You notice something at church. Some problem, need or opportunity that seems obvious to you. And you wonder why no one is doing anything about it. You ask around and find out it falls under some volunteer’s area. You find her and ask about it and she says that’s not her job, but you could ask the pastor overseeing the area. He seems nice, but too busy to look into your situation. You happen to know the senior pastor so you ask him about. He’s very affirming of your perspective, but answers with vague statements like “we should discuss that sometime”. What’s everybody’s problem?

So you just take the initiative to address it yourself. It’s not that hard. A few people notice and appreciate your efforts. Then a few more people. Then one of the pastors pulls you aside after church. “Hey! How’s it going?” and other friendly banter until you find out you can’t actually do the thing you’re doing because of some reason you can’t fully understand. He says something about the regulations, or was it liability insurance? Anyway, the point is you have to put a pause on it for now, until they can sort some things out with the board. OK, whatever. You can wait.

A couple of months later you ask the pastor if the board’s had a chance to look into it. “Oh, no. Someone’s on a leave and they’re waiting for him to get back, because he’s got some background in this area.” Really? How complicated is this? Meanwhile, the people who were appreciating your work have gotten impatient and and are asking you to get it going again. So you complain to the pastor again, and now he assigns that other volunteer to do something that sounds the same but is completely different. And now it’s declared resolved. Wait. What?

So you find the board member who’s on “a leave” and take him out for coffee. He’s really nice. Very kind. Warm hearted. A lovely individual. Really understands your viewpoint and likes your ideas. Great, can he talk with the board and get this cleared? Well, that’s a different story, he says. There are a lot of things to consider. Like what? Well there are a few other board members who have concerns, so I’ll have to meet with them when I’m back.

It goes in circles for a few more months while these wonderful people seemingly wait for you to give up. “Oh, I didn’t know that was still an issue.” So you corner another board member who’s a friend of yours. Tell me what’s going on! She says that one of the major givers at church had a bad experience once with a similar thing, so the board doesn’t want to touch it. OK that’s helpful. Sad, but helpful.

The guy is your friend’s uncle, so you get up the courage to go ask him what he didn’t like about the last time so you can avoid repeating those mistakes. Turns out he doesn’t care. Got over it long ago. Not a problem. Huh. So you go back to the “expert” board member and tell him it’s all clear. He goes back to the board with that at their next meeting and it doesn’t pass. You follow up with him and he explains that others on the board are nervous because if one tither might not have liked it, maybe others won’t either. Who are these phantom donors? There’s no way to find out because no one knows who they are. It’s more of a feeling. They tell you “It’s just better to err on the safe side.” And you’re out of options.

— end of story —

It’s hard to get permission. You can go up the chain of command and not find anyone against your idea. Faithful volunteers, loving pastors, wise board members, but in the end, it can’t happen for some obtuse reason. Why is that?

We tend to blame the people, especially someone we can’t meet with personally, or someone who tried to help us and gave up. But is it the people, or the system?

The volunteers get permission from the staff, who get permission from the pastor, who gets permission from the board. The board’s job, legally, includes “fiduciary duty”, which means they must act in the best interests of the organization, in this case, the church. It’s their job to protect and uphold the church. So if your idea puts the church’s charitable status at risk, or could get the church sued, or could lose the church money, or could turn away tithers, or could hurt the church’s reputation, etc…. You see where this is going. Because there are hardly any ideas that don’t carry some risk. Tricky.

Who made up this system? There’s one King and one Kingdom, and we’re all surrendering our lives and time and money and reputations and possessions and everything to serve him, right? We can’t be protecting and promoting our ministries as our top priority. But that’s the system we’re all in. And in Canada the government gives us financial kickbacks for submitting to it. Wait. Submitting to the government so we get the money? Is that an OK reason?

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” – Matthew 6:24

But we can’t get out of it. Because no matter where we go, even if we’re not registered as a charity, there are still insurance companies and zoning policies and who knows what else out there to keep us from freely serving God.

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. – 1 John 5:19

So here’s the thing. If we recognize that it’s the devil that’s against us, even through our church structures, then we can discern together what God wants and move forward, even if there is risk. But if we buy the world’s lie that protecting and promoting our own ministries is God’s will for us, then we’re paralyzed and the devil is winning.

But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” – Acts 5:29 NLT