Leadership Series: Part 2. Concensus

Are you ready for shocking statement #2?

Leadership is not about making the decisions. It is about listening through the Body for God's decision.

Consensus is an interesting thing. Here's the American Heritage Dictionary definition:

1. An opinion or position reached by a group as a whole or by majority will.
2. General agreement or accord.

The assumption is that everyone in the group will come to agreement with interaction and discussion. Sound impossible? Maybe in the world, but not in the church. Why? Two reasons:

1) The church should be together. We find this in the second chapter of Acts- the KJV uses the term "with one accord" (Greek 6374 Strong's: homou where we get the prefix "homo" as in "homogeneous"). This doesn't just mean they were in the same room together, it's more like "they were in agreement with each other."

2) The church has Holy Spirit to guide us. TSA doctrine #8 speaks of a witness within:

We believe that we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and that he that believes has the witness in himself.

This witness is Holy Spirit that lives within every believer and regenerates us into salvation. In other words, the Holy Spirit within me is the SAME Holy Spirit within you. And God cannot have 2 opinions about something. If Holy Spirit tells me one thing, he will not tell you the opposite. If he wants the group to do one thing, won't he certainly tell everyone the same thing?

Therefore the church can go to God and seek his wisdom and direction (in fact, we SHOULD). And if we all are listening carefully, we will all get the same answer- that's consensus!

A leader in the church should be about his Father's business. He should most importantly want to know what God wants in any given situation (and what God wants may not always make the most "human" sense, remember?). It's not about who's smarter or who knows more than anyone else or who's in charge and gets his way. It's about listening to God as a group and coming to consensus. In fact, as a leader, I would be most remiss if I chose to make all the decisions myself and not allow my family of believers to listen with me so that I don't accidentally make a mistake (I actually made a mistake once. It was back in 1990 . . . no- wait, it was 1991. Dang! Now that's 2 mistakes!).

Here's an example from my own experience: I once met with my Corps Council regarding a new mission statement for our corps. It is the leader's responsibility to go before God and seek his direction for his congregation where they are placed. Prayerfully over time, I did that and prepared a mission statement to bring before the group for confirmation and implementation.

I spent time explaining consensus and then asked each person on the Council to speak to what they were hearing from God about the statement. As we went around the table, all were in agreement that this was what God wanted for us. But just before we finalized things, one person dared to speak up ("dared?" Yes- remember they weren't used to consensus- most "armies" lead by the leader telling their followers what to do and everyone else just salutes). This person said they couldn't be sure, but there was something "nagging" inside them that they had to speak up about. They were uncomfortable approving the statement as it was.

I was a bit saddened, because I wanted to get going, but I knew God had something to tell us. So I then tabled the approval so that each of us would go pray about what God was trying to tell us. Next month we would readdress the subject. It was almost funny to watch the members! They were shocked we didn't just go ahead with what was prepared. After all, everyone but one person agreed- and he didn't even know what it was that held him back!

During our month of waiting on God, that person was told by God what the issue was. Something had been left out of the statement. And when I was told, it was one of those "DUH!" moments! Of course! Why didn't we see it before?! (Probably because God wanted us to see how consensus worked!).

So at that next meeting our mission statement was approved as amended and all agreed in consensus as Holy Spirit spoke to us. It was a great example of leading by consensus.

Now don't get me wrong- we can't always take the time to move through such an exercise. There are times when the person most gifted in the subject and/or is appointed to lead must step up and take quick action. But when the issue is not immediate, consensus is how God wants a Christian leader to lead.

Don't you just LOVE working with the Body?