It’s All About The Systems
On this trip that is about learning about Christian community something startling strikes me – just how much we rely on systems.
Take the hierarchical approach to leadership. Most believers I know would be aghast at the thought of having a church without an ordained ‘leader’ (whether that’s a pastor or an elder or a minister). Almost as if Jesus warned strictly that when the church comes together it’s crucial it has an elder/pastor/bishop or else the functioning of the church will go to pot. Almost as if the leadership of the Holy Spirit through the gifted individuals in the body was somewhat insufficient and so like business we needed a visible boss to tell us what to do. Almost as if the Lordship and Headship of Jesus Christ was not quite going to help us.
Anyway, so we have these systems and don’t get me wrong, I’m not against systems at all. Whether you call them patterns or rhythms, liturgies or not, everyone lives from a system. Your beliefs, your desires, your life priorities shape how you live and that shape is a system. It changes, it flexes to different issues of life, but it is there – whether you name it or not. Nothing wrong with that. Indeed the Bible is full of systems – whether it’s the Levitical priesthood system or the New Covenant system. It doesn’t have to be named, when you know a system and you see some instructions outlined for how something is to function you are reading about a system.
Whose The Leader?
Here is where the problem kicks in – when the system actually inhibits the purpose of experiencing fullness of life. So much of the New Testament is written to a community of believers as I was reminded by an outstanding guest article by Jon Zens over at Frank Viola’s blog. The hint of the power in the gospel is that it restores right relationship with God and right relationship with each other especially those in the family of God. As a result our concern is to see each other mature and blossom in the fullness of Christ. We know that only takes place as we grow together, encourage each other, love one another, stir each to good works and generally stimulate each mind and heart to do and be all that Christ is in us and among us. Anything beyond that is non-essential.
So that in itself is a system – it’s a set of instructions of how we are to be.
Yet I found myself scratching my head in puzzlement as I heard someone share with me what levels of support was available to him in church leadership. Back to the point I was making near the beginning. This leader – this elder/pastor/minister/bishop/pope/chieftain/CEO/chairman/Superman – is exalted into a position of great responsibility and pressure knowingly or not is exerted on him to feed the sheep, lead the sheep, keep the sheep, almost as if he is the Shepherd. Not only that but it is almost as though he is isolated beyond the rest of the congregation and he is seen as above us and we are underneath him.
The problems with that are manifold. For whatever instruction we read in Scripture, there is nothing hinted at to suggest such a separation of any leadership from the flock. Secondly a lot of spiritual maturity and expertise is assumed in that single being that no single being holds. That’s the whole point of the Body. The reality is that for all the ‘leader’ has there might be a new guy who has had a life-changing encounter with the Spirit who has a lot more to offer in another area of development in the character of Christ. Yet the set-up – the system – inhibits that expertise from being expressed without the approval of the all-knowing leader.
How The System Stifles – It Gets Worse
Of even greater concern, though, and how it actually stifles that end to church life is that the qualities of Christ that the ‘leader’ is exemplifying can actually only best manifest itself in the context of being among the brethren. I know he’s doing all the one-another bits and pieces when he’s among the one-anothers, when his time allows for more genuine engagement with the one-another than for the executive, administrative and super-pastoral duties that are heaped on his head.
That means, he operates better when he’s a brother, than anything else. That means, he is as vulnerable in the company of the congregation as anyone else, and his noted gifting is expressed in its context. It means he’s up for being challenged, taught and stimulated etc. from those in the congregation, just as much as whoever is in the ‘pew’. Otherwise the false dichotomy we set up first of all gives an impression of two-class Christians and also gets in the way of everyone expressing the gift and call of Christ in their lives to be a blessing to each other and thus the whole Body is built together.
This all comes from that head-scratching that took place as I head the fella speaking, because my heart was going out to the guy. For all the other systems and official procedures and protocol that he was highlighting that the denomination organised it was so impersonal, so contrived, so lacking in the ground effort of understanding we are all brothers and sisters, that it reinforces the concept of separatism that the love of Jesus breaks down.
Tears For Those Stifled In The Systems
I looked at the guy and I wept inside. I wept for a brother who means well for Jesus, in a system run by people that mean well for Jesus, but have stifled themselves from the very freedom in Christ that the Jesus they follow gave. I weep because there are systems from which Jesus still needs to free us from us to allow us to recognises the riches we have in Him through each other without barriers and stifling systems.
I weep though, knowing that the tears of sadness and frustration are the motivation for pursuing that better life in that Christian community that will allow us all to realise and share these truths that we hold dear that we are His workmanship created for good works in Him – we together, we as community, we as brothers and sisters, we as children of the Most High God and subjects of His glorious Kingdom.
Please add that to the prayers you’re already praying from Friday.
Thanks.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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