Why Church Politics Exist – Man of Depravity

This week I am celebrating one year of blogging by posting a few of my (and your) favorite posts from this past year.

Today’s post was originally posted on November 27th, 2007, titled “Church Politics 2 of 3”.

Why Politics Exist in Churches…

1. I think this is partly because people are passionate about their beliefs. Churches have to be able to make decisions and this can create politics. People accept Jesus and one of the after effects is that they are going to be convicted about different things they are doing wrong in their lives. The same thing happens at a church, some things aren’t ideal and there has to be a way to change them. But people hate change…and so begins church politics.

2. I posted a video of Andy Stanley talking about leadership here. Leadership is a gift is primarily what he was saying. Church politics don’t have to be negative but when we begin to view leadership as something entitled to us I think church politics begin to take on a new form.

3. I remember the an old friend told me that we should never hold on tightly to our roles on the worship team. I’ve seen situations when someone new comes along and changes some things and people begin to get upset. Was the new way different? yes Was it worse? no. I think the reason people were upset is because their role was changing but if they would have really taken the advice it wouldn’t have mattered what their role was, God would use them.

4. Decisions have to be made within churches and usually people are passionate about what they feel God is telling them. Once you have two people who are passionate about what they think God is telling them and they don’t agree, so begins politics within church.

For whatever reason people expect church to be perfect. They won’t ever get hurt, nothing will ever convict them, and everyone will be happy. I know that I sin all the time, even at church and church is full of leaders and members who are just like me. People make mistakes, people screw up and all of this allows for bad situations to develop.

I remember how hurt I was after the crap that happened at my old church. I hated being around town and seeing people from there. It almost ruined my freshman year of college. People would often ask me what I thought of church after everything went down. I would always say that church is run by sinners so not everything is perfect, but church is the body of believers and I will always go to church because it is how God designed for us to fellowship and meet together to lift Him high.

Your thoughts?