Time to Move On, Pastor John

Thank you all for coming along to our latest church family meeting. We know it’s been all too long since our last meeting (which you can read about here) and we sincerely apologize for that, but as many of you know we’ve been having some issues with Pastor John that we have had to work out. You know, on strictly a leadership level…but it seems that the word of our decision has unfortunately leaked out, and so we the leadership council decided to call a more formal meeting to get it all out in the open once and for all. Let me take this opportunity, before we get into the meat of the issue here, to bring everybody up to speed. Those of you who came to the last emergency meeting we held a few years ago will recall that at that time, we took the drastic decision of calling for an emergency vote about Pastor John and his rebellious, unbiblical attitude. Back then it was pretty clear that Pastor John was trying to get out of work and let other people in the church do his job for him. If you remember, he had gotten hold of some new-fangled books on church leadership (unbeknownst to us on the leadership council, of course) and as a result the man was clearly trying to shirk his responsibilities. Despite the fact that we were paying him to run the ministries of the church, if you can believe it, he actually tried to put together what he called “ministry teams” and to get other people to preach from time to time. He even had the gall to complain that his seventy-hour work week was too much! We tried to compromise and generously offered that he should cut back to a reasonable sixty-five hours a week, with the promise of an unpaid sabbatical in a year or two—and even maybe a vacation! I won’t go into more detail, but suffice it to say that we on the council were significantly concerned enough that we decided to call that emergency meeting to sort out the issue once and for all. So if you remember, at the close of our meeting, after we had brought everybody up to speed about the problems we were having with Pastor John, we held an emergency vote: the choices were either to let him stay (with a reprimand and ceasing all the rebellious behaviour) or to let him go. Of course as you all know, as a result of that vote we all decided to keep Pastor John on board, but with a reprimand. I’ll tell you right now, that wasn’t a pretty meeting with Pastor John after the vote. But we on the leadership council were being consistent with what Jesus taught about conflict resolution in Matthew 18! At that time we had to sit him down and confront all of his bad attitudes and behaviours, and asked him to give up reading those leadership books. We told him that all he needed to know about God and leading a church could be found in the Bible and that perhaps he needed to spend more time reading the Word of God than taking the word of some so-called “experts” in church leadership. We informed him that what this church needed was a real leader—somebody who’ll do exactly what he’s told! Now of course as you all are aware, ever since that little rocky patch we had back then, Pastor John saw the light and knuckled right under. In fact we’d even go so far as to say that the last few years have been a real “golden age” for our church. Pastor John really put his shoulder to the grindstone, getting right to work trying to grow the church and be a loving shepherd for his flock—just like the Bible says a pastor should be—just like Jesus, the Good Shepherd! But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. After four years of faithful leadership and good work, it appears that the old problems with Pastor John have resurfaced yet again. We thought that we’d put all those old issues to bed following that emergency vote, and it sure seemed that everything was coming up roses and the future looked nothing but bright. To cut to the chase—we on the council have made the drastic decision to let Pastor John go. Yes, I know that seems like a shocking announcement, especially after the last few years have gone so well for our church. Why, thanks to God’s blessing, we even picked up a few families, and our budget improved to the point where we even entertained the idea of giving Pastor John a pay raise, a vacation or even that sabbatical we had talked about years ago! But now it looks as if all that effort we put in was for nothing. Now, we’re not here to bad-mouth poor Pastor John, as that wouldn’t be what Jesus wants of us, so we won’t go into all the gory details. Suffice it to say that Pastor John has apparently gone back to his “crazy” ideas that we supposedly drummed out of him all those years ago about church leadership and ministry teams—all of that nonsense. You’ll remember that he went to a pastor’s conference a few months back (luckily on his day off so he wouldn’t miss out on his normal weekly routine). And of course, they brought in some speaker with some hare-brained ideas about “new paradigms of church leadership” and apparently Pastor John though he’d bring them back to our church. Well, after a few months of that nonsense we decided to nip it right in the bud. Since we’d already had this problem once before we knew there was no point in going back over old ground and rehashing all those issues once again. This time around we knew what to expect and so that clearly explains the reason behind our decision. I’m sure you’ll agree we’ve done the right thing to let Pastor John go. It’s best for him, and clearly best for this church. This way he’s free to move on and try out his new ideas somewhere else. We wish him all the best. We’ve decided to be generous, since he has served here so many years. He’s already packed his things and moved out of the office as of yesterday. We’ll give him two weeks’ severance pay and he’ll have until the end of the month to move his family out of the parsonage. The farewell service will be this Sunday and we encourage everybody to come and say their goodbyes. No need to give any financial gifts, of course, since we’ve already taken care of him financially. Also, just as a side note—since he’s no longer the official pastor, he won’t be preaching any more but I’m sure one of us on the council can be persuaded to give the message this week…thanks for coming out tonight. Oh yes, just as a side note: we'll be putting together a steering committee soon to start the search for our new pastor. This time we pray that God helps us to get it right, as we're sure he will.

