Over in CIVICs, tabibito said the following about church leadership. To get the focus off SBC, I'm starting this thread.
I'm not familiar with Wesley's solution. My initial take is his deficiency was he failed to communicate how important it was to his successors.
I'm not ready to deal with a repentant person wanting to go back into a leadership role. My initial inclination is no.
My experience in most congregations is the leadership of the church appoints the new leadership of the church. There may be a formal vote of the membership but that tends to be a formality. In other words, the set-up will create a good-old boys network. I have in one case been in a church where the pastor appointed all the leaders. In another case, I watched the denomination bring in their candidate for the new pastor. (A few years later, that pastor split the church.) As I think about it, I really haven't seen leadership selection done well.
I think I would start though by attacking the low view of church membership. Being a member of the church means more is expected of you, In too many churches, the main requirement for membership is "Are you breathing?" I think if the membership has a higher view of what membership means, it could eventually translate into better leadership as eventually the members expect more out of their leadership.
There's my start on the matter.
Originally posted by tabibito
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I'm not ready to deal with a repentant person wanting to go back into a leadership role. My initial inclination is no.
My experience in most congregations is the leadership of the church appoints the new leadership of the church. There may be a formal vote of the membership but that tends to be a formality. In other words, the set-up will create a good-old boys network. I have in one case been in a church where the pastor appointed all the leaders. In another case, I watched the denomination bring in their candidate for the new pastor. (A few years later, that pastor split the church.) As I think about it, I really haven't seen leadership selection done well.
I think I would start though by attacking the low view of church membership. Being a member of the church means more is expected of you, In too many churches, the main requirement for membership is "Are you breathing?" I think if the membership has a higher view of what membership means, it could eventually translate into better leadership as eventually the members expect more out of their leadership.
There's my start on the matter.
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