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Never ordained, I have stood with the greater mass of God’s people, granting a perspective that those in the hierarchy rarely achieve. The methods used to separate one class of believer from another are legion: clothing, education, salary, offices, parking stalls, secretaries and titles. Sometimes they are more subtle: who has access to the microphone in the meetings?
While Paul calls for us to honor those who labor among us, the kind of honor we have accorded to the clerical role has reinforced a privileged professional class which has largely lost touch with the foundation of community. This in turn has reinforced abstraction, idealism and elitism, leading to the abuse of power. Mark Strom writes,
"Paul … deliberately stepped down in the world. We must not romanticize this choice. He felt the shame of it amongst his peers and potential patrons... Moreover, it played a critical role in the interplay of his life and thought. Tentmaking was critical, even central, to his life and message…
"Evangelicalism will not shake its abstraction, idealism and elitism until theologians and clergy are prepared to step down in their worlds… Evangelicalism has its own ranks, careers, financial security, marks of prestige, and rewards. Within that world, professional ministry is rank and status. Ministry as profession feeds the pride that separates the seminary and the pulpit from the congregation. It makes Paul abstract." i
Rather than seeking to join a profession we need to seek ways to live out the gospel wherever we find ourselves. For two years we met as a church in our home. When we left behind the traditional center (the functions of word and worship and formal structures of participation) the center changed to the people themselves. We all became players, and the whole world was our stage.
Some time ago we invited a young couple to our home who were struggling in their relationship. Tina’s father was an elder in her church, but he was extremely demanding at home. Tina felt she could never be good enough. For a time she tried to please her parents, but eventually she lost hope and gave up. Her sense of self was seriously damaged. She began to believe that she wasn’t acceptable to God either.
After we had been together for a few hours, Tina came into our kitchen where my wife was retrieving some clean cutlery. To my wife’s surprise, as Tina received some clean forks in her hand she commented on the love she felt in our home. She didn’t have to ask if we were Christians, and we didn’t have to proclaim it.. she already knew the answer. There was a different feeling among our small group of friends.
Why is it so hard to attain this same experience in western churches?
First, significant relationships tend to decline as an organization grows in size. It becomes more and more difficult to connect personally as organizations increase in size and complexity, and thus community itself becomes a rare commodity. Yet the church is first a community, and only incidentally a congregation. When we fail to be a community, we are not truly a church.
Second, bureaucracy increases as organizations expand, and efficiency and management become the chief concerns.
"Christian organizations are created to serve the original divinely given vision of their founder(s). But in the process of building an organization to fulfill that vision, interest groups are formed which, over time, become more concerned with preserving and building up the organization itself than with helping it to serve its original purpose… They have interests such as their own salaries, careers or status, and they use the organization … as a means to reach their own goals.ii
Cultural forces push us away from participation and toward professionalism, effectively separating the ordinary people of God from ministry and creating a special class of Christian (clergy). Where such distinctions exist we show that we have not heard Jesus’ own teaching on leadership, or Paul’s teaching on the nature of the body. Sandra Cronk, a Quaker elder, writes that,
"There are problems with the kind of structure which compartmentalizes life into private and professional spheres. This kind of division tends to make ministry a task. It prevents a full relationship with another human being in which redemption can happen." iii
Third, large groups organize for safety, not vulnerability. But when “we are weak we are strong,” and it is impossible to build community without vulnerability. “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies….” When we are strong we tend to remain isolated individuals, without connection points to others, thus denying the mystery of the Cross and the reality that Jesus life is made known in our collective weakness. It is at the point of connection that Jesus is made known (Eph 4).
But if we are so accustomed to giving weight to the words of only a few, to those with education, status, and titles, how do we make the shift to attend to wisdom? Peter Senge writes,
"In the knowledge era, we will finally have to surrender the myth of leaders as isolated heroes commanding their organizations from on high. Top-down directives, even when they are implemented, reinforce an environment of fear, distrust, and internal competitiveness that reduces collaboration and cooperation. They foster compliance instead of commitment, yet only genuine commitment can bring about the courage, imagination, patience, and perseverance necessary in a knowledge-creating organization. For those reasons, leadership in the future will be distributed among diverse individuals and teams who share responsibility for creating the organization's future." iv
While “team” language is very popular, a team is not the same as a community. When five-fold gifting is functioning in a community environment, it can be very difficult to tell who is leading. Leaders may be invisible, encouraging, empowering, and equipping as they work alongside others sharing similar tasks.
There are two types of ministry environment. In one environment a team or teams are formed to assist leaders to develop and implement their vision (purpose). In the second environment a community is formed around a shared sense of passion (belonging). In the team environment success is understood as empowering the group to reach agreed goals. In the community environment success is understood as empowering individuals to belong and to reach their creative potential.
In the team environment roles tend to be set in concrete and leaders are indispensable. In the community environment leaders may be invisible, and leadership roles and functions are often shared. At different times in the life of the community, depending on need and context and the empowerment of the Spirit, various ones take the lead depending on their competencies, deferring to the voice of the Lord. The key qualities in this context are those of Dorothy rather than the Wizard : humility and discernment.
i Strom, Mark. Reframing Paul. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP, 2000.
ii Leadership Network, Leadership Letter, #29, Summer, 2001
iii Cronk, Sandra. “Discovering and Nurturing Ministers.” In Festival Quarterly, Winter/Spring 1989.
iv Senge, Peter. The Fifth Discipline. New York: Doubleday, 1994.
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