What kind of church will we be?

If you have ever been to a church business meeting, then you have witnessed something known as parliamentary procedure.

A first motion, a second motion, discussion, all in favor raise your hand, all opposed show by like sign.

It’s a way of ensuring order in any type of organizational meeting, and it’s called Robert’s Rules of Order. The author of the book was a general in the US Army named Henry Roberts in 1876.

Now, you might think that the book was written for important legislative assemblies.

Nope. Not at all.

Henry Robert wrote the book because a few years prior he had been asked to preside over a church business meeting. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert's_Rules_of_Order, accessed Dec. 28, 2024]

Maybe that sounds like a joke to you. It sounded that way to me.

But it’s true — Robert’s Rules of Order was written because Christians couldn’t get along. It was written because at church business meetings, church members couldn’t deliberate on how best to spread the gospel without fighting. [https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/dearly-beloved, accessed Dec. 28, 2024]

The parliamentary procedures known as Robert’s Rules of Order were published in 1876 because Christians had gotten unruly arguing about how to spread the gospel. It sounds like a punchline, but it’s true. Christians have been commanded to love each other to show the gospel’s power to transform sinners (1 John 4:7–12). And yet we often fail to love each other well, so we need rules to help us get along.

Rules prevent conflict by setting boundaries, but they can’t make people love one another.

1. Love is the unquestioned responsiblity of the Christian (v. 7a)

2. Our love has for its source the boundless love of God (vv. 7b-8)

3. God’s love was demonstrated at the cross of Jesus Christ (vv. 9-10)

4. Our love for others is a picture of God’s love for them (v. 11-12)

Call for response