Every group has within it a structure for organizational leadership. This structure is called “polity.” A politician is someone who understands the polity of a group and is a “polity technician.” Both leaders and followers can be politicians…I learned more about politics in that church work than in the city council work. Furthermore, in the last 17 years I’ve found church politics to be more complex than small-town politics. That’s because there is less clarity about the polity within the Mennonite church. But what leaves me cold is when someone, frustrated by a decision in a congregation, an area conference or churchwide assembly complains, “It’s all politics.” Of course it’s all politics. And my favourite political convention is the one recorded in Acts 15…
http://www.themennonite.org/issues/11-14/articles/Its_all_politics