Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Being Authentic
Scot McKnight, writing at "Out of Ur" wonders about the personality nature of some churches:
But the movement is largely reactionary - reacting to pastors that have hidden behind the veil of their office, that have acted in an unearned, authoritarian fashion, and that have failed to model the cycle of sin, confession, and grace that we all are called to live under. The buzz word would be "authentic."
The problem is we confuse "authentic" with "cool" and "forgiven" with "attractive."
Young Life suffers from this personality driven stuff quite a bit - at least it did in my day. It can be a huge problem. It can leave the "uncool" on the outs - it models a faith walk of cultural conformity instead of grace-filled forgiveness. But it has the distinct advantage of making a walk with Christ something that I can experience in other than abstraction.
The key is to find a way to take the attributes McKnight proclaims, and live with them amongst instead of apart.
Tall order indeed - it calls for much prayer and humility.
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Recently I saw a church’s website where instead of finding “Pastors” or “Staff” it listed “Personalities.” A click-through revealed the “personalities” of these personalities, or at least the “personalities” these people wanted others to see. I don’t recall all the details, but I read things about what they ate for breakfast and what they’d do if they weren’t doing their church jobs. It went on and on, but I had had enough so I clicked the red X at the top and went to my favorite chair and just wondered awhile.OK, I think Scot is over-reacting a bit here, but not too much. There is definitely a movement for the pastor to be "the coolest guy in the room" amongst many. That is a huge problem. Christ does not call us to be cool, he calls us to be better.
I wondered about the way I was nurtured that led me to be offended and shocked by any pastor permitting himself to be displayed this way on the church’s website. My upbringing had taught me certain things about a pastor:
First, it is a sacred calling to be yanked from sin into the place of not only receiving grace but dispensing it. [...]
Second, it is a noble calling to be a leader of God’s people in this world. [...]
Third, it requires a commitment to reverence both before God and about the task of pastoring. [...]
Fourth, above all pastors are to be examples of the mortification of the self and the flesh.
But the movement is largely reactionary - reacting to pastors that have hidden behind the veil of their office, that have acted in an unearned, authoritarian fashion, and that have failed to model the cycle of sin, confession, and grace that we all are called to live under. The buzz word would be "authentic."
The problem is we confuse "authentic" with "cool" and "forgiven" with "attractive."
Young Life suffers from this personality driven stuff quite a bit - at least it did in my day. It can be a huge problem. It can leave the "uncool" on the outs - it models a faith walk of cultural conformity instead of grace-filled forgiveness. But it has the distinct advantage of making a walk with Christ something that I can experience in other than abstraction.
The key is to find a way to take the attributes McKnight proclaims, and live with them amongst instead of apart.
Tall order indeed - it calls for much prayer and humility.
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