This post was written by Brandon in 2012:

Most Christians desire to follow Christ.  This is, after all, the nature of the word Christian (that we would be little Christs).  Within the Bible there are a few models for leadership and governance.  They all share the same starting point – God as leader and governor (see Isaiah 33:22, Psalm 95, 47, 23, the whole story of the Israelites and the life of Jesus as presented in the Gospels).  We hope for this at Bethany, that we will follow God as leader.  Here are some of the ways we try to let God lead:

• Each person has a seat at the table – who of us knows which person God will use and in which ways?
• Jesus accomplished this best – letting God lead. So we must look to him (he is alive, after all), trust him and be obedient to his teachings.
• Because God may use any person, and because we are each valuable in God’s sight, we must meet together to talk, discuss and discern.  This meeting together will also teach us to obey the second most important command we’ve been given – to love our neighbor as ourselves.
• Because we can’t meet all the time about everything, we have commissioned individuals to serve on committees with specific jobs (a little like the apostles did in Acts 6).  These groups report to the whole group at our regular gatherings. You can see a list of the church’s commissions here