An Alternative Vision of Church

A brainstorm essay of systemic changes needed in churches.

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Current conditions

Imagine you are a Martian visiting the earth, and you decide to attend a church service. What will you find? Typically, you would find a church organized around a large weekly meeting with a full-time paid pastor. Generally, this pastor functions as a sort of CEO. In addition, often there is a selected group of sub-leaders, commonly called elders or perhaps deacons. Depending on the church, there may also be a paid support staff.

The pastor presides over nearly every meeting, particularly Sunday services. Generally, the pastor is usually a credentialed clergy, a gifted speaker and/or a strong, charismatic personality that attracts attendees and financial support.

Typically, the children and/or youth are separated into a service of their own so the adults can be relieved of distraction, a musical group performs some songs (which may or may not require the participation of the attendees), one or two prayers are said, probably by the pastor, and an offering is taken. The pastor then delivers a message in a lecture format, offering his insights into the meaning of biblical passages and/or cultural issues while the attendees take notes.

The service concludes with more music, a perfunctory prayer, and announcements regarding special events or activities. The people are then dismissed. This happens pretty much every Sunday, perhaps in different order, but generally following the same pattern.

As a Martian seeing this for the first time, you probably wonder why church is this way. There might be something that attracts you, but in the final analysis you don’t find much reason to be there.

Organizational structure: In the average church, the majority of the duties are performed by the pastor, although in some churches the elders/deacons have some duties. Most frequently, these leaders’ job is to enlist volunteers, that is, the rank-and-file attendees or members, to labor in ministries like the worship team, youth/children’s ministry, financial committees, and/or missions.

Thus, we have a pyramid, with the pastor at the top, the elders below, and the rank-and-file at the bottom. Most churches are built on the star power of the pastor, and the production of an interesting Sunday service.

Kinds of attendees: For the typical attendee, the Sunday service is the only thing that is related somehow to Christianity. The balance of the week is spent in other endeavors. However, some attendees might attend midweek small groups, ostensibly to be discipled, where an elder or deacon will lead a meeting much like a mini-Sunday service, just in a smaller setting.

More committed attendees will take on service duties for the church, and will attempt to act on their faith to a greater degree. These people might actually be successful in wresting some of the things the pastor (or leadership) does, but not always. There are some churches who value the contributions of committed attendees, but nevertheless the pastor will still retain power and status in a “buck stops here” fashion.

And finally, there are the attendees who, for lack of a better descriptor, are “on fire.” These rare birds actually choose act upon what they have read in the Bible, they are seekers after God’s heart, they want to be filled with the Spirit, and they are passionate people who worship, pray, and serve with abandon. They take very seriously the precepts of the Bible, and may sometimes seem extreme or weird to the typical attendee. Sometimes the church leadership will value these people, while other times they will be marginalized or explained away.

Financial structure: As mentioned above, a typical Sunday service includes taking up an offering, based on the concept of the tithe. Further, the tithe is generally expected to be given wholly to the church. Once the tithe is given to the church, the attendee is free to give other monies elsewhere. These are called “gifts,” or “offerings.”

The church pays its financial obligations like salaries and facilities, and some part of the collected money is allocated to other organizations. Thus, the church puts itself in the position of a middleman of sorts, for it collects the tithe and then in turn sends some of it to other organizations for its own “tithe.”

Most frequently, staff salaries, programs, and facilities take up the lion’s share of the finances. Precious little is left for anything else.

Youth/children: Youth and children are frequently not welcome in the Sunday service. They are turned over to volunteers to be educated in the faith in a meeting of their own. This meeting also resembles the Sunday service, with perhaps a bit more activity for alleviating restlessness or inattentiveness.

Parents, relieved of their duty to educate their children in the faith, are free to sit and listen to the pastor preach and the band play without the inconvenience or embarrassment of active children or bored teens.

A need for change

As a Martian, you might be convinced that there is something to this salvation/God thing, but the message is presented in the context of a lot of trappings that just don’t make sense. You don’t identify with the form, but you do with the message. So, you might be inclined to wonder if the situation might be improved.

Church is done this way because it has been done this way. There have been some attempts to implement a different way of doing things, but many of these things are window dressing. For example, maybe the band plays contemporary music instead of hymns. There might be a light show. The pastor might be stylish and hip in his skinny jeans and modern hair style. The facility might be painted, decorated, and arranged for comfort and mood. But all these things are built on the same structure. Only the details have been tweaked.

As such, it may seem that the church is fading into irrelevancy as more and more people search for meaning and connection in other ways. A recent survey revealed that the church in the US is shrinking, with increasing numbers of people identifying themselves as not affiliated. Now, I must tell you that the media thinks this means that more people are not Christian, but I think that a large percentage of these people are Christian, but are placing themselves outside the traditional church structure.

What does this mean to the church? Well, the church can persist in its outdated forms, or it can change, not only to become more relevant and effective, but more biblically structured as well. You as a Martian want to be a part, but you don’t like everything you have to be a part of.

A better way

What if church could function in a way that facilitates connection, belonging, and better fulfils its purpose? Really, what is the purpose of church? What are its objectives? What does it want to accomplish?

We know the church is the Body, a temple of living stones which must be filled with the Presence of God via His Holy Spirit. We know the church is called to make disciples of every nation. We know the church carries the message of salvation and holiness. We know the church is called to minister to the poor, the dispossessed, and the downtrodden. And we know that church is called to worship, to victory, and to righteousness.

