More Problems of the Professional Church
I really enjoyed my recent post, The Professional Church. It has generated some good questions and discussion. One person in particular, whom I have just met, raised several good points. Chaz is a fellow believer who is recovering from alcoholism (among other things). Chaz has found great help through AA, and found no help in a local church organization that tried to conquer his problem. Chaz also found no help in the pat answers given by others in his life, remarking that having people lay hands on him (in prayer) multiple times just didn’t do the trick.
And here lies one of the problems with the Professional Church. Because we are Professionals, we can’t help with something such as alcoholism. But we should be able to help. Does helping someone kick a habit/addiction such as alcohol abuse not count as making disciples? Of course it does! But, it’s too messy, too difficult and most churches and pastors are simply untrained in dealing with such problems. In comes AA. That’s what Chaz had to do. He naturally felt that the Church should have the answers. He was right. However, the Church couldn’t give him the answers, so he went to AA. The point is that this is a travesty of the worst kind.
Let’s consider a few things. Did alcohol exist before the 1930s (when AA was established)? Silly question, I know. Of course it existed then. Did addictive behaviors exist before this period of time? Of course they did. So were people ever addicted to alcohol before the AA existed? Yes. So what did an alcoholic do before AA? Believe it or not, at one point the Church was the place to go for help. I don’t have the time to get into all the reasons for this shift, but let’s just call it laziness on the part of many in the Church that we’ve simply passed the buck to someone else. Courtney said, I think just yesterday, that our society’s motto could be “pass the buck.” We don’t like doing things that aren’t easy, fun, etc., and when disciple-making gets dirty, we pass the buck.
Should we kick things like AA? No. Should we get rid of things like crisis pregnancy centers? No. We shouldn’t get rid of anything that helps people deal with the mess of life. If we did, the world would be a worse place. My contention is that someone like Chaz shouldn’t have needed to go to AA. But if AA hadn’t existed, Chaz would likely still be in his sin, because he may never have found one of the few churches who are willing and able to help. What needs to happen is for the Church to stop her specialization and professionalization, stop passing the buck, and start getting to a place that we can make disciples when the situation is difficult. But that might be hard. It might be messy. It might not be fun.
And this ties in with another post from last week, “Called” to the Ministry. We expect a pastor to do everything–I mean, that IS what we pay them for, right? But when we let all of our people exercise their spiritual gifts, bringing all of the Church into the ministry of the gospel, we may find ourselves able to help deal with more stuff. If our teachers and shepherds weren’t spending the majority of their time appeasing the deacon board, sitting in on every committee meeting, swamped with administrative work, and all the other things that he may or may not be gifted to do, they could start allowing themselves to get development in dealing with the down and dirty issues of disciple making. If all of our “lay” members (don’t like the term, but using it for the sake of expediency right now) started exercising their gifts, certainly there are people sitting in pews week after week who could be of great service to the Kingdom and the Church, and more disciple making could go on. But this would take all members of the Church all working together, exercising their gifts.
The other problem with the Professional Church is this. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said for us to let our light shine before men, so they would see our good deeds and praise our Father in Heaven. The glory is to go to God. Period. So what happens when someone comes to the church, addicted to alcohol, and we can’t help them because that doesn’t fall within our speciality? We send them to AA. When AA can help them, who gets the praise and glory? Not the pastor for telling this person where the AA meeting is. No, AA gets the praise and glory.
In one of Chaz’ posts, Discouragement with AA, he makes a couple of interesting statements. Towards the end, he refers to people evangelizing and preaching AA. He also refers to people in AA thinking that AA is “the only way,” and AA was a “life-changing process” for Chaz. Now, I’ve tried to make clear to Chaz, and I want to make clear to anyone reading, that I’m grateful for Chaz’ recovery–period. No qualifications. I’ve seen alcoholism and all its ensuing problems first hand, and I’m very thankful to hear that this brother in Christ is healed.
But notice these statements. AA is “life-changing,” its supporters think of it as “the only way” (in idea Chaz is not fond of), and people actually preach and “evangelize” for AA. Need I connect the dots? What does this sound like? Who is being praised? Who is being glorified? Not God. And why should these people praise God? We’ve given them no reason to do so. They have a serious problem, they see their need, and we turn them to someone else. The Church is to be about making disciples, about showing people Life–and we give that to someone else. So, whose good works are seen before men? AA’s good works, not the Church’s.
So Chaz, God bless you, and I rejoice in your recovery. I know there are several other people who read my blog and will be happy for your healing as well. It’s not an easy road, and a lot of people can’t do it, or don’t even try. And Chaz, I’m sorry. I’m sorry the Church wasn’t there for you. I’m sorry the Church had to send you to another organization. I believe you can still be a light where you are, and I think you are probably trying to be just that. I’m glad for AA, since the Church has lost sight of that aspect of her job. May we kick our specialization and professionalization in the Church, and begin to regain our calling to make disciples and do good works so our Father may be glorified.
Conservatives and the Kingdom of God
I’m taking a class on evangelism with Alvin Reid, who is quite an interesting person. Some of you may remember my experience with a little bad evangelism almost a year ago. Because of experiences such as that, and a preconceived notion of what an evangelism class might be like, I’ve put off taking the class until my last semester here at seminary. Fortunately, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
One of the surprises has been in reading the main textbook for the class. It’s Dr. Reid’s own Introduction to Evangelism, which basically consists of his lectures for the class condensed into an organized, book form. In reading through, there is a lot of theology, and numerous stories to help illuminate the subject. But there is one quote I found that has stuck with me for several days now.
