Fast forward to the contemporary Church. Bigger is better. Your success as a congregation is measured by the number of behinds warming the pews, but there is a problem. We live in an increasingly individualistic culture. What is our goal, doing as Jesus calls us to do in John 15 to form relationships so close that we can say we love one another as he loves us. Or to form a community so close that we would confess our sin together. Or do we go for bigger rather than closer. The world, seems to want individualism (Rather the outdated methods of “doing Church” believe that this is what the world wants). The Church seems stuck in the mindset that in order to grow larger we must grow apart. Our local Christian radio station now has a program called “home group” we don't have to actually go to a home group we can listen on the radio. We can watch Church on television, or live stream it on the internet. Or if our schedule does not allow it, we can download a pod cast and listen later. Or if we do go to Church how do we do it. We show up fashionably late, after the service starts. We file in, not to a sanctuary but to a dimly lit auditorium, where the lighting is intentionally designed, as theatres are, to make you feel like you and the person/ people on stage are the only ones there. You cant see your neighbours let alone the people across the room. It's about you and the preacher. Then our conversations in that Church are often about living to “your” God given potential, finding “your” calling. We talk about “personal” finances, devotion, relationships, etc, we even have made the result of our hearing the Gospel presented in such Churches as “accepting Jesus as our 'Personal' Lord and Saviour.” as if he is ours and ours alone (not to mention the phrase “personal Lord and Saviour” never appear in the Bible).
Our structures also come under fire. We would rather become an organisation with a CEO than an organism with a body, of which EVERY member is an essential part. If we are part of a body it means we have to participate with the other parts. Instead we opt for a corporate model at best and a monarchy at worst. We have a pastor who serves as a CEO, or we turn our Pastor into a sovereign king, and his children become princes inline for the throne. The Church exists to serve the vision of their leader, as if the Holy Spirit works only through them. Everyone else either becomes a servant of the vision or a spectator. Calling them servants may be a bit harsh, but by implementing such a strong emphasis on setting vision statements we hinder the Holy Spirit and we actually say to someone so moved that while they may be moved by the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit's move must be confined to the terms of the vision statement set by the pastor and the leadership team. If the Holy Spirit should move you counter to the set vision statement, the leadership team will then explain to the Spirit of God why they cannot obey. No, God has already set the vision for our Churches into words and he even called it “sufficient” in 2 Timothy 3:16. But isn't the corporate model so much more comfortable? I mean if something happens in the leadership, the leadership team will take care of it. The preaching and teaching, well that's up to the pastor. The worship, that's the worship team. The vision, that's the CEO's job. All we have to do now is sit back and watch.
But what about practicality. Of course we believe in the Bible and we have faith in Jesus, but, come on, we have to be practical right? It reminds me of the story of Naaman, who went to Elisha to be healed. Elisha told him to bathe seven times in the Jordan river, and he asked why he couldn't bath in his own water. Of course it was a logical question. It would have been more practical for him to bath in his own river, but this is not what God said. We make practicality and pragmaticism into an Idol. It is more practical, according to the understanding of this world, to form Churches and denominations around the corporate individualistic model.
Remember Paul/Saul. He was a persecutor of Christians. He was a Pharisee and a very strict Jew. So God took that Jewish Pharisee and brought him to Christ. Now the logical thing would have been to make him a evangelist to Jewish Pharisees, instead God makes him an evangelist to the Pharisees. Paul will remind us in 1 Corinthians 1 and in several other places that this was so we could see that the ministry comes not from him, but from the Lord Jesus Christ. But many of us in ministry have sat through employment interviews of pastors or Christian denominational leaders, we talk about their experience and education, but I have rarely heard questions in those settings about their knowledge of the Word of God, about the leading of the Holy Spirit in their lives, or their relationship with Jesus Christ. We ask ourselves of all the denominational annual meetings and leadership meetings we have been a part of, how often are our discussions of decisions framed in terms of the leading of the holy Spirit, as opposed to how often those discussions are framed in terms of practicality.
To get very specific to the context of Churches of Christ and the movement towards restoration of the Biblical Church, we have to ask ourselves are we really moving in the direction of being led by the Word of God and the structure God set for the Church, the body of believers, or are we seeking after the pragmaticism of the world? And what does that do to our witness? When people look at us do they see the body of Christ with Jesus as its head? Do they see an organism “not conformed to the patterns of this world” or an organisation that is modelled after all the other organisations of the world? In fact, this is a question we always have to be asking ourselves. This is not just a question for Ministers or denominational leaders, its a question for the Church. If the toe should notice that the leg is acting in a way that will hurt it, than the toe should be heard, even if the toe is a 90 year old women sitting in the front pew, or a 20 something new Christian, and even if the leg should be a head pastor or denominational CEO, all are moved by the same head, Jesus Christ, and all are a part of the body, and all are a priesthood of believers, being moved and being equipped, and all should be able to contribute. This is what it means to be a body of believers.
I will inevitability be told that in writing this I am being divisive or that I a acting in a way contrary to the body. But the body of Christ is bound together by Christ (Ephesians 4:16) and will not be torn apart by this. Its like saying the toe has no right to feel pain when the leg directs it to be stubbed into the wall. Conviction and reflection, rather makes the body stronger and wiser. This is not a call to division but a call back to the Bible and if, according to the Word of God, I am wrong then I am wrong and I should be corrected, but if I am right according to the Word and wrong according to the pragmatic understanding of the world, than I will happily remain wrong in the eyes of the world.