| 06 June 2012
Openness...Ask Anything!
Few things are as important in the church as being open - transparent. This is true both with our own lives (James 5:16) and in the life of a church. When we are not people begin to suspect an agenda and no longer feel a sense of ownership. A church where actions and plans are kept secret will not have much involvement or “buy in” from the members.
The church no more belongs to the elders or ministers than it does to it’s youngest believer (Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18 and check Ephesians 4:11-16 too). The policy at Spring Meadows has always been to involve as many members as possible in every aspect of the work. The leadership has tried to avoid back-room dealing and closed door meetings.
Now, total transparency requires that I admit we can’t be totally transparent! For instance we don’t share when we have helped a member financially. Why would we add to their embarrassment by broadcasting that they are having to seek help. Asking is hard enough. In fact - I don’t even know about it unless the person asking in some way involves me. We also don’t share when someone is involved in counseling (unless they ask us to make the struggle public). We normally won’t broadcast hiring info, this for the person being hired. We don’t want them to have trouble where they are in case we didn’t hire them.
We can’t review our total history every week but we but if you ever have any questions, if you ever hear anything that seems out of place or you think sounds “fishy” or like something we wouldn’t or should’t do - just ask - we love questions.
Transparency creates trust, confidence and stability. Our policy was, is and will be - “Ask anything.”
Dale Jenkins