I’ve worked alongside, or under, some great leaders in churches and in businesses, and voluntary organisations. And, sadly, I’ve also served around people who love to use their position to bully others and, the most successful approach I’ve seen to achieve this, is through creating grey areas of information and knowledge.

Think about the last half dozen big names in the Christian world who ended up failing either morally or criminally and you’ll encounter people who were allowed to create grey areas around them: grey areas allow us to operate without accountability and that always ends badly. Because grey areas, ultimately, simply allow us to manipulate others in to doing what we want.

Put simply, grey areas are not healthy for anybody, and for churches least of all, because they can never promote healthy and righteous flexibility!

A classic grey area I’ve come up against is when someone asks when children should return to the adult church service. The response is, invariably, we’ll let you know when we’re ready. That’s a grey areas right there, and I can state that it does not need to be. God is big enough to coordinate the reconnection of His people, when they have gathered to worship Him.

Let us never allow ourselves – or others – to create grey areas that deny the opportunity for either accountability or transparency.

Just a thought…

Andy B