The Church Guide for Making Decisions Together

by Terence Corkin, Julia Kuhn Wallace

Recent political events in the USA indicate that ordinary people are weary of traditional politics and ways of doing business in the halls of power. A similar mood is present in churches around the world. Ordinary church members are tired of the fighting and politicking that seem to privilege the same people all the time. They want a new way of making decisions in their churches and in their representative meetings. This book shows them how such a hope can be realized.



Robert's Rules of Order, or the traditional parliamentary style of decision-making used in many churches, can work for simple decisions that are aggregated and passed by consent. For complex and divisive issues, churches need a decision process that does not result in a combative, winner-take-all approach to church life. A healthy church also tries to involve commitment from a wide range of stakeholders rather than privilege a few well-informed and capable speakers. A vital and healthy congregation yearns for a more collaborative, respectful, encouraging, engaging, and empowering process.

This book on discernment in the church provides a step-by-step guide on how to create a new way of working together. Drawing on tried and tested processes, it advocates for a consensus building approach and showing people how it can work in their setting (local church or judicatory meetings). Readers will learn how to design a consensus building business process for their church meeting while still respecting the denominational and legal requirements under which they must operate.

This book is for leaders, members of church boards and committees, and church members who know that there is something wrong with the present system but don't know what to do about it. This guidebook is hopeful, inspiring, and practical.

224 pages, Paperback

Published May 2, 2017

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the premise of this book, that the goal of the gathered Christian community in making decisions is to discern the will of God, and that by the Holy Spirit, we can actually do so in a way that honors God and others. The means by which to do this, according to the authors, is to adopt a consensus model of decision-making in the church and to abandon Robert’s Rules of Order. This is a noble goal, and frankly one that our congregation has largely adopted. Their version of the consensus model is fleshed out in considerable detail, notable in its helpfulness for those interested in adopting it, but also at times exposing its flaws. There must be trust and agreement on common goals for the consensus model to work, and there were some aspects of the model, like the use of indicator cards, that seemed to add more potentially divisive voting rather than taking it away. Still, the authors are to be commended for their effort. This book came along at a needed time in my life. When the gathered community has some semblance of unity among common goals and healthy, transparent leadership, some form of this consensus model is to be preferred when making major decisions. However, I wouldn’t abandon Robert’s Rules totally due to its historic efficiency and its basis of respect for the individual who bears the imago dei.