08.15.08
The Perils of the Driven Church
I recently began reading Gordon MacDonald’s “Ordering Your Private World”. I was stunned when I read chapter 3. Concerns over being driven and having drivenness running your life resonated so strong in me, that it scared me badly. I have talked about the problem with individuals being “driven”, yet this issue compound exponentially when taken to an institution, whether spiritual or secular. It brought to mind the parable in Mt. 7:21-23 where Jesus hears the laments of those who said “Didn’t we prophesy in your name?” His response was chilling in return. “Go away, for I knew you not.” So people doing the right things for the wrong or (self-centered) reasons, are not glorifying God’s kingdom. So when Gordon MacDonald talked of drivenness that: “Maybe the clue is in the fact that you see them wanting to place conditions on their discipleship by stipulating when they would engage with Jesus and what they might want out of the relationship.” (p 26) He then relates it to the spiritual arena by saying that:
“…there is such as thing as a spiritually driven person who is never satisfied with who he is or what he accomplishes in religious work…
Here in North America we now live in what I call the era of the visionary church. Almost every pastor is judged on the basis of whether he/she has a vision. And this usually means a vision of how the church can grow, grow, grow. The pastoral care of the people – which for hundreds of years has been the aim of the church – is less important in comparison to the gathering of more people. Because more people means more programs, more buildings, more employed staff. Doubtless this is not all bad if it results in bringing unchurched people into the kingdom of God. But one wants to watch a lot of this “vision” and ask how much of it is satisfying the need of a driven leader who has to see thing expand at all costs.” (p 35)
Many of the churches I personally have gone to over the years, have suffered from this sort of spiritual narcissism. These churches are ruled by committees wielding five year plans, driven to conduct stewardship and capitol improvement campaigns and justify fiscal budgets and salaries. There was always an emphasis place on the need for growth in the numbers of people and of programs to cater to them. Recently, the Willow Creek Association put out a survey called Reveal. The conclusions which they came up with were shocking to them. There were big chunks of their churches that were disillusioned or discouraged with large numbers of this ground actually thinking of leaving the church. They looked at themselves and were baffled by the results. They had good stage presentations, great teachers, excellent programming, top notch facilities, and were attracting ever increasing numbers of people into their venues. What did these people want? Why were they discouraged and dissatisfied with their church? The long and the short of it was that these people were lacking in relationships. When you delved into the research, the designated “more spiritual mature” people were asking for things like encouraging Christian friendships, mentoring programs, and encounters that built community. I wonder if the leaders of Willow Creek scratched their heads and asked why the programming had not worked. But to Bill Hybels’ credit, he stood up at their Leadership Summit and admitted to everyone that they had gotten something wrong.
Now growth is a wonderful thing in Christianity as more people come to Christ, however many of these churches that are focused on growth in their memberships are doing so at the expense of the spiritual growth of their members. It would be like parents having children and then turning them out on the street when they are 3 or 4 years old. In my own personal case, my spiritual growth came more from a sense of interconnectedness between different groups of people in a variety of situations. Many of these churches see the solutions being addressed by the installation of small groups. As I have heard many of the small group gurus say, “We need to be making the church smaller while the church grows bigger.” I wonder about that. Just being in a group of 6 – 10 people may not provide for the level of interconnection that people need to grow spiritually. Christianity is best a shared experience, yet most of the time it seems that church is focused on the give and take versus the joint experience.
During the beginning of the process of writing this book, I remember being baffled by the response of a pastor friend of mine who presided over what would be consider a smaller church with an attendance of around 150 people. But what he had to say mirrors the quotes from MacDonald above. At the time, we were talking about evangelism, and he looked me straight in the eye and said that evangelism wasn’t his job. His job was to equip the saints and look after them. It was his job to teach his congregation how to share their faith and evangelize. At first, I was quite baffled by his response, but then I realized that he was right. A pastor’s job is to equip the saints. A pastor instructs and takes care of his people through building a relationship with them. Yes, a large church can do large things, but so can one man. I think of several of the mega churches that I have been at. Churches where people had no relationship whatsoever with the senior pastor as he was unavailable to the everyday member unless you had six weeks to wait. His time was spent crafting the “vision” and “building the five year plan” versus building up the saints.
So what is more important?
Notes from Gordon MacDonald’s “Ordering your Private World”
