Going Sideways

This past Sunday, we started a series on church polity. Fancy word for how churches may organize themselves structurally. This specific church calls itself elder led. The teacher explained it as both the elders (leadership) and congregation having authority. It's authority over different things.

In my head, this turned the organizational chart on its side.

        /-- Elders
Jesus -<
        \-- Congregation

Now I'm going to switch from saying authority to using the word responsibility. At their heart, these are the same thing. Responsibility is assigned sideways, not down (or up). Jesus said that all power in heaven and earth has been granted to Him. He shares it, sideways, with His joint heirs.

It occurs to me, that if God views His relationship with us that way, does He view other relationships the same way - sideways? We look at so many things as a hierarchy - nature (food chain), businesses, government, marriage, children. Someone is in charge. Someone is at the top. It's our natural point of view.

But what do these relationships look like on their side? Did God create animals and nature with a responsibility? A responsibility different from human beings? God's first instruction to Adam and Eve was to subdue nature. Not control nature, subdue it. Their charge was to direct nature as it carried out its responsibilities. Adam and Even did not give nature responsibility. They directed its actions as nature fulfilled its responsibilities.

How does that look in a family? Years ago, a professional producer gave a one day workshop for my church's worship team. He explained the different roles of the different band parts as a cake. The bass line was the cake. It created a structure. The melody was icing that went around the structure. Fast forward many years, and my friend says that she thinks of spirits as waveforms. This discussion of sideways relationships combines these two concepts.

God created the base wave form. Our obedience, or submission, allows us to add our own distinctive form on top of His base. God set the tone. We play off that. Couldn't this also apply to our own interpersonal relationships? When we submit, we allow the other person to set the tone. We play off of them. Obedience is not about control. It's about direction. Obedience isn't vertical. It's sideways.