the gravity of what we have created...

Over a year ago I was able to catch a couple of sessions at a conference of one of my favorite authors. In one of the sessions, he started by asking us to list the top 7 crises, crucial issues, or things we spend a lot of time wrestling with in our individual churches. Then he suggested that we list the top 7 crises in the world today. He went on to ask us to put those two lists side by side. The contrast between the two was his point. Most of the time, if not all of the time, those two lists have nothing in common. In a recent e-mail from his website, he reiterated this point and has seemingly found some new language in describing it.

Many of you will remember the two lists I talked about on the tour - the list of intramural religious debates in the Christian subculture hanging on one wall, and the list of global crises hanging on the other. A year after the EMC tour, it's clearer to me than ever that many if not most Christians in the US remain focused on the "religious arguments" list.
He went on to call this The crisis of purpose - a dysfunctional spirituality system that fails to provide a framing story capable of healing the previous crises. (note: by previous crises he means other global crises he listed earlier in the e-mail) – Brian McLaren

Maybe we are immature. Maybe we are like a child who is engrossed with his toys and all that is within his possession and yet is completely unaware that his father has been out of work for months and that his world is drastically changing around him. For some time, I have been aware of our isolation and self absorbedness within our churches and as McLaren calls it, within our “Christian sub culture.” There are undoubtedly many factors that have created this isolation and fostered this immaturity, but for this post I will look at one: our church paradigm.

Our churches are based on American business models. Find a business model on the internet, plug in words like minister, elder, theology, and worship service in place of CEO, Board, Mission, and product and it will become clear. As I have examined this over time, it has been interesting to explore how finances can control our theology and how theology can impact our finances among other things. Throw some ministers, elders and a little power in the mix and you have the makings for the exact same stories told in the halls of corporations. Just like businesses, we put out products to attract, we market, and we streamline. Some places are much better at it than others.

One of the major issues with this paradigm is that our church businesses have become black holes for resources. Most of the money, time and energy that members have to give away are used up by the churches they are members at. Barring some summer mission trips or random service projects, most of this money, time and energy is spent in house. It is spent on us, on our worship services, and on our ministry programs. The church business requires so much money, time and energy our members are left with no resources to use anywhere outside the church. Unless, they are willing to hold back a bit at the risk of being labeled uncommitted members. Sure, some of that money, time or energy trickles out of the church walls into a mission field or project, but that is often to support another effort to duplicate our business model or “open a new branch.” The churches we have created have in many places (not all) become monkey’s on people’s backs. I’m not talking about the “way of Jesus.” I am talking about the organized institutions of men.

Is there a way for Christians to gather together, to encourage one another in this way of Jesus, to be spiritually and relationally formed and yet not be entirely isolated or wrapped up in our own organizations? Can we find a paradigm that affords us the good things of Christian community and the benefits of the pooling of our resources and yet fosters our engagement in the world and not our isolation from it? Can our list of “intramural religious debates” be traded in for at least a more relevant list?

It will take theological shifts like understanding how the social and spiritual messages of Jesus cannot be separated and paradigm shifts that dismantle our current business model churches and replace them with faith communities that inspire, energize and generate solutions as opposed to burning through resources with little productivity outside of running the business. The question for you and I is, even if we disagree or find ourselves with no immediate answers, will we at least engage in the conversation of finding our way or will we turn away frustrated at “how things are changing” only to have our dying churches eventually slip through our tightly closed fingers leaving us with an empty fist to shake at the world as if it were everyone else’s fault but our own.