Vote of No Confidence in Voting?

I like democracy. I like the idea of voting. It is one of the things that is great about America. I would want no other system.

But I am not so crazy about it in the Church, or at least in the local congregation. In fact through the years as a pastor I have endeavored to see how few of votes we have to take to maintain our congregation’s business.

That doesn’t mean I am either a dictator or power hungry. My concern is not power; my fear is creating winners and losers. My fear is vote casting that creates divisions.

Recently, I had to make a decision. As decisions go, it was one of more than moderate importance. I could have had people take a vote on it, and I am pretty sure it would have turned out in favor of what I had in mind. But in doing so I would have hardened people into winners and losers.

Instead I took counsel. A lot of it. I sounded out and involved the official leaders of the congregation and got their input. I sounded out and involved people with advanced training in the field connected with the issue. I sounded out and involved those who would be impacted with the decision. I sounded out and involved those who would have to implement the decision. I sounded out and involved those whom I knew to be against some of what I had in mind. I sounded out and involved those in other organizations facing the same issues.

And I prayed.

Proverbs 11:14 states, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” Proverbs 15:22 reiterates the same idea, “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” And Proverbs 24:6 says the same sort of thing, “For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.

Then not as dictator, but as leader whose leading was informed by the led, I made the decision. Because of the counsel taken, taking a vote became unnecessary.

Please note: In my congregation we do indeed vote on things: budgets, officers and elders, building programs, capital campaigns, loan applications, major strategic moves and so on. But where there is another path to good decision making, we take it.

Across America today I see many decisions being made by many leaders based on the power of the vote: I won the election and am the one in charge. I see leaders taking the counsel of too few; they rely on a subset of points of view. Those impacted by the decisions and those of a different mindset are cut out. Because they have fewer votes, or did so at election time, they have no voice.

There are multiple paths to authoritarian rule… and ruin. Using the power of the vote as a club is one of them. A leader who avails himself of the counsel of the many and the varied will forestall that, even if a vote is not taken.

What has seemed significant to you this past week?