Voting and unity

The church is meant to be a theocracy to be governed by Jesus.

Jesus is the head over all things in the church. The church is not an ecclesiastical dictatorship to be governed by the pastors and church board. The church is not a democracy to be governed by the majority.

The church is a theocracy where the pastor and leaders and the congregation itself may vote form time to time; but in a theocracy voting serves a very different purpose than it does in a democracy. In a democracy, we vote to determine government and policy. In a theocracy, we vote to determine unity.

So that when the pastor and the board/congregation vote, the most important thing they are discovering is, do we have enough unity in the church to act on this matter without fractionating the Body of Christ?

I am pleased to share with you that at our congregational meeting last night, our church family voted to release prematurely a parcel of land, and that the vote was 87"yes," with 1 "no" and 1 "no vote".

We are rejoicing together at the show of unity that the vote indicates!

It's one more step to our church moving out to 183rd street. One more step of faith. One more challenge to meet.

It's exciting!