Wednesday, October 12, 2005

The Limits of Submissive Dissent?

I was reading a great post from Clint Humfrey about dealing with dissent on peripheral matters.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Although your situation differs from the situation discussed in my mentoring group, it is nonetheless a common and difficult one.

Essentially, you did all that you could, it sounds like. You attempted to be blameless in your conduct while exercising the rights and responsiblities which your role as elder required.

Somewhere along the way I'm guessing you reached 'the tipping point' and you decided to leave the church.

This is understandable. Leaving a church should not be a knee-jerk reaction, but it is necessary at times.

I hope my comments are an exercise in producing οικοδομη.

Blessings

Tom Gee said...

Thanks for your comment, Clint. You're quite correct about the "tipping point". In September, the counseling ministry was going to begin extensive expansion which the elders as a whole fully supported. I couldn't maintain the unity of the board under those conditions, so I resigned.

I was the first elder in the 49 year history of the church to resign over an issue (i.e. other than for personal reasons). I'm not sure what that signifies. Not exactly the pioneering role I was looking for. :-)

(By the way, it's just occurred to me that the title of this post could appear to be a criticism of your original posting. I did not mean it to be critical in any way, shape, or form. I realize that your original post was about dissension only over peripheral issues; I just took that topic as a spring-board into my own issue. So I hope you were not offended by my ill-chosen title.)