Can those callings be expressed in a way that allows people to take them on personally and run with them, but without having to “dress up” their Christianity with irrelevancies? Can the church be moved from its traditions and failed models to become a powerful force used by God? Can the church become a place where everyone is operating in their gifts in a seamless and effective way? Yes, yes, and yes!

There are a lot of ways to approach the problem so as to structure the church to be more reflective of God’s design and purpose. Some of those changes may be simply a different philosophy. In other cases, a total re-vamp is required. But there are some principles that need to be addressed, no matter the church. They are:

1)      Diffuse the power – The biblical model is not a pyramid. There is no such thing in Scripture as a pastor/CEO. This structure is not biblical. In fact, it is inefficient, faulty, and failed. This leadership model lends itself to abuse and ineffectual ministry. The church is not a business, with everyone else serving the interests of the top position. The church is more like a building, with a foundation, a frame, and a bunch of assembled materials connected together to serve a purpose. Like this:

Notice how the foundation allows the structure to grow organically upwards. Notice that the colors of the top levels are coded to those serving in the lower levels. These are “pre-ministers” with identified gifts that are being trained up to take their place in the lower tiers.

The church is supposed to be governed by a plurality of elders, not by a ruling lead pastor. There are obvious reasons not to have a lead pastor figure, especially in light of recent scandals and missteps of pastors, as well as burnout from carrying burdens they were never supposed to carry. These are tragic and unnecessary, for had there been elders governing the affairs of the church, including teaching and preaching, there would have been no need for a pastor/CEO/buck-stops-here person at all.

2)      Abandon ineffective forms – Churches are too often defined by their programs rather than Christ. Youth ministry, Sunday School, mid-week bible studies, and other programs are taken for granted as being necessary and crucial. But are they? Should a church be organized around the Sunday service? Should the service be in a lecture format? Should children be sent off to a separate meeting? Why are chairs arranged in rows? Why meet on Sunday? These are all questions a church must examine.

For hundreds of years the church has practiced a lecture form of gathering, where the pastor/CEO/buck-stops-here person delivers a message, and everyone else politely listens. But this isn’t the N.T. model. The N.T. church gathered often, being “devoted to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Notice it doesn’t say, “Listening to the apostles’ teaching.” They weren't passive listeners, they were studying, sharing, discussing, and putting into practice what they had heard.

Their meetings were much different than our Sunday services. They were very nearly like parties, with friends celebrating, singing, dancing, eating, and talking. It was lively and interesting, not staid or ceremonial. No one at any point stood up and said, “Shh, church is about to start.” Everything they did was church. Really, “church” for them was simply life together.

We need to rethink these cultural and traditional restraints to relationship, service, and the gathering of the saints, not because they’re old and traditional, but because they’re simply wrong and failed.

3)      Stop spending so much money on non-kingdom things – So many churches are enamored with their expensive facilities, their paid pastor, and their sound equipment that they have precious little left for the work of the kingdom. It‘s astonishing to look at a budget of a 500 person church. Tens of thousands of dollars go in and out in a typical month, with zero baptisms or professions of faith in Christ.

Our focus is wrong because our traditions and understandings are wrong. We would rather value our comfort and ensure the attendance of people than be obedient to God. We have “neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness. We should practice the latter, without neglecting the former.”

In addition, what is the biblical basis for the contemporary practice of tithing? Wouldn’t it be better to tell the attendees to support their own preferred ministries? Is the church so worried about money that they feel the need to direct peoples’ tithes in a way of their own choosing?

I have a dream of sorts. I look for the day when because a church has divested itself most of its earthly trappings, a leader in the church stands up and says, “We aren’t going to take an offering today, because we have more than enough. Go out and give your money away. Go serve someone. Open your eyes and see the need, and go meet it. We don’t need or want your money, so give it to someone who does.”

4)      Involve the Body – Why is there a central figure who does most of the “spiritual stuff?” Does no one else know how to pray? Are there no others who can preach and teach? Why is the crowd silent? Don’t they have questions? Is there only one person who has wisdom and insight? Why are there parts of the Body that seem to have no purpose?

5)      Build the Kingdom – The primary purpose of church is to do this, but this is not where resources go. Peoples’ time, money, and talents are diverted to serve the church, not the kingdom, and this has to change. There is little reason for the rank and file to involve themselves in Kingdom work, because the professionals have it handled. Attendees seem to have only one obligation: To sit in their chairs year after year and be taught by a professional. Years upon decades of teaching with no application or outlet. This is purposeless.

6)      Disciple the immature, send the mature – The ones who need teaching are the new believers. Once equipped, they ought to be pressed into kingdom ministry and released into the purposes of God. There is no reason for them to endure Sunday after Sunday warming a chair, doing nothing else. They should be a bunch of budding teachers, pastors, apostles, evangelists, prophets, elders, deacons, and ministers. They all should able to minister to and teach in the Body themselves. They should be making an impact in their communities as sent ones.

So, Mr. Martian, what would you think, given this new scenario? You would find a group of people who loved each other, who were pillars of faith, who made it easy and safe to join them, but rigorous to remain a part. You would find life, growth, faith, and power. You would see a people after God’s own heart rather than a bunch of barely connected people warming their chairs year after decades.

I don’t know if you would find a Sunday meeting, or nightly potlucks. The level and intensity of prayer, teaching, and worship would likely blow the roof off. These people would be living their lives together, building each other up, and magnifying the Name of Jesus in their communities and workplaces. It would be irresistible to join in.

Now that would be church.