I really want my kids to grow up in a church where they feel loved and accepted. It seems like this ought to be simple, but it absolutely is not. The Methodists and Presbyterians do everything by committee. Voting. Meetings. Waiting. Deliberating. It’s a good system. I wouldn’t want to be part of a church where the decisions are made for you by others and you are told that’s the way it will be. You know if you ask the Amish why they do things a certain way they won’t answer you? They say something like, “It’s just so.” Well, if you ask me why our church does this or that, I can say we had this meeting and X number voted that way. I think the New Testament, specifically the letters from the apostles, are full of directions on how to run a church. I haven’t read all those instructions, but someone smart figured this system out.
It’s my hope that by staying involved in meetings and doing tasks that sometimes feel like torture, I can shape the church into the place where my children belong. We start easy, with questions like, what time is worship. But the work gets harder as you go deeper into the business of running the church.