of the Potomac District have been our board and we've been governed by their bylaws so we haven't really had to worry about those "legal logistics." We could focus on our mission. Over the last few years, however, as NCC has matured and grown, we've sought legal counsel and done an extensive research into church bylaws and I think we've drafted a document that "fits" NCC.
Our ultimate goal was to create bylaws that really reflected who we are. In other words, we wanted them to be descriptive as well as prescriptive. My greatest fear all along was messing with our genetic code and ending up with mutant bylaws. The worst thing that could have come out of this process would have been changing who we are.
I still remember my first conversation with our lawyer. I said, "We don't vote on stuff. We don't do business meetings. And we don't have members. Can you draft us some bylaws for us?" He laughed. By the way, I know that many people read that and it almost sounds heretical. But can I remind you that the concepts of voting, business meetings, and members are nowhere to be found in the New Testament. There isn't a single reference. There are lots of prayer meetings, but no business meetings. There are lots of servants, but no members. And they either "cast lots" or "appointed elders." I'm not saying that any of those things are unbiblical. I'm just saying they are abiblical. By the way, one of the challenges of living in a city like Washington, DC is that we tend to superimpose our governing system onto Scripture. Church isn't a democracy. It's a theocracy and there is a chain-of-command that is called "spiritual authority." That can make those of us who live in the epicenter of democracy a little uncomfortable, but Scripture often does that. Here's the catch. Leadership is always expressed through servanthood. Power is always expressed through grace. And leaders--the ones vested with spiritual authority--are the servants of all. When a church functions that way it's an incredible thing to behold. At the end of the day, trust is part of government. Someone must be entrusted with spiritual authority. It's the risk God takes on us. And it's the risk we take on each other as a church. I don't know that anything weighs on me more heavily than my responsibility as the under-shepherd of NCC.
So we drafted our bylaws to avoid becoming a bureaucracy. I've seen too many movements become bureaucracies. We wanted bylaws that gave us fluidity and adaptibility and allowed leaders to lead rather than legislate. We wanted bylaws that could continue to grow with us as a church. The goal of the bylaws was to safeguard us against becoming who we're not. We're not a "congregational" church that votes on everything. Some churches vote on everything from color of carpet to brand of piano. We never want to major in minors. I think our bylaws enable us to continue to major in majors.
One of the major lessons I've learned in leadership is that there is always a "bell curve" in any group or team or church. There are innovators and adopters and laggards and resisters. And that's ok. You can't expect everybody to agree on everything. That is certainly true when it comes to church government. There are lots of different people with lots of different opinions. As Abraham Lincoln said, "You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time."
I think one of NCC's strengths is our decentralized approach to ministry. We empower leaders to get a vision from God and go for it. In some churches, membership is equated with voting privileges. At NCC, the buy-in is vision not voting. Our leaders don't function in a legislative capacity. Our leaders function in a missional capacity. We empower our leaders to focus on the vision God is giving them for their small group or ministry.
Here is one of the challenges every church and every person faces. Am I going to be who I am? Or am I going to be who I'm not? Early on when NCC was still in its infancy, I tried to conform NCC to fit the picture of everybody's perfect church. I wanted us to be all things to all people. But I eventually realized we can't be. I've long since given up trying to be who we're not. That doesn't mean we don't have lots of growing and changing and morphing to go through. We're only nine years-old. We haven't even hit puberty yet! We don't know who we'll be when we "grow up." Our "voice" will change. We'll go through a variety of life stages. But we aren't going to mess with our DNA. Our values are our genes. Our personality will continue to develop, but it won't fundamentally change.
Here is what I've learned from experience. Everybody who comes from a church background has a mental picture of what they think church should or should not be like. Too often they try to superimpose that old picture onto their new church. They try to conform their current church to what their old church was. In some instances, they have some wonderful ideas to bring to the table and those ideas can be adopted or implemented. But I've met my fair share of really well-meaning and God-loving people who want NCC to conform to their picture instead of conforming their picture to NCC. We expect our leaders to not just conform to NCC, but to become NCC ambassadors that promote our church culture to the congregation-at-large. It is an expression of loyalty and integrity and unity. I've always believed that life is too short to be part of a church that you're not excited about. That may be right at the top of the list when it comes to leadership qualifications: how excited are you about what God is doing at NCC.
One of the things that makes NCC unique is that our Executive Leadership Team (the Board of Directors) can be staff or laity. Here is one of my fundamental convictions: the people who have been called, trained, and hired to serve as full-time ministry staff ought to be empowered to cast vision, make day-to-day decisions, and be in positions of ultimate authority and influence. We always have been and always will be a pastor-led and staff-led church. That doesn't mean we're hierarchical or dictatorial in any sense. It simply means we're lead by the pastoral staff instead of a group of elders or deacons or a lay counsel of leaders. The truth is: NCC is about as decentralized as any church I know. We delegate authority. And we empower our leaders to get a vision from God and go for it. The long and short of it is this: we made a decision not to disqualify our staff from serving on the board just because they are staff. So our board is a hybrid of staff and laity. It just didn't make sense to disqualify people because they are staff or because they aren't staff. And as Forest Gump said, "That's all I have to say about that."
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