Church meetings are legendary, aren’t they?
And not in the way, say, Michael Jordan is legendary in basketball. Or Joe Montana in football. Or even Roger Federer in tennis.
No, church meetings are legendary for the bloodshed — real and imagined — that they involve.
Whether it’s a contentious assembly of a church board or an angst-filled planning session for church staff or — worst of all — an “all church business meeting,” few things strike more fear in the heart of a congregation than the phrase “let’s meet.”
So in trying to navigate all that, I’ve landed on a guideline that’s helpful. Here it is:
Don’t mistake the loudest voice for the greatest wisdom.
Because that’s often what we do, isn’t it? We believe that simply because someone increases the volume then that person must have additional insight. So we go along with what they say.
Or, more often, we cave into their viewpoint because we don’t want to cause a scene in church.
Both reactions are deadly. In my time, I have seen churches take disastrous turns just to appease an influential person who held a strong, loud, and wrong view of a particular issue.
Granted, sometimes wisdom is connected to volume.
But more often, I believe, it resembles the “still small voice” with which God spoke to Elijah.
So in church meetings as in all of life, don’t mistake the loudest voice for the greatest wisdom.