Category Archives: What Went Wrong

Could it be that the message is wrong?

Are individual believers truly called and commissioned by Christ? Are we all to take the message of the kingdom out into the world? Are we all called to proclaim good news? Does the Lord give each of us authority to cast out demons, heal the sick, and set the captives free (Luke 9)? A careful reading of the book of the gospels makes that conclusion inescapable. We really are called and appointed as servants of the New Covenant. We are all priests of Christ (Hebrews) seated with Him in the heavenlies (Eph.1!) and He has given us His authority (!).

If the problem isn’t with the hearers, and if the message itself is true…then the problem must be either with God or with the messenger, right?

Or is there another alternative? Is the problem with the church system as we know it, this institution which has been around since at least the time of Constantine.

Recently I read Gilbert Bilezikian’s “Community 101.” In his book he states that, “An increasing number of Christians are waking up to the fact that .. the church has become ineffective in fulfilling its mission because it has lost a sense of its own identity as a community. They realize that not every organization that calls itself a church represents the church as Christ conceived it.” He goes on to say that he asked fifty junior and senior college students to write a one sentence definition of the church. He continues,

“Their answers varied from “people who are saved,” and “places of worship” to “opportunity to put on a Sunday disguise” and “sanctified gossip centers.” Not one described the church in terms of community or oneness. It occurred to me that these people had been nurtured in the church without ever understanding the nature of their experience. The church was for them a habit without definition.

They had been trained to do church or play church instead of BEING the church. Is it any wonder that they, like their parents before them, perpetuate the survival of floundering, self absorbed, defensive, stagnant, if not repressive pseudo-churches, thinking all along that they are doing God’s work? Is it any wonder that the world should dismiss the church as irrelevant, treat it as a laughing stock, and view it as a farce instead of a force?” Zondervan, 1997, pp.48-49

Please note an important distinction. The problem is not with “the church” per se. The church is both wheat and tares. The kingdom is like leaven in a lump, it is an invisible reality that sometimes becomes visible. It exists in the hearts of people who are born again and joined together by a bond in the Spirit. The real Temple is composed of living stones.

But the church SYSTEM is a human organization built by man.

www.kennypittman.org

In June of 1958, Gordon Cosby from the Church of the Savior was invited to participate in and to address a meeting of ministers held in Geneva, Switzerland. The subject was “world evangelism,” and the following is an excerpt from his talk.

“One order of ministry is not eternally more valuable than another. It is easy to absolutize the significance of one type of ministry and leave the feeling with many that they are second class members of the body, important only as extensions of official clergy. This I cannot accept.

“One psychological reason for this may be the minister’s inability to be one among a number of equally significant ministers. He may need to be the center of a revolving constellation. He may find it difficult to decrease while another increases. On the other hand, the layman may not really want the responsibility involved in an ordination as a lay minister of Christ and His church.

“Of greatest importance is our own attitude…. Do we believe that the people in our congregation are as vital to the life of the Body as we are? Do we give lip service to the concept of the ministry of all believers while being seriously threatened by the reality of it when these ministries begin to emerge? These are not merely academic questions; there is real threat experienced as the circle of activities in which we excel gets smaller and smaller. Unless we see the ministry of the layman in our world to be as of great a significance as ours, we shall ever be tempted to use him as a lackey in our personal fulfillment.”

www.kennypittman.org

I left the institutional church (IC) in the fall of 2007, with my wife and family. I left because I was convinced that the human organization was not achieving God’s greatest purposes, and in fact could not achieve them, in spite of the fact that God faithfully indwells the people who gather together on Sunday mornings. Well, yes…we also left because the Lord led us out.

I believe that the IC lives a contradiction, saying one thing in its teaching, but another with its structure. “The medium is the message.” As a result, believers are equipped for ministry but never released. Leaders end up controlling the laity rather than empowering them. (For more see Identity and Authority of the Believer).

When I left the IC I was not alone. In the previous six months a number of other families had been making the same journey. But “where” were they going?

