Fixing the Institution of "Church"

Mike responded to the "Why I don't go to church anymore" article with some very thoughtful and insightful comments. The main idea centered around the criticism that the author bailed instead of remaining in church and making it better.

Because we find ourself in the bailing position, I find I must defend it. ;-) To be part of the solution, you have to understand the problem AND have the right to address it. I can't go out to my car which is making a funny noise and fix the ball joint (or whatever!) because I don't understand the problem. I'm pretty much just left with a broken car. Some things about the broken church are like that. You go, the sermon sounds good, the music is nice, the people sing at the appropriate times and go through the appropriate motions...but Nobody's Home. The car just isn't going anywhere, and I don't know how to fix it. Staying in that car is silly and of no benefit to anyone.

The authority issue is even more important, though. I can't go to my neighbor's house and say, "Oh, your car is making a funny noise, let me fix that for you," and proceed unbidden to disassemble it and change parts. I can not go to the local church and begin telling people that their leaders are wrong about tithing. I don't have the right to do that. Yet that is a fundamental demonstation of a lack of understanding of the very reason Christ came, and it is an entry into something that will bring self reliance, sin and destruction. A very big broken thing, and it's not my place to fix it.

I think the institutional church is a profoundly broken thing in this phase of history--perhaps in all of history. Christ still moves and works there, but the structure itself thwarts growth. Contrast the experience of exploring your weaknesses and questions with your peers to doing so with your pastor. Especially if what you want to talk about and explore is what he is teaching--things he has already reached conclusions on, and informed you of. If my friend (MIKE!) has come to a conclusion that I don't share, there is no rub. We can keep talking and looking at the scripture and accept each other where we are, and share the goal of worshipping together in Spirit and in Truth. But if I am supposed to be following you, accepting what you say, then it really isn't okay if I don't see in the Bible what you see.

Once upon a time, we were part of a church that had a pastor that was an exceptional teacher. He could lay out a logical sermon like nobody's business. But, by his own testimony, God called him to *pastor* a *relational church.* In short, God was asking him to go beyond the transparency that he was very good with, to even loving people. Listening to them, spending time with them, sharing lives with them. This pastor wrestled and wrestled with God over this, sometimes declaring that God wanted him to engage in it and that he was committed to following, sometimes declaring that it just wasn't who he was and he wasn't going to do it. Which is how our struggles go, wouldn't you say?

The gentile church structure that we engage in totally messed this guy up, separating him from a support structure. As his traveling companions and co-ministers in Christ, we spoke the gentle word of the Father to him, encouraging him to trust and obey. That is our job in each other's lives. However, you cannot encourage your pastor to better love his congregation without a number of people being very mad at you for "touching the Lord's annointed." And of course it is messy, because we do hope that our pastors can be spiritual fathers to us, and it is a personal loss when they are not. But that aside, if we had nothing to gain from his obedience, it was still the will of God that he care for others.

Now, if we stay in relationship that is fettered with the heirarchical approach of traditional church organizations, is there any way to really be of benefit to this man? No, to call him to obey the voice of God is insubordination. It doesn't work because pride is involved, and expectations.

How can a structure that promotes and praises men when they do well encourage believers to mature by dying to themselves and becoming more abased? How in the world is a disciple to grasp "the last shall be first" when the greatest among us is not the servant of all? I hope I don't sound ungrateful to the hard work that preachers and pastors do, I have great admiration for their devotion. But I feel for them. The church machine runs the opposite way they are trying to go. They need to lead people into relationship: the form tends to isolate them from truly sharing their lives. They need to lead people into laying down their lives, but the form puts their name in lights and says wear the right suit.

Mike also points out that if you pull your hand from the hot stove and leave the building, sometimes the building bursts into flames and causes destruction. He encourages folks to stay in and be caring, concerned builders that would make the building sound. My feeling is often that the building is already in blazes and my emotions are not of calm concern but of alarm when I see what is happening in church. Hard to function helpfully in the burning building.