Uncovering an Ethos - Part 4
Last time I mentioned that simplicity has the potential to challenge some of our most deeply held assumptions about what it means to be the church. Over the past five or six years, the most controversial questions that I and others around me have wrestled with typically fall under one of these four subjects: leadership, structure, commitment, and money.
There is a reason I have chosen to wait until now to talk about these subjects in this series of posts on the ethos of our community (I'll deal with the first two in this post). They are the proverbial tail that wags the dog when it comes to people rediscovering what it means to be the church in our day and age. There has been so much ink spilled and breath wasted on these topics that I almost want to cut this discussion short and say, "That's enough for now!" However, I want to reiterate that all of this is written from a local perspective and requires some unpacking for those of us journeying together.
In the first post in this series I said, "We can no longer just sit around and learn about what Jesus said, or debate his words, or just put them into nice worship songs. The Way of Jesus must be attempted or it is not a Way at all." This aspect of our ethos is the hinge point on which all the other aspects I've discussed either succeed or fail. Either we follow Jesus - the intelligent, passionate, holy, loving, alive Jesus, or we follow Jesus the icon, the ideal, or the idol. If we follow the real Jesus, he has a habit of reorganizing our priorities around his, which are not easily managed. If we are to believe C.S. Lewis, Jesus is not safe...but he is good.
The simplicity of following Jesus causes us to reorder what we think is important about church and the Christian life. How important is leadership, structure, commitment, or money? For some, they are what makes church church. "Without vision, my people perish!" is the leadership slogan. What happens during the Sunday morning meeting has probably split more churches and denominations than anyone would care to admit. Defining who is "in" and who is "out" could almost qualify as the national pastime among Christians. And do I even need to say anything about money? Money is, next to theological differences, the most divisive force among Christians around the world today. Truly, nothing new is under the sun.
I can attest to the fact that a healthy, loving, caring, and passionate community of Christians can exist without making these subjects primary concerns. In fact, I will argue (again, not to convince anyone, but rather to simply report on what I have seen and experienced) that if these subjects are of secondary importance, they find their rightful home within the church and among followers of Jesus.
Leadership happens within our community in a myriad of different ways and forms. Attempting to assign "leader" and "follower" labels to people at this point would be absurd. If anything, in the New Testament all the titles we typically think synonymous with leadership are most always associated with sacrificial acts of service. When leadership happens, it is to the end of serving the community, of giving oneself for the betterment of others. The person leading in that instance does not expect anything in return - power, title, status, or even a pat on the back. It's all about the community, stupid.
But, you may ask, what about complex issues such as authority or church discipline? Of course, things are never neat and clean when there are sinners involved, which would include all of us. Again, that is why leadership exists as a service to the community as directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit, not through our own structures or abilities. A while back I wrote something about this and summarized the thought with this quote: "Authority expressed by the Spirit through a community committed to maturity in Christ." Although we are sinners, we are not children, and just as God has commissioned us to lead our families and look for the Spirit's guidance in all our family affairs, so we are to do the same for one another.
Likewise, the structure of church has become way too important in the minds of many Christians, particularly leaders. How one "does church" is supposedly a pathway to understanding the genetic code, the DNA if you will, of a faith community. Judging a church's quality of life within, depth of relationship, or passion for God's kingdom by analyzing how a church organizes their gatherings is a dangerous path to tread.
In our community, we have always attempted to place our gatherings in their proper context. Let me give an example. One of my favorite analogies about our community is that when we gather, it is like attending a family reunion. There are some at the reunion who you see on a regular basis - brothers, sisters, moms and dads. There are others you see less occasionally, but are still your family - great aunts and second cousins. Food is served, stories are told, music is played, the old (great-granddaddy and grandmama) and the weak (the newborns and rambunctous three year olds) are honored. There is laughter, arguments, and serious talks about serious family business. But at the center of this gathering is the fact that you are one family. Imagine if you were to wander uninvited into someone's family reunion and heard an argument or a terse conversation. Or you saw Uncle Billy over in the corner having one too many beers. Does that disqualify a family from being a family? Of course not, because we all live with the realities of sin within our own families...yet we still belong.
