The Clergy Driven Church – Part 2
Continuing our list of problems with the Clergy Driven Church:
Doesn’t exercise spiritual muscle
Another problem with this is that the congregation never has a chance to exercise and learn to use their gifts! Imagine this, a new Christian in the church has a bad image, he drinks and smokes and generally has problems living the faith. However, God has given this new Christian and incredible gift of healing. Now this church has alter-calls, week in and week out, but that Christian is never asked to pray for anyone. No one ever believes God would use him like that, he’s just not suitable. As a result that Christian never learns he has this gift. He never gets the chance to exercise it, or grow in it.
This scenario is repeated constantly. The more a Christian is gagged, the less he learns about speaking out. Only the clergy is required to exercise their muscle regularly, and as such only they will grow in their gifts. This is disaster!A core goal of the church should be to grow its members potential in Christ. Church should be a gym for spiritual muscle.
What’s more, a Christian cannot be corrected unless people know he needs correction. Unless they are given the chance to explain their views, other Christians may never know there is a problem.
There are two big lakes in Israel. The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee has a number of rivers flowing into it and the Jordan river flowing out of it to the south. The Sea of Galilee is a beautiful, healthy lake with much life in it. The Dead Sea on the other hand, only has rivers flowing into it. Nothing flows out of it. Consequently the mineral content has built up and nothing can live in its waters. They don’t call it the Dead Sea for no reason.
Many Christians sit in churches all their lives hearing the Word taught. They learn Bible doctrine. They experience life and learn from their experiences, but they never pass on their knowledge and experience to others. They benefit from their knowledge and experience, but never allow others to benefit.
When we sit in the pew for our whole lives and don’t pass on our knowledge and experience to others, we become like the Dead Sea.(Discipleship Overview)
Single point of failure
Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout or contention in their churches. Fifty percent of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce. Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors. Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living. Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years. Seventy percent of pastors feel grossly underpaid. Seventy percent felt God called them to pastoral ministry before their ministry began, but after three years of ministry, only fifty percent still felt called. Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression. Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry. Seventy percent of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor. Every year, nearly six thousand Southern Baptist ministers fall by the wayside, victims of burnout, depression, marital problems and even suicide. Another twelve hundred are fired. Eighty percent think their jobs have a negative effect on their families. (1, 2, 3)
Clergy driven churches exert an unreasonable toll on their leaders. This in turn has a negative effect on the entire church. Churches have crisis when leadership problems are present, and the clergy driven church structure is not helping. If all Christians are equal, then none of them should be put under this pressure, nor should any of them cause major damage to the church if they burn out.
Doesn’t build community
Listening to a sermon does not build my relationship with the person sitting next to me. There is a sad lack of true relationships in our churches. I have become aware of churches where everyone was lonely, where everyone wanted to reach out, but where no one did. And no matter how many programs or add-ins we attempt, no matter how much we urge people to invite people to each other’s homes, we cannot seem to get past this. This is a well known problem.
When you consider the place of fellowship in the typical meeting (a ten minute time slot or after the service is finished), you begin to gain an idea of the importance clergy driven churches place on relationships. The clergy driven church simply doesn’t need its members to have strong relationships in order to function. That doesn’t mean that there has been a lack of effort, that pastors and leaders don’t want these relationships to form, it merely means that their hands are tied by the system in which they operate.
The oft repeated idea that the church is our Christian family meant nothing to me until I realised that it did not exist. How can there be a family if we only ever see someone in events that other people have organised? If the only contact we have with people is the pitiful fellowship time on a Sunday morning? Ask yourself; is there a fellow Christian, besides your closest kin, to whom you could be completely honest and open? If there is not, then you have a problem. Unfortunately in many churches we don’t even seem to recognise that Christians do sin, little less is there a safe environment in which to get help.
“he drinks and smokes and generally has problems living the faith.”
Well, if this were the case, he needs to repent before he is to be used by God. God needs a clean vessel to work through because He is holy. I’m not talking about never “falling” into sin on occasion, but a habitual practicing of sin. If there is habitual sin in a believer’s life, it needs to be repented of first. I agree though on the fact that far too many churches don’t allow the people to grow in their gifts and talents. The majority of believers are snuffed out because, of course, the spotlight has to be on the clergy, right? (sarcasm, of course!)
Most pastors dream of the congregation becoming involved. There are those few who wish to remain “in charge,” as if it werent’ true that Christ is in charge. The question is, how do we motivate pople to leave their reserved 2 square feet of space in the pew? I have tried a number of different actions and still have the same people involved that were involved the first day I set foot in the church door. Any ideas?
Whilst I am talking about Church Structure a bit here, I don’t believe that changing Church structure (alone) is the key to revitalising the Church. This is because you can implement some new purpose driven program, split into cells, or become some missional community but you will still have the same people – and people have problems.
When I first started thinking about the things I talk about at this blog, I often asked myself “How can I make Church better?” at first I naively thought that I could change something we did in the Sunday service and everyone would magically spring into action. But then I realised that “Church” is merely the plural form of “Christian” and thus the question I was asking (by substitution) was “How can I make Christians better?”, and since I am a Christian I was asking “How can I make myself better?”
The fact is that I am a part of the body of Christ, so if I am “better” the body is just a little bit “better”. If I can love more, the body loves more. If I can risk more, the body risks more. Imagine if you could take this challenge to every person in your church and each one took it on. Imagine what it would look like to have a Church that was completely loving, accepting, supportive and passionate regardless of what programs you implemented or sermons you preached. What an awesome dream.
My ‘plan’ to change the Church is a lot more personal than a program and my recommendations for you, a pastor, are just the same as they would be for one of your congregation. The idea is that if I have some dream for how I want Church to be, I should start personally living that dream now. My ‘plan’ consists of two parts: Raising the Bar on my personal walk with God and Lowering the Barrier between myself and other Christians.
This blog has already talked about Raising the Bar a lot so I won’t say much here except to point out that I still have so much further to go. I long to glorify God with my life yet I still have much to improve, may God keep challenging me on my personal walk with Him. Lowering the Barrier with others is something I have not talked much about and it is something a little more difficult to pin down. But I shall use my life as an example of one shared with others.
When I read something in a book or the bible that fascinates me, I will email someone. When I want prayer, I’ll text message people and see if they want to meet up. When I face temptation, I will call someone. My “Church” is a 24-7 phenomenon. I have friends and fellow warriors with whom I am completely transparent and authentic. I have people who I know I can call upon whenever I need it and who I can rejoice with when I don’t need it. I’m living a Church that is built on relationships and I love it.
This time last year things weren’t that way. I was just like any born-again lazy Christian. But I made a choice to risk transparency with just one person (to begin with) and from there things really changed. I risked asking someone else if they wanted to meet up and pray (outside of any program) and things began to change. I exposed myself and as I did so I began to place more importance on my relationship with others – I made them my focus. It took time, but now my labour is bearing fruit.
I recommend, as I would for a member of your clergy, that you find 2 or 3 people who you think are ready to “go for it” with God and focus on building up a strong relationship with them. How you go about doing that is always different depending upon the situation and the people involved, but I will vouch that as you develop deep God centred relationships with them you will find that you’ll be changed by it. And as you raise the bar on your life they will begin to raise the bar on theirs.
And eventually, they’ll begin to lower their barriers with other people – this way of life is infectious! It’s very exciting to see the people I risked myself on begin to spread these relationships with other people.
So that’s it really. No program changes or course recommendations. This may be unsatisfying or it may be an exhilarating idea. It does require a change in paradigms and it is hard, and takes time. But you’ll never regret it.