Why Are So Many Christians Leaving the Church?

I don’t even know why I care about the church anymore. I’m trying desperately to figure it out. I think it’s because even though I’ve been badly burned by many Christians for years in church, both as a general member of churches or in a leadership capacity, I still can’t avoid the concept that the church must be important to God. When I read things like the book of Ephesians, for example, it’s pretty clear from what Paul says that God himself hasn’t given up on the church, even though many people (including myself) have. The difficulty is that I’m struggling to figure out what is the purpose of the church. One easy answer, given by a friend of mine, was simply to quote the Great Commission (Matt. 28.18-20) as the purpose of the church: to go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything Jesus taught. If that’s the answer, then how in the world did we go from that to what we see in so many churches today? How is it that Christians have such a bad reputation of being judgmental, condescending hypocrites that treat both their fellow-Christians and non-Christians so terribly? Why are so many people leaving the church in droves and not coming back (at least in North America, according to a recent Pew survey)? Beyond rattling off the Great Commission, my friend also advised me to stop caring so much about the church. As I said before, I don’t know why I even care. I think it’s because I feel passionate about what I call the “Ephesians 4 culture” concept, which involves the notion that leaders of churches ought to be spending most of their time, energy and resources in equipping their congregations so that they, not the leaders themselves, can actually be out doing the real work of ministry. What we see in so many cases, however, is the exact opposite: the leaders do the majority of the “important” work (and oftentimes get a salary to do so), while the rest of the congregation sits in the seats, maintaining a state of spiritual infancy because they aren’t allowed to do much of anything other than volunteer for ministries and tithe so that the staff can keep all the ministry plates spinning. For my part, this is why I quit the church. I know what my gifts are; I know what I’m passionate about; I’m a mature Christian who has served as a youth pastor, elder and senior pastor for more than a decade. But in the last several years, every time I try to offer my services to a church, the leadership won’t allow me to serve in the capacity of my gifts and skills. If I’ve questioned the status quo of the way things are being run, then instead of dealing with the issue straightforwardly in a Matthew 18 type of way, leadership blacklists me and refuses to let me do anything. Of course, they won’t ever come to me personally to work out whatever issue it is they have with me, but instead just ignore me and hope I’ll go away. This is why I’ve quit the church: I can’t take it anymore and I’ve had enough. I can only take being rebuffed so many times, so I’ve gotten the message and called it quits. For others who have left the church, it’s for a different reason: not only does the brand of Christianity they’ve been sold not work, it’s actually left them worse off than before they became a believer in Christ. This is because what churches are selling is religion and not an authentic relationship with God that truly transforms lives on a deep, inward spiritual level. How does this occur? Oftentimes churches and church leaders spend much of their time, resources and energy creating and maintaining rules for their congregations, arguing that by keeping these rules this is how we live a “successful” Christian life, grow closer to God and to other Christians, evangelize the lost, etc. Although most Christians would agree that they are no longer under the rules of the OT legal codes and laws, and are under “New Testament principles of grace,” religion has defined the church. Religion, according to Jacobsen and Coleman’s book So You Don’t Want to go to Church Anymore, is about the system that operates within many churches. The message is this: in order to grow in Christ and be better Christians we need accountability to one another; this involves making commitments to do what’s right and then follow through (p. 56). Leaders teach that this is part and parcel of living the Christian life: Christians should help one another with such activities like reading our Bibles and praying daily, praying with our spouses and children regularly, having devotional “quiet times” and studying our Bibles on a regular basis, attending church consistently, being involved in various ministries within the church, treating our spouses and children as God intends, dealing with sin management, evangelizing our lost co-workers, friends, relatives and neighbours, etc. etc. But here is the major problem with such a system of religious accountability: most of the time it doesn’t work, and this can lead to a self-defeating system that ironically can lead us further down the road of guilt, shame and defeat. “When we make commitments that we can live up to for only a brief period, our guilt multiplies when we fail. Upset that God doesn’t do more to help us, we usually end up medicating our guilt with something like drugs, alcohol, food, shopping, or anything else that dulls the pain, or it creeps out of us through anger or lust” (p. 57). Ironically such a system of religion that ostensibly was intended to help Christians grow in the faith and deal with their sin issues can actually lead to them sinning more and feeling like a miserable failure. After perhaps years of trying and failing ultimately many Christians “finally give in because nothing has changed on the inside. This is an outward-in