A congregation in which every activity and meeting must be personally cleared with the top leadership or with the pastor will soon encounter problems. First, the leadership will overwork itself, and will never be able to keep up with the task of reviewing everything; promising new ministries will not be able to launch. Secondly, new leadership will not be grown from within the ranks, because there are no opportunities; delegation is more than a labor-saving technique: it is the nursery for future leaders. Third, errors will necessarily result, because the leadership has placed itself, despite humble intentions, into a position of papal-like infallibility; if it demands final review on any new project, it is, de facto, the final word in judgment, and being merely human, will eventually err. Finally, an atmosphere of control, not “the freedom of the Gospel,” will prevail. The New Testament speaks warningly against those who seek to take away, even if unintentionally, the freedom which Jesus acquired for us.
At the other extreme, a congregation which exercises no “quality control” fails to use the written Word of God, and the rationality which God gives to humans, as measuring device to examine both new and on-going activities. In such a congregation, not only will heresies find fertile ground, but incompetent ministry leaders, and poorly designed ministries, will hurt (again unintentionally) people — the people who came to them for help.
How then to exercise “quality control” without becoming “controlling”? I don’t have all the answers to that question, but I have a few ideas. First, as in all matters, the written Word takes the lead. The congregation does not gather around its leaders, but it gathers around the Word of God: both the Living Word, Who is Jesus, Who is found to be physically and bodily present in the bread and wine, and Who places the Holy Spirit into us; and the Written Word, which speaks to us again and again, ever fresh. Second, we must avoid the extremes of top-down authoritarianism on the one hand, and bottom-up democratic congregationalism on the other hand. Leadership must be clear about its mission and purpose, and willing to delegate. Members must be willing to acknowledge the authority of various positions in the organizational chart.