This is church-family. This is Peter and Paul having a "sharp disagreement" and parting ways, or Paul opposing Peter "to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong." These were the patriarchs of the first Christian family, not getting along like nice boys should. However, this is the stuff of real family, or - dare I say it - authentic community. Structure is always subject to these raw, organic family interactions.
There is some necessary structure to support family. However, it doesn't have to be all that complicated and certainly should be nothing anyone frets about too much. A few years ago, I began to describe this structure as an "upside-down umbrella". Instead of attempting to create an infrastructure capable of "covering" an array of ministries, programs, and initiatives, why not turn the umbrella upside-down so it serves people, rather than people serving it?
Structure and leadership among disciples of Jesus are not tasks to be farmed out to professionals. They are also not to be ignored. Over the years our community has been profoundly influenced by the example of Alcoholics Anonymous as a structure to (in their words) stay focused on a primary purpose. For AA, that purpose is to keep carrying its message to the alcoholic that still suffers. For us, it is carrying the message of God's kingdom and all it entails to both addict and otherwise, to those who "have it all" and those who have nothing. Like AA, only a simple skeleton is necessary to keep redirecting us back to our primary purpose.
Footnote: If you have a few spare moments, go read AA's 12 traditions and consider what a community of faith might look like if it followed them.
There is a reason I have chosen to wait until now to talk about these subjects in this series of posts on the ethos of our community (I'll deal with the first two in this post). They are the proverbial tail that wags the dog when it comes to people rediscovering what it means to be the church in our day and age. There has been so much ink spilled and breath wasted on these topics that I almost want to cut this discussion short and say, "That's enough for now!" However, I want to reiterate that all of this is written from a local perspective and requires some unpacking for those of us journeying together.
In the first post in this series I said, "We can no longer just sit around and learn about what Jesus said, or debate his words, or just put them into nice worship songs. The Way of Jesus must be attempted or it is not a Way at all." This aspect of our ethos is the hinge point on which all the other aspects I've discussed either succeed or fail. Either we follow Jesus - the intelligent, passionate, holy, loving, alive Jesus, or we follow Jesus the icon, the ideal, or the idol. If we follow the real Jesus, he has a habit of reorganizing our priorities around his, which are not easily managed. If we are to believe C.S. Lewis, Jesus is not safe...but he is good.
The simplicity of following Jesus causes us to reorder what we think is important about church and the Christian life. How important is leadership, structure, commitment, or money? For some, they are what makes church church. "Without vision, my people perish!" is the leadership slogan. What happens during the Sunday morning meeting has probably split more churches and denominations than anyone would care to admit. Defining who is "in" and who is "out" could almost qualify as the national pastime among Christians. And do I even need to say anything about money? Money is, next to theological differences, the most divisive force among Christians around the world today. Truly, nothing new is under the sun.
I can attest to the fact that a healthy, loving, caring, and passionate community of Christians can exist without making these subjects primary concerns. In fact, I will argue (again, not to convince anyone, but rather to simply report on what I have seen and experienced) that if these subjects are of secondary importance, they find their rightful home within the church and among followers of Jesus.
Leadership happens within our community in a myriad of different ways and forms. Attempting to assign "leader" and "follower" labels to people at this point would be absurd. If anything, in the New Testament all the titles we typically think synonymous with leadership are most always associated with sacrificial acts of service. When leadership happens, it is to the end of serving the community, of giving oneself for the betterment of others. The person leading in that instance does not expect anything in return - power, title, status, or even a pat on the back. It's all about the community, stupid.
