Wednesday, November 29, 2006
On Church Structure
I am falling in love with this post from GospelDrivenLife. Lauterbach is discussing how to structure the church and how it affects genuine ministry. Needless to say, as a Prebyterian, I am going to resonate with his call to a larger context than just the local congregation.
I wish I could defend my Presbyterianism on the basis of "It's working...," but right now it's not, at least not in the PC(USA) - it is, by the way, working better in some of the other Presbyterian denominations, but at the moment I can only defend on that basis of theory, and Lauterbach has here presented a pretty good theory.
I think, in the end, my point is this - don't throw out the baby with the bath water. The Prebyterian form of church structure is a good thing, it is hard, but it is good. Leaving it behind in the dust is not the way to go in a crisis - doing the hard work is. The hard work means first learning the humility and other fruits on a personal level and then being a person hard at work in the structure, often hard dull boring work, to make it work like it should.
Related Tags: church government, structure, Fruit of the Spirit, faith, church
My experience in autonomous churches was that they may have interpreted their autonomy as self-sufficiency. What I mean by that is that they did not think they needed help -- that they could handle their own problems just fine, thank you. And the doctrine of autonomy actually created structures of cooperation that were so informal and loose that they meant very little in practice, especially in times of distress.I think he is right on about the blind spots and the need for other viewpoints. But when he talks about decline, that applies as much, even more to the highly structured denominations. There is more to the question than just having the structures in place to provide for the new viewpoint. I think he finds it in his penultimate paragraph
Here is where autonomy fails; the local church -- isolated, by itself, sufficient for all problems it faces, sufficient to diagnose all diseases of sin and apply all appropriate Gospel remedies -- that local church does not exist. Not only is sin deceitful in individuals, it is deceitful in groups. The doctrine of sin leads me to think that when redeemed sinners, with indwelling sin at work in them all, get together -- they come up with universal blind spots -- they agree to cover certain sin -- they agree to turn a blind eye to certain problems -- they agree to a basic mis-emphasis. And they agree without talking -- usually by NOT talking, not questioning, not confronting. It is a sort of "I will let you get away with that if you let me get away with that."
Look around folks -- there are churches in long term decline, with members drifting away in disillusionment, with splits and angry departures -- and their problems are diagnosable and treatable in the good of the Gospel. They do not need new structures -- they need external Gospel eyes -- objective eyes to look at their situation.
This is no silver bullet. I do not wish to be simplistic. There are differing philosophies of ministry. Structures and counsel may not be in place in other settings -- but leaders can lead and nurture people in humility, in the value of seeking evaluation and correction, and some churches may experience the Gospel and its work in ways that will renew their life. If you believe in the autonomy of the local church, also value humility and the need for outside counsel. Look for self-sufficiency.I know that my own failing, but highly structured denomination is failing not because of a lack of outside counsel, but because of a lack of humility and many other fruits of the Spirit.
I wish I could defend my Presbyterianism on the basis of "It's working...," but right now it's not, at least not in the PC(USA) - it is, by the way, working better in some of the other Presbyterian denominations, but at the moment I can only defend on that basis of theory, and Lauterbach has here presented a pretty good theory.
I think, in the end, my point is this - don't throw out the baby with the bath water. The Prebyterian form of church structure is a good thing, it is hard, but it is good. Leaving it behind in the dust is not the way to go in a crisis - doing the hard work is. The hard work means first learning the humility and other fruits on a personal level and then being a person hard at work in the structure, often hard dull boring work, to make it work like it should.
Related Tags: church government, structure, Fruit of the Spirit, faith, church