In relation to Jesus’ statement in Mark 1:14-15, “Repent and believe the good news of the Kingdom of God.”
The kingdom of God, the rule of God over all creation, has received little attention by evangelicals. This is due in large part to the emphasis earlier in this century [20th] by more liberal theologians who minimized the future hope of heaven. One example was the realized eschatology of C.H. Dodd. On a practical level, the preaching of the “victorious Christian life” in recent decades among evangelicals has received great attention. There is victory in Jesus, but the focus on believers living victoriously rather than focusing on God–as Jesus did in his preaching of the gospel of the kingdom–should be balanced. The focus of our Lord’s preaching was less on the benefit of the hearer than the honor of the One on whom the message was centered. P. 31-2
No doubt this is true. I grew up as a conservative Southern Baptist, and I don’t recall ever hearing a message about the Kingdom of God. As an adult, being more keenly aware of these types of issues, I don’t recall hearing a message on the Kingdom of God. The few rare times I’ve ever heard about the Kingdom of God from the pulpit have been as it was skimmed over in the reading of Scripture, or as it was glossed over as a passing statement in a sermon.
And, I fear that we conservatives are going to miss the boat again. There is a renewed emphasis on the Kingdom of God today. However, this is coming from the Emerging Church, for the most part. Anyone with vague familiarity of the issues knows that the Emerging movement is not greatly liked by many conservatives. In fact, we love to call them liberals. Granted, some of them are simply rehashing theological liberalism, and many of them would be difficult to fit into the “conservative” category (I know, I know….why must we put people in categories and pigeon hole them….yada, yada yada). But that’s not the case with all. Even if it was, I have to ask, “So what?”
I agree with Dr. Reid about the importance of the Kingdom of God/Heaven in the preaching of Jesus. I agree that this needs to be part of our evangelism–since it was part of Jesus’. The last sermon I preached in my congregation was about the Kingdom of God. I hope to preach on it again at some point. I hope we conservatives can relish in talking about the Kingdom. Why would we not want to talk about God’s rule over all creation? What is liberal about that?
My First Complaint!!!
It finally happened. Courtney and I have been attending this church for just over a year, and I have been the “youth pastor” for 11 months now. I finally received my first complaint. At the end of the summer, our personnel committee (the chosen ones who get to choose the “staff”) did evaluations for all 4 staff members. They sought people out, asking them to evaluate us and give us their comments and concerns. Not one complaint. Our personnel committee meets once a month, every month since before we arrived. In a year’s time, no complaints.
But that’s all changed now. I have now been complained about. I have an official meeting with the personnel committee next Wednesday night to discuss “the complaint.” Serious matter, no doubt. So what’s the complaint? Oh, it’s a doozy. My first official complaint is that I wear sandals to church. GASP!!!!!
Let me paint a picture for you. When the church first called me to interview, I intentionally wore jeans, an untucked polo shirt and sandals. I wanted the members of the committee, the pastor, and the lay members sitting in to know who they were getting. I went like this to every interview. We attended for two months before being voted on. With the exception of one Sunday, I wore this same type of outfit every week. As previously stated, we’ve been there for just over a year, and in approximately 55 Sundays, I’ve probably worn jeans or khakis, an untucked shirt and sandals 45-50 of them.
I recently (maybe 3 weeks ago?) preached a sermon about the foci of the church–everything we do as a response to the gospel and/or an effort to further the mission of God. I talked about the things that distract us from that–I specifically mentioned unwritten, unspoken dress codes. The week after my sermon, our pastor gave what you might call a “state of church address.” He showed where every aspect of the church has been declining–except Wednesday night Bible study (for adults) and the youth numbers (ironically enough), which have both increased. His call was to get to the bottom of the problem and begin to focus on ministering to people–specifically those in the community.
And now, in light of all that, and after a year of me doing this same thing (wearing sandals), someone complains about my wearing sandals. And it’s not just anyone. It would be one thing if it was a random person, or someone who was disconnected from the church. But it’s not. It was the chairman of deacon’s wife (who, by the way, wore sandals last week–two days before she officially brought the complaint to the personnel committee).
I must say, part of me is perturbed by this, and part of me finds humor. But for the most part, I am deeply saddened. We have a church in decline and a community in need (the local food bank has such a high need that they are completely out of food), and all someone can concern themselves with is someone wearing sandals? I’ve preached a handful of sermons, led church prayer time several times, taught the youth in Sunday School and on Wednesday nights for a year, and led a couple of dozen youth activities, and all someone could complain about is sandals? I wish someone would be upset about something I preached to the church or taught the youth. I would love to open that type of conversation. I would love for someone to be concerned with a youth activity–one I did or one I neglected to do. I would love to have that type of feedback on what people thought was best for the teenagers.
The Bible speaks so highly of the beautiful Bride of Christ. What a high calling we’ve been given and a marvelous hope we have! How I wish we wouldn’t forsake it for such trivialities, for such pettiness. Why have people left the church, and why are people not coming (my church, as well as some 300,000+ others in America)? I sincerely doubt it has anything to do with the unspoken Sunday morning dress codes.
Or maybe it does. In fact, I’m sure of it. The reason people are leaving churches and not coming back is because we have chosen to concern ourselves with such petty little matters. When we forsake our high calling to participate in the mission of God and to celebrate what God has done and will do, for a concern over transgressions of the church dress code (or numerous other issues), we have forsaken our calling and duties as the Body of Christ. How I pray that we could refocus our attention and efforts to something of actual importance!