In the fall of 2007 I attended a local service where the preacher was sharing some of the early days in the life of a particular church community. He quoted David Ruis’ first sermon, delivered there shortly after the church had been founded. The title was, “Going, but not knowing,” based on the life of Abraham.

If you haven’t peeked into the book of Hebrews recently, I encourage you to do so. It’s difficult to grasp what a life of faith is like while living in our security focused culture. But I am also reminded of some words of Elizabeth O’Connor, one of the founders of the Church of the Savior in Washington, DC. She wrote that “Our security focused culture must be willing to allow that to be brought into being which might fail.”

But the entire structure of Sunday services is to ensure that there are no “failures,” no “glitches,” and that everything flows along smoothly. We take no risks when we meet in such settings. We know where we are going and where we will all arrive. We hope that we will all be together when we get there.

Risk…faith…moving ahead into the unknown.. Which of us really embraces such a journey? We prefer the well worn pathways. And besides, we are “found” and not lost, right? Surely we now have all the answers, right?

They have cradled you in custom,
They have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase
You’re a credit to their teaching–

You are building the kingdom without straw!

www.kennypittman.org

Today, 1700 years [later], we have become so accustomed with the congregational-type church, that many find it hard to even imagine any other form of ”real church life” or ”worship services”. Those historical events created a powerful system, a uniformed pattern, a sanctioned and later even sanctified structure, which has molded the experiences and the mindset of people over long centuries, and has created a distorted picture of church that is not any more true to its original.

This whole process canonized and institutionalized a devastating mediocrity, a middle-of-the road-solution, simply functioning in religious and political correctness of the day. The congregational church became a ”structural lie,” because it paints the right message in the wrong colors, casts the right material in wrong forms, fills the water of life into contaminated bottles, takes the redeemed sinners and forms them into a harmless species of nice churchgoers and program participants. It makes heavenly promises, but does not deliver them on earth. It forgot to focus on the extended family as the building block of Christianity, and settled into occupying religious temples, more or less heavily ornate, reciting worship patterns in a small but solid haven of heaven on earth. Wolfgang Simson, Houses That Change the World

Let’s say you are driving down the road in your car. You’ve been driving on this road with some friends, who are in their own cars. You’ve been on this same road for twenty years.

Suddenly someone suggests that you stop the car and take a look around. Hmm. Novel idea! You do so, and together you pull to the side of the road. For the first time in twenty years you step out of your car. Next you walk a bit of distance away from your vehicles, and together you stand and look at them.

You have never done this before.

You would be struck by a whole number of impressions, including the size and shape and color of the vehicles. You might be struck by how dirty they are.

You might be amazed that what you thought was an average vehicle is old and rusty, with the paint chipping off. You might wonder how the bald tires have ever managed to hold the road.

You might be appalled at the dirty smoke issuing out of the exhaust pipe, producing black choking clouds behind the vehicle.

You might also be struck by the friends now standing nearby. Hmm.. they look just like me! They wear the same clothes, talk the same, and drive the same kind of car.

But the main thing is, this is the first time you have seen the vehicle from the outside. You are going to find yourself on a learning curve. You might wonder why it has four tires, and why they are so small. You might think it would be a good idea to have a tinted windshield next time. You might wonder why you aren’t in a bus, so that you can share the space with friends.

Stepping outside the IC gives a perspective that one cannot have while inside it. A whole host of assumptions are seen for the first time. These presuppositions about the nature of church, ministry, and community are widely held and rarely examined. Some of them prove to be accurate and unchanging; but most of them are temporal, cultural, and bear examination. Some of them don’t really fit well with a New Testament understanding of the church. Square wheels are not a good idea!

THAT is a mouthful. If it doesn’t bring a sense of recognition to your heart, thank God. If it does, it should bring tears to your eyes and a sense of shame. This, my friends, is the state of Jesus body. What are we going to do about it? Will you rise up with the spirit of Jesus as a true warrior and determine not to play church games anymore? Will you stand up and make a difference?