No darkness
at all...
Leaving the Church?
It's another Sunday morning at the church on the corner. For the tenth time in two years I am listening to a message on the identity and authority of the believer. I look around and see that, as usual, people are enjoying the message. Afterward, I talk with a few people who say, "What a good word that was!"
By the next Sunday, most have forgotten it. I ask a few, "Do you remember the sermon from last week?"
Out of four questions, I get three blank stares. A fourth question brings a semi-coherent response. How can anyone remember last week? Our lives are filled with information. I feel like St. Francis in "Brother Sun, Sister Moon," as he listened to the uncomprehending Bernardo..
"Words, Bernardo. There was a time when I believed in words."
None of these are walking in more authority than last week, and in many cases no more victory. No lives have changed. Some of those who heard the message continue to struggle with a sense of calling. Others long ago gave up the struggle. Still others have found their place in ministry within the walls, whether it is setting up chairs, teaching Sunday school, or leading small groups. But most could not identify their ministry, though they might identify some of their gifts. Few of these have any idea what it means to walk in the authority of Christ.
What's the problem? Is the problem with the messenger? Is it the message itself? Is the problem with the people, or with God? Why do we hear the same message again and again yet our lives remain the same? Why do most of God's people sit passively Sunday after Sunday, never really "knowing" what ministry and the kingdom are about, because after all “knowing” in the biblical sense has to do with life and experience and not merely information we store in our heads.
The Problem
Suddenly aware of the convoluted structure of the IC and the cultural nature of assumptions commonly held, we began to discover a new freedom and authority. We began to look again at our identity in Christ. By whose authority do I presume to proclaim Jesus to my neighbor? By the authority of the church on the corner, or by Jesus direct commission to all His disciples? By what authority do I question established thinking like that above? What does it mean to be a priest and directly connected to the head? How do I fit in the body now? Who and where is my "church?" All this soul searching, and searching of the Scriptures, can be exhausting!
A New Perspective
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?
The IC vs Families of Faith
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, just as they are ignorant of the true condition of the car they are driving. How can they know its condition when they have never stepped outside it? 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?
A long time ago I studied counseling. One of my professors warned 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.
Last fall my wife traveled to a conference to assist in the prayer ministry there. She has been used very effectively by the Lord in women's groups. Called on spontaneously to do workshops on spiritual and emotional healing, she proceeded to lead two sessions. In spite of the good things that happened, the high point was at the end of her second workshop.
As she was finishing and women around the circle were sharing, the turn came for a young lady seated beside her. This woman was mentally challenged.
She said, "I just came because my spiritual mother came. And I just love the Lord. And I know he is healing me because I can walk better today, and my arthritis isn't hurting me so much. And I just love Jesus and all he has done for me."
When she shared this the Spirit suddenly came in power, and my wife found herself weeping and rejoicing in the goodness of God. God didn't need her to elaborate, my wife didn't need to do or say a thing more, and the simple words of this woman of faith said it all.
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
Back to the Future
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.
by Len Hjalmarson
