I have discovered in the last 10 years that I find I don't want to walk with the majority sitting in the pew. This is not because I have trouble loving them, I do. It's not because I harbor some unresolved ill feelings toward them.
It's simply because can not walk in the same direction of their gaze.
Some are not walking in any direction at all. Immobile! Seeminly immovable too!
I thought this was amazingly true in my experience. This is a worth while devotion book to get.
"Not surprisingly, this tendency to focus on the goal to the exclusion of the process is often reflected in our churches as well. For example, I suspect that our view of time and productivity affects the ways decision-making is carried out in many churches. There is a clear difference between operating by consensus and by majority vote: although the latter promises more productivity choosing to operate in this manner only makes sense if one has already determined that the final outcome of a decision is more important than the process. Furthermore, there seems to be little incentive for the majority to listen patiently to the concerns and objections of the minority if the former is certain that they have the necessary votes to impose their will. But what if God cares about not only the decision (and what results from it) but also the kind of people we become in the process? Operating by majority rule in the name of productivity and efficiency also assumes (wrongly I suspect) that God normally votes with the majority. It seems hard to account for why Israel needed the prophets, or for the lack of democracy displayed when the twelve spies returned from their trip to Canaan (Num 13—14), if one assumes that the best way to determine God’s desires is simply to tab a vote."
(Life On The Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit in Christian Community. Phillip D. Kenneson IVP, 1999, pg 123)
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