In 1978, Mary Lou and I colored outside the lines and bought one of the first Honda Accords.
Long gas lines, exceptional reliability and strong value were all key factors in our decision. We drove that car for many years and came to love it, but it wasn’t without a few surprises along the way.
Can you say metric tools?
The first time I tried to complete some basic maintenance, I pulled out my handy imperial tools designed for measurements of feet, inches and pounds. “Why are they not working”? Desperation inspired me to start reading the owner’s manual which is how I discovered the existence and relevance of metric tools for my Japanese Honda. Such a naïve young man!
Several years later, I was serving as a leader within a Jesus house and had a very similar insight.
For decades, this congregation’s leaders had been using a tool called “Robert’s Rules of Order” to make its decisions. This majority-rules process was first published in 1876 by a U.S. Army officer (Henry Robert) who had sought to adapt the voting practice of the U.S. Congress for the benefit of non-legislative organizations. Within my Kingdom context, however, Robert’s process was a disaster as it consistently catalyzed disunity, political posturing, intimidation and all kinds of relational dysfunctions. In my desperation, I once again turned to the Owner’s Manual aka the Bible!
“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us” (Acts 15:28).
What an instructional chapter from the early church’s life! This story details how numerous leaders from Jesus’ new movement gathered to discover God’s best on a point of significant conflict. By my reading, the exchange was passionate and spanned multiple days, but in the end, those gathered were united and had found common, Kingdom ground.
This was the first time I began to wrap my brain around the spiritual discipline of team discernment and a related tool, namely consensus decision-making. My instructional handout on this process is now posted under “Equipping” on my Resource page.
Based on my experience, this type of decision-making tool is ideal for Jesus’ houses because it is consistent with His values of humility, transparency, and honesty. It also accelerates unity within the community as all stakeholders are charged with publicly owning the process’ outcome. I hope you find it helpful!
Is your Jesus community shaped and influenced by any worldly tools? If so, how is that working out?
Loving Jesus’ ways more every day!
