This congregational voting thing really frightens
me, although I do see it as very important, very
necessary, and the only way to do things in a
congregation. I am glad to see what people
have said in this topic, because it gives me
insight into the voting process that I had never
before considered.
My old church RARELY allowed voting to be
done by the members--not even by those
who had been members for eons. Practically
everything was decided by the pastor, and we
just heard about it after he had made a decision.
On those horribly few times that a vote was given
to members, it was done by standing and/or
clapping. In my more than fifty years of member-
ship there, I recall only twice that we were given
a vote.
I remember how proud they were of the fact that
many votes were unanimous. When a vote was
put out to the board, it was in a closed room.
Most of these people were yes-men to the organ-
ization in the early to recent years, so of course,
they all did what their neighbor did. This was
called, with great pride, "unity."
Only in the most recent years has that organiza-
tion had people who were able to speak their
minds, and even then, only a very few. These,
however, are not on the board--the only real
voting body. In general, thee people just accept
what is handed down, grumble a lot privately,
but they still attend. Amazing.