Dancing in Formation

Structure has intrigued me (Ben) for a long time. As a student of the beautiful game of soccer, I’m fascinated by how teams choose to organize themselves, shifting formations and strategies with fluidity in the course of a game.

Structure shows up in all kinds of human organizations – showcasing how power and decisionmaking flow through a system. There are all kinds of options on how to organize ourselves out there – running the gamut from hierarchical to de-centered and scattered. How we choose to organize ourselves makes a statement about our values and hopes. And practically – structure and formation gives a group focus and clarity for how it works together to get things done. 

Structure helps us dance together.

There are lots of metaphors that have been used to describe the church as a structure: the church is a household, a family, the body of Christ, each of us its members, knitted together in love through the Spirit…. the church exists because we are called together by Jesus, finding beloved community as we follow him.

How we choose to organize ourselves, to dance together – reflects how we sense God in Christ leading us.

At Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship in the past year and a half – we spent a lot of time reflecting on our church structure – what’s been working and what might need to change for us to thrive as we embody Christ’s love.

As part of that process – our deacons ended up recommending that the church make some shifts in how it organizes itself – including a shift from a deacons role to having a Leadership Team. In September 2026 the church approved updates to our bylaws – clarifying roles and creating a Leadership Team to lead the congregation in its mission/vision and organizational life. 

At the heart of our structure is our entire community gathering together for Congregational Life Meetings (CLMs) that happen 6-times a year – where we make decisions by consensus, listening to the wisdom of one another and the Spirit.

Here’s a drawing that depicts our current structure set forth by our updated bylaws:

All human-made formations require improvisation for them to work well. No playbook, choreography chart, or organizational chart guarantees thriving.

But I hope that our newly updated structure gives enables us joyfully dance with one another, following the lead of the Holy Spirit to bring hope and healing to the world.