Thursday, February 02, 2006
Slouching Towards Oblivion
Yes, I am making a bit of a play on Robert Bork's now famous book. But I don't wish to discuss the nation - I want to discuss the church. Two recent posts indicate how the church is undergoing much the same trend.
On Monday, Al Mohler looked at a LATimes piece
The GospelDrivenLife looked at some similar things
Over at Out of Ur, Dave Terpstra, pastor at The Next Level Church in Denver looks at six stages of spirtual development and wonders about what happens when people reach the fourth stage.
The problem is one of leadership. Our professional minstering classes, speaking again in generalities, cease seeking spiritual growth they stop leading people and they start leading "the church" - that is to say the institution.
I grow increasingly convinced there is something structurally wrong in how we do church. We have to reorganize how we do things to accomplish two goals. One to make operating the institution a sideline, not THE goal. The other to take advantage of those that reach these levels of maturity. How that will happen will be different for every church, but I think it must start by admitting that is where we need to go.
Related Tags: Christianity, church, institution, maturity, leadership, liberal
On Monday, Al Mohler looked at a LATimes piece
This is a quintessential example of the modern mind at work. First, confuse the reality of God's wrath with human attempts to understand it. Second, dismiss the Bible as antiquated, oppressive, and outdated. Third, suggest that liberation from the Bible's oppressive text now frees us to "grow in God," and to replace the God of the Bible with a vision of deity more in keeping with the spirit of the age.Pretty strong stuff, but not inaccurate.
The GospelDrivenLife looked at some similar things
The Gospel is not renounced -- it is simply pushed to the margins, one small step at a time. We move the Lord Jesus Christ from the center of everything to the focus only of evangelism -- we move from blood bought salvation to self-improvement using the Bible as our textbook -- we move from bible based self-help to secular self-help with a few texts from the Bible -- we make a choice here or there to corrupt the church because we are afraid of angry response -- we move from sanctification to political action.Another excellent observation. What's a Christian to do?
OR we move from redemption centered theology to abstract systematics -- we move from delight in the Savior to mandating and critiquing details of doctrinal agreement -- OR we move to a focus on externals as they key to renewal (be they recovery of former golden days or creation of radical models of the church).
Over at Out of Ur, Dave Terpstra, pastor at The Next Level Church in Denver looks at six stages of spirtual development and wonders about what happens when people reach the fourth stage.
This forth stage is where my experience (and the authors?) reveals the church?s weakness. Speaking in generalities, churches do not specialize in people who have been following Christ for years and who are deeply questioning and reexamining their beliefs. It?s especially difficult when people who reach stage four are in positions of influence and leadership. Churches, from the mega to the mini, are designed to help people mature in the external areas of service and discipleship, not the internal struggles of identity and meaning.Or, may I suggest, they get weird and they "go liberal."
So what happens when people get burnt out on the basic teaching and serving. Some go looking for fresh new content and areas of service. Some discover a new teacher across town who ?really? teaches the Bible. Some discover service to the under-resourced or in foreign countries. While their true need may be for something deeper, they settle for at least something different.
The problem is one of leadership. Our professional minstering classes, speaking again in generalities, cease seeking spiritual growth they stop leading people and they start leading "the church" - that is to say the institution.
I grow increasingly convinced there is something structurally wrong in how we do church. We have to reorganize how we do things to accomplish two goals. One to make operating the institution a sideline, not THE goal. The other to take advantage of those that reach these levels of maturity. How that will happen will be different for every church, but I think it must start by admitting that is where we need to go.
Related Tags: Christianity, church, institution, maturity, leadership, liberal
