Tony at theoblogy just out and out says it…
More and more of us are now convinced that something new cannot happen within the existing organizations and institutions. They are irredeemably reified into patterns of institutional conservatism and survival; they are irredeemably sold out to market forces and have thus commodified the radical, liberating message of the gospel.
His entire post is even more direct. You can read it here.
Comments
4 responses to “Sold Out Church Institution”
I mostly disagree with Tony. I appreciate that he can see the problems of the heirachical, man-honoring system of the establishment and its sometimes stifling effect on the Message of Jesus. There are problems. I agree. But his blanket statements using words like “irredeemably” are misguided. His tone is harsh and blinded by his own judgement of his narrow experience. I sense he thinks he is following Jesus in doing something like overturning the money changer’s tables in the temple. I’ve heard a lot of this kind of thing. But to say a group of people are disqualified from God doing anything new among them is base ignorance. I am a hardlined house churcher that can barely stand traditional structures for myself, but I think this kind of arrogant trashing of the traditional establishment is based on ignorance of what God has done throughout the history of the church. He speaks admittedly with the voice of the disenfranchised. But the result is blanket statements about the greater church based on his extremely narrow experience. Church history shows a parallel existence of large structures and smaller disciplship bands. God uses them both in different capacities. Read “The two structures of God’s redemptive mission” by Ralph Winter as an excellent example.
In Russia you can sometimes read articles about America in smaller newspapers that describe America as a place full of orange trees that drop fruit on the sidewalk and no one cares about the wasted fruit. Well, the journalist writing the article visited America once and never went far outside the Florida neighborhood where she stayed. Naturally, her blanket judgements to the rest of her countrymen were misguided. I consider Tony’s blog entry in this catagory.
Now, I don’t know Tony nor his experience. But mine has shown me that while there are strong legitimate criticisms against the traditional church, there are also huge gaping exceptions (and I would say blanket exclusions) for large sections of what God is doing through the church internationally. But a constant remains true: that it is not our place to call anyone or anything “irredeemable”. That is God’s business.
We shouldn’t align ourselves with the Accuser of the bretheren until we have fully aligned ourselves with the Intercessor on their behalf. Such a posture of humility and prayer with Christ might yeild more redemption and regeneration than any of us could ever expect to achieve by throwing down a thousand gauntlets.
The bottom line is that if we are led to pursue something new, then pursue it with Christ-ward abandon, but leave other people’s calling between them and God. Larger structures are part of God’s plan too. Not all of them are wrong. None of them are irredeemable.
That’s very nice. So we can go ahead and pursue something new, just don’t dirty up anyone else’s deal. Because isn’t that what church has become – someone else’s deal? Tony isn’t aligning himself with the “Accuser of the Brethren”, he is producing a bona-fide complaint, a piercing truth is being exposed here. This is necessary discourse I think. Tony goes on to say, “…we are on a quest to unmask how the gospel has been used to serve the often (oppresive) interests of those who are already in charge….We have been disenfranchised.” Isn’t this the heart of it? Narrow view? Luther started this. There are many warnings in the New Testament about just this sort of thing. The church is us, we don’t belong to leaders, we belong to Jesus Christ. We must arise from our slumber and actually be what we are called to be, or someone else will “take us by force”. True leadership leads by example. Many of the examples I see and hear are big on words but their lifestyles don’t resemble Jesus in any way (they seem to equip their own ministry instead of the saints). I’m talking about most big-tent ministries and churches. Even many small-timers I’ve seen “live above” the people instead of serving them and relating to them. Of course, there are some fine Christ-like shepherd leaders out there and I think they would also concur that we need to take personal responsibility for the church community we live in.
I guess mentioning “the Accuser of the bretheren” is a little over the top. I would withdraw that statement if I could. I want to strive toward unity in this. I agree it is an important conversation. Let me reaffirm that for the most part, I agree with the heart of what Tony said. However I think that organized structures do have a purpose, but man has missed the mark and tried to use a dump truck to deliver a paper route (to use a grossly inadequate analogy). But we can work toward correcting the problem without taking steps toward deligitmizing many truly Christlike indiviudals with genuine callings to serve a larger group. I agree whole-heartedly that making them into celebrities is wrong, but there are good humble people needed to serve in larger structures. The argument should be over the proper use of the larger structure and not whether or not there should be any businesslike structure at all. I contend that it does have its proper place in the Kingdom. I wrote more about this conversation in a blog entry here: http://www.milkfusion.com/milk/fusion.php?id=P178
This is good discussion. I certainly agree that in our zeal to make corrections, or progress, or to simply get the truth out that we not lose that which motivates us in the first place – Jesus and His God-man quality. You make good points in milkfusion, Chris. It isn’t really about size anyway. It is getting the real life of Christ, through Holy Spirit, in us deeply. I see similar problems of larger church groups in our small house church also. It really lies in us as individuals who are part of a community. We simply struggle the relationship thing. It’s hard work (like marriage). Most people just don’t want to sweat it out so they continue to take the easier, softer way.The revolution is internal and it will break out. It’s not simply structure or structural – it’s always been spirit and spiritual. Those who are truly aligned with God will soon be busting loose with a new outpouring of energy that will effectively change the status quo. We all see it! It’s God and we are in the middle of it. Each of us must continue to seek and find, ask and recieve, knock and go in the opened door. It’s not in our hands, we are in His.