Over at Catapult Magazine, I left a multi-paragraph rant in the Life Abundant discussion:
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The Church today seems to function like a market economy. Every church provides specific products and services. They have unique storefronts. They have their own branding campaigns. Choosing a church in my town is exactly like choosing a grocery store. Every church, like every grocery store, is aiming to create loyal customers.
This means churches in my town want me to devote my time and money to their programs. It is a market economy. Today the Baptists are having a sale on children’s worship. The Presbyterians have a two million dollar organ. The Methodists hired a rock band. The Bible church buys books for adults who attend Sunday school. If you’re looking for Jesus, there’s a new deal on every corner. Even the Catholics have SoulWow. (I love that video, actually.)
Market economies are always based on scarcity. So there’s the answer.
Unfortunately, the myth of scarcity is only partially a myth. So many of the churches in our community have created financial obligations for themselves—with large building notes and high overhead. They need a steady influx of donations in order to remain afloat. This means that membership drives have become as much about meeting our financial needs as they are about helping people grow in their relationship with God.
Oh boy, do I sound cynical.
That is coming from several places. We’re still committed to our local church community. What can I say, we l0ve those folks even if we’re going through a dark time personally. They have been so supportive of us in so many ways, even though they do not claim to understand our perspective.
Here’s the rub. Reading Unchristian and other books, combined with my personal experience with church of late, has caused me to really question what the church is all about.
My good friend Mark D. Roberts has given me a lot to chew on. I haven’t made it through all of his material on church, yet. But I’m working through it slowly.
Some other folks I know are having similar struggles. A few of them asked for links to the specific material I’m getting from Mark. So here it is:
- What is a church? Biblical Basics for Christian Community (2006) includes a detailed and insightful discussion of ekklesia.
- Choosing a Church: Some Recommendations (2008) is helping us think through our expectations of church. We’re visiting around, but not because we plan on leaving our community at First Baptist Kerrville.
- Church . . . What Really Matters (2004) is especially interesting because it reveals a lot about how Mark has grown as a writer. Still good stuff here.
- Letting Go of a Church (2007) details the process of grieving his family went through when they moved from Irvine to Laity Lodge. It is a good warning to people who are thinking of leaving a church because they are angry or disappointed.
- The Church as the Body of Christ (2008) discusses the current failings of the American churches.
- The Growing Church: A Bible Study in Ephesians 4 (2008) is Mark’s address to the PCUSA General Assembly last summer. While it assumes an audience of ordained pastors, it has a lot of insight for laity as well.
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Cynical? Maybe. But pretty good dose of realistic, too. “Church” has become one option among many, and within that option, we cater and market with our smorgasbord. We’re losing our way. I think its roots are deeper than paying the bills (like, how did we get ourselves in up to our ears in the first place), but that’s sure a part of it. Thanks for putting up the links, will be checking them out.
I have a pragmatic view of things in a way. Church is both an organism and an organization (or institution). Marriage is also this way, too. When we put church in only one of these categories or lean heavily on one we have a problem that either makes our movements flash in the pans too volatile to last or dinosaurs working on self-preservation. (This is like Jesus being human and divine, perhaps.)
The reality is that bad marriages do not make the institution of marriage invalid. The same is true of the local church. It just means they are bad at times, but the design and function is still valid and relevant. God has to save marriage, and His redemption is also needed in the local church.
I believe that a more transparent view of the flaws of being too institutional at times might go a long ways to remedy things. This means leadership of the local church has to be willing to be fallible and humble in their roles and not fight to keep their paychecks or buildings.
I share the ache here. We were members of one church for 15 years. About 11 years along the way, a handful of elders decided our church was the next Willow Creek, and began a shift to becoming “Seeker-focused.” But they wouldn’t tell the congregation — just kept making change after change. We stayed about three years longer than we should have. An exodus started, which we eventually joined. The church gradually lost almost half the congregation, one family here, two families over there. It has yet to recover.
