Debating in America

By the people and for the people... These are words at the foundation of democracy in America, and over the past few months, these seven words have taken center stage during the debate over health care and climate change. As much talk has circulated, I have been taking some time to reflect on the bigger issue of federalism as it applies to a number of things including church structure and organization.

Realizing that wars have been fought over this topic (Civil War), I tread carefully. Federalism in my mind is about a philosophy how the contract or covenant of the people entering into a structure or organization should operate. In its simplest terms, how much power should the individual have versus how much power should the governing body have. Over the years, organized religion has seemed to take its greatest knocks from being overly oppressive from the top. This has resulted in cases of corruption, abuse, and other sins that creep into organizations that lose focus on the will of the people. One would hope that the push back and lessons to be learned from religion's storied past would be a rush to the middle ground where a balanced approach between a strong church leadership that provides a focused mission, vision, and programming while still honoring the desires and ideas of the congregation would emerge. Instead, a number of contemporary churches seem to have bounced from one pole to the other creating an organic environment that respects and supports the ideas of its members without a leadership core that glues the congregation together in a way that creates common cause and cultivates common culture. This type of structure doesn't seem like it can be effective either as it would fall into the trappings of structures like the European Union and our own nation's articles of confederation http://www.constitution.org/cons/usa-conf.htm which honor individualism to the point of generating gridlock, failed consensus building, and no forward momentum. Whether it is a debate about health care, climate change or church structure, balance seems to be essential. Finding this balance isn't easy, but it requires leadership willing to engage with everyone about the need for freedom and common mission as concepts that harmoniously coexist in productive tension with each other. It seems that then and only then will new churches emerge that redraw the boundaries and bring new life to their Gospel-driven missions.

-Bob Dillon