the corporate church

I was an elder of a large – and growing – local church. We had many ministries, multiple paid staff and a large facility that had to be managed. We had to handle a six-figure budget with precision and negotiate contracts with maintenance companies for our HVAC and security systems. Sometime during the church’s life, our pastor discovered an article that defined the ‘modern’ church as a cause, community and a corporation. The article gave us permission to re-vamp our governance structure. We hired a Christian business consultant who provided definitions and roles for a leadership team that championed the three aspects.

Since then three things have happened that have made me re-consider the validity of applying any corporate model to local church governance. The first thing is our church stopped growing. Oh, granted, there were other issues involved, but it is not a simple coincidence that when we introduced a corporate model, and a corporate personality in the leadership that our church started to decline. The second thing that happened is my son – a wonderful, artistic, activistic young Christian – made me watch the video "The Corporation." And the third thing was reading Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat’s Colossians Remixed. It has been very easy and very destructive for the contemporary church to adopt corporate operating principles.

The problem is that the corporate model puts the success of the corporation above everything else; over the needs or concerns of any individual. People don’t matter as long as the corporate vision is being accomplished. So non-productive people should be fired, and the success be measured with numerical goals. The vision is everything (even if that vision is biblically based) and non-visionary people be removed from their positions.
Walsh and Keesmaat make a very compelling case that we, as Christians, are to be as radically wary of the modern corporate empires as the Colossian Christians were to the prevailing Roman Empire.

And, further, Paul’s descriptions of church structure is that of individual importance and organic structure. Each has a gift to offer the local church, and the church becomes that place where everyone can serve meaningfully. A "corporate" church soon begins to value competence and excellence as the acceptable standards of service. The late Mike Yaconelli told a poignant story in his Messy Spirituality of a woman, Connie, who was a poor reader, and who wasn’t able to enunciate her words properly. But she desperately wanted – just once – to read the scripture in front of the congregation. The pastor let her, and the elders reamed out the pastor: "The girl can’t read or speak. Her reading took ten minutes! The church,’ they said, ‘is not a place for incompetence." (p. 33). But, on the contrary, the church is the place for the incompetent, unfinished, unhealthy, struggling and imperfect people.

Let me suggest that the church that will reach the next generation will be a church that actually stands as a counter-culture to the corporate empire that rule us. We are called to be distinct, even radically so, to the prevailing culture. Maybe it is time we wrote an article calling the church to be a spirit-led, humane, and safe place for us incompetent people to call home.

Jim Dethmer, "Moving in the Right Circles," Leadership (Fall Quarter, 1992), pp. 86-91.

the sin competition

While I don’t think I am going to go out and shoot anybody, I don’t like Monday’s. (reference to a song by the Boomtown Rats, in case you don’t know). This a.m. the world (at least that portion I live in) is covered with a sheet of ice. It’s now raining; the word dreary might be the most accurate. Oh well, take what we get, I suppose…

In an order to order my attitude somewhat, I have a devotional book and page-a-day calendar I am reading each morning.

The book is excerpts from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings. The more I read his work, the more I found him relevant. Today he cast a new light on Paul’s words, "I am the chief of sinners." I always interpreted this to be Paul’s way of boasting; kind of like being proud of one’s humility. Paul, as if one’s sin is in competition with others’, was boasting of his humility. I don’t like that, and it cast a bit of a shadow on Paul for me.
But Bonhoeffer suggests that in community we all should have such an attitude. The context of Paul’s words was about ministry in a local church. Tim, as the leader, must serve his community with humility, and believe the members of his community are somewhat "better" than he is. Bonhoeffer wrote: "If my sin appears to me to be in any way smaller or less reprehensible in comparison with the sins of others, then in am not yet recognizing my sin at all. … How could I possible serve other persons in unfeigned humility if their sins appear to me to be seriously worse than my own? If I am to have any hope for them, then I must not raise myself above them. Such service would be a sham." (life together)

No, it’s not a competition but a recognition that, at the very least, we are all the same in terms of sin, not that I, by virtue of any position, education, or experience I have, am in any way superior to those in my community. I can only serve them authentically if I think i am the worst sinner; if I view those in my community as "higher" than I am. I am to think of my self "soberly" and others as "better".

The second daily read I do is from a wonderful calendar called "the fisherman’s year" (or something like that). Today’ read instructs me to choose the reel with the proper gear ratio for the type of fishing I’m doing. A high gear ratio is good for cast and retrieve, but not for other types of fishing. Who knew?! Wow, am I glad to read that this morning. I am going to run down right now and check my gear ratios.

Oh, it also pointed out that today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. So, in his honour, let's pray for peace.
David

crap! it's the New Year

The symbolism was rich; I just don’t know exactly what it symbolized:

The first major event of 2007 for me was a funeral. There I sat, looking at the closed casket of our best friend’s father. My wife and I didn’t know the deceased very well, but we were there to support our friends.
Whenever New Year’s celebration shows up in movies, it often symbolizes the transition from the old to the new. If you analyze the story, you would discover the ‘reality’ behind the symbol. So I sat trying to discern the reality behind the symbol. Was 2006 dead, and I had to grieve it, and start over? Duh!

’06 wasn’t the best year for me. It was year of pursuing a number of dreams, and none of them really coming true. I have to bury the frustrations of last year, but not the dreams. I am facing the new year with a determination to take my future into my hands and create the opportunity for some of those dreams to come true. I think I waited for the whole of last year for someone else to make them come true. That is, I pursued employment in order to get "the job" that would meet my financial needs and my career needs.

