Thursday, January 18, 2007
An Answer To My Question
Back in early December, I presented a startling Dallas Willard quote that presented quite a condemnation upon the church, and I posed a question about how to make it better. Bonnie at Intellectuele has taken a shot at answering my query. Good points all, but sadly, I just keep pondering this.
As a bit of a refresher, Willard contends that people that have undergone genuine Christian transformation will be viewed as a "hinderance to the process" of operating a church. This, needless to say, raises very grave concerns about the church and I wondered how we could change it.
Here is a corollary to the question: How does one actively seeking genuine transformation operate as a leader in such a setting?
The question is very real, and I am betting a number of my readers know exactly what I am driving at. If Willard is right, and I think he is on this point, a person seeking genuine transformation will be viewed as a hinderance, and thus shunned from the power necessary for leadership. It would appear that conformance is necessary to be an effective leader, but in so doing we sacrifice what it is we wish to lead people to.
Are the truly transformed deemed to also be an undercurrent in the church? Some times I wonder, but then God has indeed called us to bring His gospel to the whole world, something we can hardly do while moving about in a black market in the greater religious economy.
Then consider this. In a book called "Evangelicals in the Public Square", Afterword author Jean Bethke Elshtain writes the following concerning Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
This still begs the question of how to be an effective leader in such a church. How can I work out my own transformation while compromising it in the mission of the church?
In the end I can but shrug my shoulders and rest confident in the fact that God's judgement is far more complex than the formulas we devise. I can but follow the dictates of my heart and my Lord as I hear Him.
Related Tags: transformation, church, dilemma, dirty hands
As a bit of a refresher, Willard contends that people that have undergone genuine Christian transformation will be viewed as a "hinderance to the process" of operating a church. This, needless to say, raises very grave concerns about the church and I wondered how we could change it.
Here is a corollary to the question: How does one actively seeking genuine transformation operate as a leader in such a setting?
The question is very real, and I am betting a number of my readers know exactly what I am driving at. If Willard is right, and I think he is on this point, a person seeking genuine transformation will be viewed as a hinderance, and thus shunned from the power necessary for leadership. It would appear that conformance is necessary to be an effective leader, but in so doing we sacrifice what it is we wish to lead people to.
Are the truly transformed deemed to also be an undercurrent in the church? Some times I wonder, but then God has indeed called us to bring His gospel to the whole world, something we can hardly do while moving about in a black market in the greater religious economy.
Then consider this. In a book called "Evangelicals in the Public Square", Afterword author Jean Bethke Elshtain writes the following concerning Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
The portion of Kant that so agitated Bonhoeffer was in a discussion of lying, where Kant argues that one is obliged always to tell the truth. If someone who is seeking to harm a friend of yours knocks on your door asking for his whereabouts, and your firend is hidden on the premises, then you are obliged to turn your friend over. You are not permitted to lie; telling the truth is a categorical imperative. You cannot lie or try to deceive the person who means to harm your friend. But Bonhoeffer says that at that point the moralist turns into a tormenter of humanity. Better to lie and spare your friend, to smudge yourself with the hard complexities of the world. Those are the kinds of moral dilemmas that interest me as a political thinker.Is this analogous to the dilemma I described above? Is the church called to forsake the whole power of the gospel for the sake of it advancing at least a little?
Bonhoeffer wrestles with the problem of "dirty hands." When we act in the world, we cannot control the consequences of our actions. People respond to our actions in ways that we can neither predict nor control. So, Bonhoeffer asks, do we remain in a position of purity, above the fray, where we can bask in our own virtuousness? Or do we enter the fray, knowing that it is likely to get us dirty? We cannot remain absolutely pure.
This still begs the question of how to be an effective leader in such a church. How can I work out my own transformation while compromising it in the mission of the church?
In the end I can but shrug my shoulders and rest confident in the fact that God's judgement is far more complex than the formulas we devise. I can but follow the dictates of my heart and my Lord as I hear Him.
Related Tags: transformation, church, dilemma, dirty hands
