Vocation in the Valley

CNH Convention Observations – 100% Agreement Does Not Equal Unity

There was only one recorded “no” vote during the entire convention. This no vote was on a poorly thought out change of wording to a resolution. Other than that, the entire district agreed on everything. Dr. Kieschnick and Dr. Newton praise us several times for being so united… except we’re not. The two ways used to reach this unity in convention business were a) to put forth proposals lacking in substance and specificity and c) to not call for the opposing vote.

In the first category, we passed things like “Encourage disaster preparedness in congregations and ministries” and “Approve transfer of churches to new circuits.” Other similar resolutions could have been “Thank God for the rising of the sun this morning” and “Approve the changing of the toilet paper in the men’s restroom at the district office.”

In the second category, was “Encourage revitalization in our congregations.” Although there was no enforcement this was a proposal to encourage the Revitalization process to all congregations. Revitalization is code for Transforming for Mission which is the CNH branding of the Transforming Congregations Network. I couldn’t vote for this based on what I know about it, and my pastor wants a theological review before he would recommend it. But the yes vote was overwhelming, so the no’s were never requested.

So the way to show a united districted is to ignore the dissenters.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 11:02 pm and is filed under Christian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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