Do you consider yourself to be a rule-follower or a rule-breaker? Do you find comfort in the structure of guidelines or do you tend to question the status quo? It’s often a pendulum – we swing to one side or the other depending on the issue or the time in our life. Our community also swings as we try to find the balance between the structure of action items, policies and guidelines in contrast with cultivating creativity, flexibility and a welcoming environment.
I personally tend to be quite fond of rules. In my profession, I dwell in grammar, formatting, details and brevity. I write guidelines, procedures and process flows – and I enjoy it. My sensibility yearns for this structure because it often sheds light on a proven way forward. It encourages success and helps to track where we’ve been so that we can celebrate how far we’ve come.
And yet, I am often aware that there are significant cautions related to rules, particularly within a church community. The invocation of words like policy, law and command can be confining, forceful, exclusionary or simply dull. Rules and policies are often boxed out of church language as being unworshipful and too rigid.
God’s laws
And in the middle of this dissonance, a piece of scripture jumps out at me. Over the past year, I have been returning to Psalm 19. For those of you who read TUMC’s annual reportbook, you may recall this theme was also in my Chair’s Report. You have heard Psalm 19 already this morning, and I will repeat verses 7-9:
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.
Over and over in these verses, we crash into concepts of rules and guidelines. And these verses don’t stand alone. The word “law” can be found throughout the Bible 523 times, not to mention its synonyms.
What grabs me in these particular verses is not what God’s laws are (those specifics aren’t even listed here) but rather their impact. The verses could have stopped short: “The law of the Lord is perfect, the statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, the precepts of the Lord are right.” And we would have celebrated the gift of God’s guidance and teachings. But it doesn’t stop there. The verses continue to explain that God’s laws “revive the soul, make wise the simple, give joy to the heart and give light to the eyes.” Its impact on the recipient is where I find the magic.
This sense of delight and joy associated with laws ripples throughout the Psalms:
- Psalm 1 reads: Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the law of the LORD.
- Psalm 40: I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.
- Psalm 119: I have chosen your precepts… and your law gives me delight.
This closeness of law to delight is curious for me. Certainly, those of my clients whom I compel to follow procedures and guidelines do not always respond with delight or joy. Now I in no way want to compare God’s laws and teachings to our earthly policies. What I do want to do is to pull the refreshing perspective that these verses bring and see if we can make them real for us. I want to suggest that laws and policies can lead to an act of worship, or even be an act of worship in and of themselves.
And where is TUMC in all of this?
Over the past two years while I have served on the TUMC Board, many of you have guided me on the policies and traditions that we have at TUMC. While we aim to make space to be visionary and imaginative, much of the behind-the-scenes work is administrative and logistical. We often work best when we have a method to recall what worked in the past. In this way, we’ve been able to learn from our history and listen carefully to all of our voices. We have depended on policies, next steps and action items to organize ourselves. In fact, this year, Bob Tiessen spent many hours cataloguing our historical policies and records so that we can more easily retrieve them. And this work will continue.
Is this joyful? Perhaps to me, but I imagine not for many of you. But let me rephrase: “Is it joyful to empower newcomers and young people to have access to our resources, so that they can learn from our community and feel more comfortable being leaders within it?” Hallelujah! That is joyful.
What about our work refreshing the TUMC constitution? A constitution is by its very nature legalistic. It can be boring and wordy. But look at the discussion opportunities that fled out of this dry document to our very hearts: “What does it mean to be part of the global Mennonite church?” “How do we talk to each other as a community?” “Who will take on leadership in the church?” The very act of clarifying our congregation’s beliefs and putting them to paper was, in my mind, an act of worship.
Another example: Last year, we developed and approved a new Youth Ministry Visioning statement. There was a strong desire from the community to clarify our stance, to name our intentions, to document it on paper. The first attempt to document a vision began with a document. But it quickly became clear that this felt unrelated to the youth, their leaders and their parents. The spoken desire had been for a vision statement, but the actual yearning was for a community to refresh its understanding of how we want to nurture our youth. When we approved the 1-page vision statement in November, it felt meaningful, inspiring and in line with our understanding of God’s plan for us. This process was an act of worship.
In 2012, we as a congregation will be discussing several initiatives that have the potential to be weighed down by policy and process and action items.
- Last evening, there was a vibrant discussion about real plans to reshape our physical space.
- We have our regular 3-year review for our Pastors of Youth Ministry this year.
- A Safe Church Policy is under review, and this will require careful wording and ongoing tracking.
- The St. Clair-O’Connor Community is considering a restructure, and they will be looking to TUMC to provide feedback, recommendations and support.
- And we will be talking about specific new ways to be more welcoming for Toronto’s LGBT community.
Can we lift these discussion up, so that the very process is a joy? Where will we find the worship in this discussion?
In closing…
And
so we shift back and forth, we undulate, we strive to find a balance while never losing sight of our intent and our impact on those around us.
I end with a prayer that God will walk with us as we structure, just as God walks with us as we dream. Laws have the potential to confine us or liberate us. Lord, as we write policy and define our church life, let it give light to our eyes, delight us, be an act of worship.
Amen.