But, you may ask, what about complex issues such as authority or church discipline? Of course, things are never neat and clean when there are sinners involved, which would include all of us. Again, that is why leadership exists as a service to the community as directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit, not through our own structures or abilities. A while back I wrote something about this and summarized the thought with this quote: "Authority expressed by the Spirit through a community committed to maturity in Christ." Although we are sinners, we are not children, and just as God has commissioned us to lead our families and look for the Spirit's guidance in all our family affairs, so we are to do the same for one another.
Likewise, the structure of church has become way too important in the minds of many Christians, particularly leaders. How one "does church" is supposedly a pathway to understanding the genetic code, the DNA if you will, of a faith community. Judging a church's quality of life within, depth of relationship, or passion for God's kingdom by analyzing how a church organizes their gatherings is a dangerous path to tread.
In our community, we have always attempted to place our gatherings in their proper context. Let me give an example. One of my favorite analogies about our community is that when we gather, it is like attending a family reunion. There are some at the reunion who you see on a regular basis - brothers, sisters, moms and dads. There are others you see less occasionally, but are still your family - great aunts and second cousins. Food is served, stories are told, music is played, the old (great-granddaddy and grandmama) and the weak (the newborns and rambunctous three year olds) are honored. There is laughter, arguments, and serious talks about serious family business. But at the center of this gathering is the fact that you are one family. Imagine if you were to wander uninvited into someone's family reunion and heard an argument or a terse conversation. Or you saw Uncle Billy over in the corner having one too many beers. Does that disqualify a family from being a family? Of course not, because we all live with the realities of sin within our own families...yet we still belong.
This is church-family. This is Peter and Paul having a "sharp disagreement" and parting ways, or Paul opposing Peter "to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong." These were the patriarchs of the first Christian family, not getting along like nice boys should. However, this is the stuff of real family, or - dare I say it - authentic community. Structure is always subject to these raw, organic family interactions.
There is some necessary structure to support family. However, it doesn't have to be all that complicated and certainly should be nothing anyone frets about too much. A few years ago, I began to describe this structure as an "upside-down umbrella". Instead of attempting to create an infrastructure capable of "covering" an array of ministries, programs, and initiatives, why not turn the umbrella upside-down so it serves people, rather than people serving it?
Structure and leadership among disciples of Jesus are not tasks to be farmed out to professionals. They are also not to be ignored. Over the years our community has been profoundly influenced by the example of Alcoholics Anonymous as a structure to (in their words) stay focused on a primary purpose. For AA, that purpose is to keep carrying its message to the alcoholic that still suffers. For us, it is carrying the message of God's kingdom and all it entails to both addict and otherwise, to those who "have it all" and those who have nothing. Like AA, only a simple skeleton is necessary to keep redirecting us back to our primary purpose.
Footnote: If you have a few spare moments, go read AA's 12 traditions and consider what a community of faith might look like if it followed them.
posted by Mike Bishop at 6:31 PM
3 Comments:
AA saved my life. The church could learn SO much from both the 12 Steps and the 12 Traditions.
dude that was an awesome read
The writers are closer to the A.A. picture than they may realize. Early A.A. in Akron was, and was called, a Christian Fellowship. Its simple pattern involved five points: (1) Abstinence. (2) Reliance on the Creator for strength, guidance, and help. (3) Obedience to His will by walking in love and eliminating sinful conduct. (4) Growth in fellowship with God, His son, and believers through Bible study, prayer, seeking guidance, and reading. (5) Helping others get straightened out. These ideas came primarily from the Christian Endeavor Society of Dr. Bob's youth. In the backdrop was recommended religious and social comradeship with like-minded believers. The "church" for Christians is the body of Christ to which all, Jew and Gentile alike, belong by reason of their relationship through the spirit of God. The Book of Acts describes the fellowship of the first century as abiding by the apostle's doctrine, breaking bread together, praying together, studying the word together, and sharing. Early A.A. resembled that in Akron, and perhaps that is how the writers might look at it. God Bless, Dick B. http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml. And see Real Twelve Step History.
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