approach, based on human effort, and it just won’t work” (p. 57). Moreover, to make matters worse, it would appear that as Christians spiral downward, they are unable to be transparent about their failures. One major reason why people don’t want to come to church is because it is not a safe or hospitable place to confess our deepest sins and secrets for fear of being judged; we can’t tell the “real story” of our struggles and instead confess to “acceptable sins like busyness, anger, or gossip” (p. 57). In the end nobody in the church is able to be real because it is merely the place where we put on the mask of perfection. And this is one of the major problems with religion as promoted by so many churches. It has ironically produced more people who walk away dejected, feeling like utter failures when they cannot live up to the systems of accountability and rules put in place by the church. The worst part of religious thinking “takes our best ambitions and uses them against us. People who are trying to be more godly actually become more captive to their appetites and desires” (pp. 57-58). The choices in life are not just between two options: to do good or to do bad. Trying hard to do good just “makes us work hard to submit to God’s rules. That one fails every time” (p 58). Religion is about conforming our outward behaviours to fit the rules but it typically results in only pushing the real problems deeper. Like the OT reward and punishment system under which ancient Israel operated, religion is about “man’s effort to appease God by his own work. If we do what he wants he will be good to us, and if we don’t then bad things will happen in our lives. On its best day, this approach will allow us to be smugly self-righteous which is a trap all on its own. On its worst days it will heap guilt upon us greater than we can bear” (p. 58). Religion is essentially trying to get God to love, accept and reward us for doing good and keeping the rules. This has nothing to do with an authentic and personal relationship with a loving God, and more to do with living like Pharisees who legalistically observed every single command in the Law (including tithing a tenth of their herbs and spices). For them it was more about observing rules than having and maintaining a relationship with a living and personal God. Another aspect of this religious approach churches have is that unwittingly they are reinforcing the notion that Christians have to earn God’s love through doing and serving. This is reinforced from Sunday school all the way through to adulthood: memorize enough verses and get a gold star, or even earn a free Bible. Attend every Sunday without missing a single week and get a trophy or a ribbon for good attendance at the end of the year. Come to youth group every Sunday and Wednesday and go on a mission trip to Mexico to build houses. Attend the college-age group and get involved in various activities with other singles. When you are older and have settled down with your spouse and have a few kids, serve the church loyally and consistently in a variety of ministries. Tithe faithfully each week or month in order to help the church continue to pay its staff members, maintain the building and fund various ministries. Go to men’s or women’s retreats every year and attend a weekly Bible study. Get plugged into an accountability group so fellow church members can make sure you read your Bible and pray every day. Finally, ensure that your children attend Sunday school every week and help them to memorize the same verses you did when you were a kid… and so it goes. But somehow in the midst of being caught up in all these actions of doing and serving, it is all too easy to forget that somewhere along the line whatever genuine and authentic relationship we may have had with God (if we ever had one in the first place) became replaced with busywork. Memorization of verses, consistent attendance at church and serving in various ministries do not necessarily help us to know God any better, but instead can easily contribute to our own sense of personal success. We can also become so busy seeking the approval of others that we do not realize that we already have God’s. We are trying to earn a relationship that we can never earn. Many Christians are pursuing religious activities not because we want to know God better, but because they want other people to think that they are spiritual. The Pharisees did the same thing in terms of outward appearance to be seen by others, and in that way that was their only reward—the approval of others. Worse yet, those Christians who are disciplined and seem to have it all together can often become smug, prideful and arrogant and look down their noses at those who fail. The reality is, however, that God loves us unconditionally and it has absolutely no bearing on how much, or how little, work we do for him. We cannot earn his love, approval or his grace. So why do we spend our entire lives at church trying to do just that? I’m still trying to figure out how churches have become the way they are, reinforcing religion rather than helping people to become what God created them to be: creative, fulfilled, happy people who genuinely care for and help others. Jesus said he came to give people life—and that more abundantly—but as I see it, finding that truly abundant life in your local church is proving to be extremely difficult. What we find instead are organizations that exist to reinforce their rules and burden people with those regulations. Of course, they can’t live up to the rules, so they spend their lives cycling around in a spiral of guilt and shame, feeling worse and worse about themselves because they are disappointing God and letting him down. Surely that cannot be the purpose of the church, can it?