However, just bubbling under the surface all year, was the idea (dream?) of starting a web-site on which I launched my self, my work, and created a virtual home from which to market my skills. In other words, take my future into my own hands.

Maybe God will help those who help themselves? I think I’ve waited on God, and I got this dream. I kept asking him for a job, and he reminded me of this dream. "But I don’t have what it takes to do it myself!" I yell at the dream. "I know. Do it anyway," it yells back.

Crap! I think I have to do it anyway.

My favourite Christmas greeting: L'Chaim

Last night our house church lit the last of the advent candles. The first candle represents Hope. The second, Peace. The third, Love. The fourth, Joy. Last night we lit the central candle, the big gold one; the one that represented Jesus.
We had a few visitors so I didn’t get a chair. I sat on the floor and looked at the assembled group: To my right is a Jewish believer whose family survived the Holocaust and she fled Europe during the last years of the war. She and her husband brought a visitor who is a medical doctor originally from India who worked in Muslim countries in the Middle East. Despite the potential consequences, she organized carol sings and prayer meetings during Christmas!
My daughter and her daughter sat on the floor in front of the tree. Our friends shared stories from their memories, reports from missionaries who experience Christmas differently "over there." And we sang carols – the sublime and the ridiculous.
But we shared communion. The incarnation is the Eternal becoming flesh. It was that flesh that was broken. So, with the candles of hope, peace, love, joy and Jesus burning, we shared the bread and "Kosher" grape juice (supplied by the Jewish woman). We held the cups of wine and I felt the urge to say "L'Chaim" – "to life".
One of our group asked if this was appropriate during communion. We discussed that for a minute. We decided it was OK; Jesus came to give us life, so let’s celebrate the life he gave, even amidst the (in fact, via) the death he suffered.
L'Chaim !!

why bother?

I am part of a writers' forum; we post our writings to be critiqued and critique each other's work. A good exercise, and a nice place to post writings. But it seems almost incestuous. Writers, reading writers and commenting on writers. Nobody else reads the words.

Yesterday, I received a rejection letter in the mail from another publisher. We writers quickly loose count of those letters. We receive lots of them and each one hurts. I am not supposed to write the editor and say, "eat shit and die!" but am supposed to take the rejection philosophically. I'll keep trying, but it raises the question, why?

The only people, apparently, who read my words are those who also like to write. some of that group are published, some are wannabes.

But, i continue to write. Why?

beats me.

The Kingdom is like a hedonist

I know we’ve all heard this before, but I was reminded about it again this morning…
Jesus told a story: The kingdom of God is like a man who found a treasure in a field. He buried the treasure in the field, sold all he had and, in great joy bought the field.
In Jesus’ terms, and in his words, the "gospel" simply meant "the Kingdom of God." The kingdom, or the gospel is supposed to be something that produces two things: Joy, and the abandon to "sell all" to get it.
Twenty years ago a Christian writer took a lot of heat from the piety police over the sub-title of his book; "Meditations of a Christian Hedonist". His point, following Christ should produce pleasure – or in more biblical language, Joy.
Why are there so many up-tight, stressed-out, ticked-off, sour-faced, messed-up Christians? Maybe we’ve got it wrong. Maybe I’ve got it wrong; I must confess to not being very joyful and full of abandon.
Just a thought.

Jesus Claus

I saw a thought-provoking ad from the United Church. My thoughts were provoked. The ad was a simple picture: a "Jesus" person sitting on Santa’s chair in a mall with kids on his lap. I don’t remember the caption, but the image is all it took to raise the question – what is the appropriate relationship between Jesus, Santa, Christmas Trees and Tonka Trucks.
I remember a writer from a generation ago described art as a lie that forces us to contemplate the truth. In this 21st century world, art and advertising images are usually one in the same thing. Jesus in a mall is a Lie that forced me to contemplate the Truth.
There is a competition of images going on in my mind. A number of years ago local Christian bookstores sold a bunch of Kneeling Santa images. "That’s more like it," we evangelicals said. "Santa has to pay homage, has to worship at the manger too." Is that image any better? It is the same mixture; sacred/secular; Christ and Culture; Christian/Pagan. I decorate a Christmas tree. I buy gifts for my family. I eat (too much) turkey, wear red sweaters and wonder what to do with the "Just Like…" cologne from Aunt Betty. Have I lost the Christ in Christmas?
What would Jesus do if he were here today? I don’t think he’d spend much time in a mall’s concourse, sitting on an elaborate throne nestled between the Gap and La Senza having kids sit on his lap. I see him sitting on a curb downtown, sitting with children from single moms and street kids. I believe that the point of the incarnation is (almost) equally undermined by a sentimental image of a manger or as Santa Claus.
Jesus came (the first Christmas) for two reasons, as far as I can tell. The first was to usher in the Kingdom of God. That kingdom is/is going to be one of justice and love. The church’s job is to partner with God, through the Spirit and follow the example of the Son and bring justice and Love to our world. Buying a Tonka Truck for a child of a single mom as part of a ministry effort just might be the most Christ-like thing we can do. The second reason (in no particular order) was to die. Neither of these are particularly sentimental.
But, if a sentimental image of the nativity brings us back to discussing Jesus and his mission, maybe it is a good thing. If in image of Santa reminds us to buy a gift for a homeless man, or a needy child, then let’s have images of Santa around. And if an image of Jesus sitting in Santa’s chair sparks conversation about Christmas, let’s have more images. (Even if the image bugs me. But wasn’t that their point?)
Hope and Peace and Merry Christmas.