We landed at a conservative congregation. Things had been fine, until some decisions started being made about how to attract the 15- to 30-year-old “demographic.” Deja vu all over again. We’re overreacting, of course, a reflection of the pain from the first experience.
I don’t know what we’re going to do. My wife, who was a lot smarter about this than I was (am), is ready to bail. She understood what was happening at the first church long before I did. I kept beating my head against the wall, spending enormous amounts of time and energy thinking I could help elders and pastors see what was happening. I was ineffective, stupid, or both. This time, I’ll figure something else out.
It’s the spirit of the age — church leadership seeking to be relevant when the church is simply called to be faithful.
I hear where you are coming from. I think it all boils down to a church having a defined vision of what their mission really is. There are many different churches because they ultimately have an assignment that God has called them to complete. The problem exists when a church tries to be all things to all demographic and they do not have a focus.
If any given church’s leadershipe were to focus on “who” they are and why they are in the community they are in, they could choose to focus on fulfilling the mission God has called them to complete with the resources (human and otherwise) that they have in their church community. They can’t do it all. No church can.
A church is not a “club” it is God’s hands and feet. Good leadership will help lead each church to define and complete its mission. The problem clearly is that most churches do not have strong leadership. I heard Rick Warren say that if a church’s leaders are not growing, their church will not grow. And consequently, they will not accomplish what God wants accomplished.
Goodness, I’m overwhelmed by the depth of these supportive comments. I admit it has been a dark night for my family lately as we wrestle with our changing church. We’re not thinking of leaving church in general, though we did consider leaving our current church and choosing another.
Lyla, enjoy the links. I especially liked “What is church?” and “Church… what really matters?”
Rich, the marriage analogy is good. We definitely view our commitment to the church as something like that, though we don’t think it is divorce to choose another church. Still, leaving four years of relationships is not something we would do lightly. We found ourselves rethinking our ideas about eklessia and koinonia. What exactly were we expecting, and were those expectations just unrealistic? More importantly what did we need church to be for us? Were we looking to church for something that God intended us to find there? If we could define our needs and expectations, we could begin to think through our disappointment and look to solutions–whether attending a new church or helping start new programs at our own church.
Glynn, good point: “church leadership seeking to be relevant when the church is simply called to be faithful.” That is a real trap. Your story gave us pause, though. Our biggest fear is what will happen four years from now. Does it just take that long for us to see through the veneer and become dissatisfied? What would it look like if we worked through our own dissatisfaction. Having said that, I know our current situations are different. In our case, we’re beginning to believe it would be quite wrong for us to leave.
David, that is an excellent point. I think I will ask our pastors how they define our church’s mission.
Marcus – what I love is the honesty about your disillusionment. You’ve also received great comments here so maybe what I’ll say will add little.
I would probably start with wrestling through “What is church meant to be” – from a biblical perspective. I know, oversimplistic analysis but books like UnChristian are great at telling us what’s wrong from the “practice” of contemporary church but not real good (IMHO) at defining what God says about church.
I understand there are a lot of screwed up churches but I don’t think there’s a plan B from God’s perspective – church as an institution is how he actively establishes his purpose through his people here on earth.
I think that in evaluating a church “functional doctrine” really matters. Which means marrying both truth and application of truth.
Is the church/pastors doctrinally sound in its tenets and proclaimation/preaching of those beliefs?
Do leaders really believe what they preach – do they really practice humility or just talk about it? Do the members love one another or just claim that they do?
Love to hear more about your journey.
I saw your “rant” over at Catapult and liked it. Glad you reposted.
In your comment here, you alluded to several questions that (I’m guessing) influenced you to reconsider your move. Was there something in particular that made you say “beginning to believe it would be quite wrong for us to leave”?
ESI, the idea of functional doctrine is really good. It’s not something I’ve heard before but it makes perfect sense.
Sam, fished you out of the spam folder again. Sorry about that. The key for us was trying to find someplace better. I began to worry that four years down the road we would have similar complaints about whatever church we moved into.
Probably a justifiable worry.
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