Reminder: Principles Over Personalities

 

This is a re-posting of a thought I had in 2009 on my personal blog that I wish to hold onto. Obviously, the church is more than just this, but these hold some foundational things about church polity we need to remember when we start new congregations:

Reformation

After Hurricane Katrina I got to hang out with some of the best/worst people in New Orleans and I realized that I wished this was how the Church ran its business, too. History would have been positively different for it. Jesus showed in Scripture that drunks and prostitutes are people to learn from - especially when they find freedom in Christ. My obsession with perfection, comparing myself to shiny, polished people hasn't helped a bit. Wouldn't be so much healthier with no more egos? No more personality cults. Just broken people coming together for the goal of redemption and serenity from God.

So I'm beginning to think this is what I want my church to look like:

[Church] Traditions - Adapted from the AA traditions 

(shown in brackets)

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop [destructive behavior].

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or [the Church] as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose-to carry its message to the [broken] who still suffers.

6. A group ought never endorse, finance or lend the name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. [The Church] should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. [The church], as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. [The church] has no opinion on outside issues; hence the Name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.