Monthly Archives: September 2009

The institutional church fosters dependence, passivity, and weakness among its members. Jesus wants to raise up His children to maturity, to partner with Him in changing the world. Are you ready to come along?

I believe that most leaders are ignorant of the true condition of their congregations, Isolated in our Christian sub-culture, we have little idea as to its true nature. The only clues we have come from the perspective of outsiders who treat Christianity as irrelevant or a farce.

Most leaders think they are really doing the right thing by leading, teaching, and preaching. And they are certainly doing a good thing. Most church leaders are truly sold out for God, and they have the hearts of true servants. Are they doing the right thing in the right place at the right time?

In one of my college courses I studied counseling. My professor warned us about fostering the dependence of clients on the counselor. It is very easy to do so. You see, the counselor can come to need the client as much as the client needs the counselor. And it is very easy for the less knowledgeable and often very needy client to place the counselor on a very high pedestal. “I can never be like that.” “I can never do what he does, or be as free as her.”

But the truth is quite different. And unless the counselor helps the counselee to move beyond these lies, the counselee will never really grow up.

In “Community 101″ Bilezekian describes two New Testament polities, two ways of thinking about leadership in the community of the faithful. He calls one model “normal” and the other “remedial.”

The “remedial” model is meant for churches that are very young or where there have been great problems. These families are filled with immature children, not yet ready to take responsibility for themselves.
The “normal” model is meant for ordinary churches, where people are growing in the faith and discovering the gifts God has built into them.

In this model believers are continually moving into greater independence as they mature, themselves becoming leaders and pastors and teachers.

The problem is that the remedial model is the one we see in many corner churches. The leadership rarely changes, or only after an explosion or implosion. The structure is hierarchical. The masses are passive. Leaders are placed on pedestals as being and achieving things that the ordinary believer could never achieve. In essence this is a professional ministry model, and there is a priesthood in these churches just as there was in Luther’s time. No matter how much rhetoric one might hear about “every member ministry,” the medium is the message. The actions and structure speak so loudly that no other message can be heard.

Many corner churches add home groups in an attempt to develop community and get the laity to take responsibility for ministry. These attempts usually accomplish some good things; but they don’t break the paradigm. The structure of the institution prevails; it is still the few who do ministry to the many. The professionals fix the rest of us, the non-professionals.

No wonder that in 1 Cor. 14 Paul restricts the operation of the more powerful gifts with the caution that the less spectacular gifts are even more necessary: “the parts of the body which seem weaker are indispensable” (1 Cor.12:22-25). Graham Cooke comments that,

“People who feel insignificant remain ineffective and small. They become grasshoppers in their own sight and may never inherit all that Jesus died to give them. Good leaders take what is small and enable it to grow. Starting where people are at, they take them through progressive levels of encouragement, appreciation, and development to a place of personal effectiveness and personal significance.’”A Divine Confrontation.

In our culture we value power and presence. We are impressed by those who use big words, or who dress in expensive clothes, or who publish books. We value success. We listen more carefully to the pastor from the large church.

Unfortunately, this is not the spirit of the New Testament. “Those who would be great among you must be the servant of all,” and “the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.”

Why do we value the working of a few gifts so much more than others? Why do we fail to create a place where all these gifts can function together, and in fact imply by our order of meeting that only a few gifts (and a few people) are really important? Jean Vanier comments,

“So we have to create structures which encourage everyone to participate, and especially the shy people. Those who have the most light to shed often dare not show it; they are afraid of appearing stupid. They do not recognize their own gift.. perhaps because others haven’t recognized it either.” Community and Growth

To be or not to be a community is not an option for the church. By nature the church is a community and experiences communion. The question before the people of God is: what kind of community will we be?

The New Testament invites us to formulate a theology and practice of communion based on the nature of the Body of Christ. John Driver, Community and Commitment, Herald Press

Sometimes we have to move backward before we can move forward. Sometimes things that seemed good have to die in order for new things to be born. Sometimes we have to live with some uncertainty and chaos before a new order can take shape.

We desperately need to recover a simple and biblical Hebraic (rather than Greek) Christianity. We need to call a prodigal church back to New Testament values and principles. We need to remember the poor. And we desperately need to rediscover community.

My journey and the journey of my friends is not yet finished. We haven’t arrived. We don’t really even have an awful lot to show for the wear and tear to date. We just found out that the car is rusty, the wheels square, and the frame bent. We feel like beginners on the road, where not long ago we thought we had come a long way.

The most difficult challenge of this new journey has been the discovery that it was relatively easy to take ourselves out of the church. It is more difficult to get the church out of us (church in the sense of religion, cultural rules and self-centered ways). In this sense Henri Nouwen was right when he said that, “He who walks the mystical way is called to unmask the illusory quality of human society. No mystic can prevent himself from becoming a social critic, since in self-reflection he will discover the roots of a sick society.” The Way of the Heart.

The joy is that we have a sense of anticipation and hope; hope for ourselves and even for a prodigal church. And in the process of leaving the church, we have not only found the church, but found ourselves. Richard Rohr writes,

“Many .. give up their boundaries before they have them, always seeking their identity in another group, experience, possession or person. “She will make me happy,” or “They will take away my loneliness.” The group may become the substitute for doing the hard work of growing up. It is much easier to belong to a group than it is to know that you belong to God.” Everything Belongs Crossroad Books, p.22.

We are determined not to play church games anymore. We are learning to care for one another, and to take initiative. It takes a long time to get passivity out of our systems.

There are times when I miss what the system gave me: a sense of belonging, a sense of power. I’m having to find a new voice. The desire for recognition dies hard. It is much more difficult to simply serve the people the Lord brings us day by day. The rewards are slower to come, the cost is higher; but if this is all there is to the Cross, what mercy!

I recall years ago hearing someone say that “hospitality is not part of the gospel – it IS the gospel.” We’re learning the deep truth of these words. Jesus invited us into His family. “Church” is something dynamic and mysterious that occurs within us and between us.. “where two or three are gathered,” and not merely in a given time slot on Sunday mornings.

We can no longer count on being fed by a 40 minute sermon each Sunday. We can’t count on a great worship experience every week. Until recently we couldn’t count on a regular gathering. We are learning to anchor our lives in our own devotional places, and learning again how much we need the body. We are learning to take initiative when we need prayer or encouragement, and we’re learning to be pro-active in offering care to others.

My Lord came from heaven to serve. He stepped farther down than I can ever reach. I want to know Him more.

If you are on a journey downward may the Lord walk closely to you. Find some friends on the same path; we aren’t meant to walk this road alone.

Be hospitable. Remember the poor. God go with you.