Holy Rule Chapter 3 - of calling the brethren for counsel

This week's chapter of rules deals with the making of decisions for the monastary. The concept is that little decisions are to be made with just the counsel of the Seniors and larger decisions should be made with the counsel of all the monks. The reason given for this is "because the Lord often reveals to the younger what is best."

I think this is true - from experience. Most of the best ideas come from those in the trenches. To quote Mike Yaconelli,

"...does it bother anyone else that Christian music has an army full of pubescent, immature, dysfunctional little kids giving concerts and telling this generation of young people what Christianity is about? Isn't it a bit weird to have a fourteen-year-old spiked-hair misfit telling other fourteen-year-olds how to live life when they live it in a tour bus?"

This chapter, more than any other so far, implicates church leadership structures in the church. Are young people being listened to in the biggest decisions? Some churches say this is the case and then run meetings that are only attractive to fossils. How can we reach the coming culture, when we don't listen to those who live in it?