The Importance of Church Elections

Until my generation, the Lutheran church was our “family business”. On my father’s side of the family we were (and still are to some extent still are) sort of a Norwegian Mafia. My grandfather was a Lutheran minister; three of my uncles were ministers. My grandmother and several of my father’s sisters (as the wives of small-town preachers) played significant roles in their churches: Sunday school teachers, choir directors, etc. Family gatherings often included lots of talk about the "family business". That’s why I found this post at Concurring Opinions interesting:

Bob Dylan was right. You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. The best way to learn that is by following major church elections. Before I moved to Birmingham, I would never have noticed the incredibly important votes being held at the annual conventions of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Southern Baptists. If you want to get a sense of the American mainstream, look no further than these meetings.