Our Church diaconate once put a proposal to the members -- which was rejected. At the diaconate meeting which followed, there was what one often finds with democratic decisions -- a debate about who intended what when they voted, and so on. I said: “The Lord has spoken.” This is classic Congregationalism, typically in the opening sections of a Congregational constitution: “The Church’s findings are those which Christ imparts.” OBSERVATION: I think this is a vital tenet, from various points of view:
• It respects decisions of the Church -- not the diaconate -- as sacred.
• It removes any tensions over those decisions -- because this was of God.
• It prevents elitism -- the decisions aren’t anybody’s triumph or defeat, but are imparted by Christ.
• It discourages picking decisions apart -- questions as to who voted which way and why -- because God is One.
• And it prevents the urge to humanly change what God has revealed -- which is, to press one’s own influence.
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