Love the blog which editor do you use? Happy Christmas to all of you and your families at CC

Keep up the good work!

Love the new look.

Ah, Cape Town!…..

I agree with you whole heartedly that the whole church weighs prophecy, vision etc - there are some practical issues relating to this happening in a meeting, for instance. Let’s say a newish christian, seeking to have a go, hijacks the flow of a worship-time with an inappropriate contribution. The church clearly knows that this has happened, and in that sense they have weighed the contribution. What happens next requires leadership. For the sake of the contributor it’s not going to work, for most, to bring a correction publicly, but for the sake of the meeting refocus is required. The skilled, sensitive leader draws the meeting back without crushing the misguided yet enthusiastic contributor. This is leadership.

You’d be hard pushed to find someone who likes the corporate business model, for church, less than I do!! What I find it lacks more than anything else is any kind for relational reference. As you say, it’s built on the bottom line, which seems to rule the day entirely. You can be given your department and expected to produce results with limited resources. However, there is some wisdom to be gleaned form the business world. Churches can lack entrepreneurial vision - we tend to quickly descend into tradition. They can waste money because they don’t think too carefully about a good financial deal when spending.

In my opinion the answer to democracy in the church (which I really don’t want, or see in the NT) is relationship and communication. We need to work hard to communicate with everyone both information and vision. I personally give a substantial amount of time working on both these aspects of church life. Relationship and communication, by definition, work both ways and so, sometimes more slowly than we’d really like progress is made adjusting details along the way.

That is really what practically happens here on a daily basis.