{"id":3925,"date":"2018-02-14T13:57:49","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T18:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?p=3925"},"modified":"2018-02-06T14:02:16","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T19:02:16","slug":"3925","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2018\/02\/3925.html","title":{"rendered":"Lessons learned from others"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dealing with sensitive issues such as revising church by-laws, calls this question to mind: Are you relying on God\u2019s law, or on human laws?<\/p>\n<p>In other words, leaders who penned by-laws are not called into question. They did their job for their era. But that doesn\u2019t discount us from doing our job of outlining guidance relevant to today.<\/p>\n<p>Crowning achievements of churches is not Manual by-laws, most churches have them, but rather the structure of government and practices that make the Manual applicable. By-laws can be enforced according to its terms and not according to the whims of a leader or governing board.<\/p>\n<p>Proceeding after the by-laws of government and practices, topics not covered by the Manual\u2019s words, are to be resolved by open deliberation, logical persuasion, and wise compromise. This procedure produces revisions or new laws that provide the conditions essential to flourishing churches.<\/p>\n<p>January 11, 2018, at a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.breakpoint.org\/2018\/01\/challenges-facing-church-2018\/\">Break Point symposium<\/a>, Jeff Myers, Ph.D., President, Summit Ministries, said, \u201cWhatever pressing cultural issues need tackling in 2018, Christian faithfulness will involve preparing believers to have \u2018water cooler conversations\u2019 using public arguments that make sense to rising generations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I doubt Myers is implying that our living and sharing of Christ needs dumbing down, but that we need to respect the time and attention of other people and speak clearly and relevantly with them.<\/p>\n<p>Translating this idea of expanding on foundational principles to church by-laws, new policies can reflect today\u2019s circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>January 5, 2018, 12<sup>th<\/sup> President of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, John Stumbo, introduced new revisions to the organizations Manual. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmalliance.org\/resources\/publications\/manual-cma.pdf\">Stumbo wrote<\/a>, \u201cI am pleased to introduce our Manual to you. It contains the most recent understanding of how we can function best as a denomination. Together, through the passing years, we created it. Together, in the years to come, we can adjust it as we deem appropriate. It is a human tool . . .necessary, even valuable, but not infallible. For our historic ministry to be relevant for generations to come, such tools as this one will continue to be revised.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For myself, as a student of Christian Science, I see the value of revising the Church Manual as established more than 100 years ago by Mary Baker Eddy. Some of her statements are so restrictive that church members today can\u2019t and don\u2019t\u2019 follow them. They are a church only in name, not practice. However, Eddy admitted making mistakes in her life and correcting them. A principle that can be followed by true leaders.<\/p>\n<p>As author and speaker, Jenni Catron wrote online February 2018, at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/edstetzer\/2018\/february\/effective-leader-five-essential-habits.html\">Christianity Today<\/a>, true leaders &#8220;keep their eye on the big picture. While they manage the details and are attentive to what it takes to bring a plan to fruition, they keep the big picture in front of themselves and those they lead. They don\u2019t lose sight of the goal.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dealing with sensitive issues such as revising church by-laws, calls this question to mind: Are you relying on God\u2019s law, or on human laws? In other words, leaders who penned by-laws are not called into question. They did their job for their era. But that doesn\u2019t discount us from doing our job of outlining guidance&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1974,1975],"class_list":["post-3925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","tag-improve-church","tag-work-together"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lessons learned from others - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lessons learned from others - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dealing with sensitive issues such as revising church by-laws, calls this question to mind: Are you relying on God\u2019s law, or on human laws? In other words, leaders who penned by-laws are not called into question. They did their job for their era. But that doesn\u2019t discount us from doing our job of outlining guidance&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2018\/02\/3925.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-14T18:57:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-06T19:02:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheryl Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cherylpetersen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lessons learned from others - Everyday Spirituality","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lessons learned from others - Everyday Spirituality","og_description":"Dealing with sensitive issues such as revising church by-laws, calls this question to mind: Are you relying on God\u2019s law, or on human laws? 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