A friend named Jake Bland mentioned this blog site and post in a report he recently wrote, that I had an opportunity to scan. The post is called “Nobody Cares About Your Website” and was written by Eric Murrell. Media Salt’s tagline is: God isn’t bland. The Church shouldn’t be, either. Looks like a really interesting site worth checking out.
Scot McKnight has gone and done it again… he’s poking around with one of the evangelical church’s sacred cow’s – worship.
Here’s what he says about what we typically do on Sunday morning:
“Let’s call this was it is: spiritual eroticism. And those who are good at it can be called spiritual erotics.”
That’s kind of audacious!
Check it out over at CT’s OutofUr Blog: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2009/05/scot_mcknight_c.html
I reviewed a book by Frank Viola and George Barna called “Pagan Christianity” some months ago. There is a companion book to it that is out now called “Reimagining Church,” by Frank Viola.
Some great reviews of the book can be found at http://www.ReimaginingChurch.org – including Relevant, The Ooze, Kingdom Grace, Len Sweet, Internet Monk, and others.
You need to know that “Pagan Christianity” isn’t complete without reading this book also.
I will be reviewing the book here as soon as I complete it myself!
Today was quite an exciting day in the life of the church I attend and am a member of. We have been without a “Senior Pastor” for almost three years. Today, we “elected” a new one who will be starting officially in September.
The vote today was the conclusion to a much longer process, starting about 4 months ago. It included interviews, background checking and reference gathering, meetings with search committee members, dinners including spouses, guided tours of our town, email and telephone conversations, meetings with elders, pastors and staff, congregation members, and other open meetings for anyone who cared to come to meet the pastor candidate and his wife.
Because my wife was on the search committee, I was able to meet and get to know the candidate much longer ago than most other church members. I was impressed with him from the very beginning and thought to myself… could this be the one? I confess that I wasn’t always sure given the nature of our church and the process.
However, as the process unfolded, and more and more confirmations and affirmations were experienced, we made it to the final week. This was a grueling final week of open meetings, to meet and get to know the candidate and his wife, as well as to ask questions. In one question and answer session the question was raised… “Why do you want to become our Senior Pastor.”
I was impressed with his answer. He stated categorically that he didn’t feel he wanted the position of “Senior Pastor.” But rather, in light of the gifts that God had given to him to study, teach and preach the Word (the Bible), and for visionary, strategic leadership, that he is most well suited for a role as what most churches call a “senior pastor.” He also specifically stated that he did not view it as a position to be filled, but rather as a role within the body of Christ (the church) he felt called by God to exercise.
In light of my understanding of the lack of a biblical basis for what most evangelical churches think of and call as a “senior pastor”, this answer gave me great comfort [See my blog post on "The Senior Pastor: Is He Biblical?"]. Although there will still be a danger as many within the church will want to put the senior pastor in a special category where he doesn’t belong, or on a pedestal with some kind of celebrity status, at least the man himself is aware of the problem, and understands his role correctly and biblically.
My hope and prayer is that perhaps through the ministry style and leadership our new fellow traveler (senior pastor), our church will grow in our understanding of the priesthood of every believer, that we are all called to the work of the ministry, and that each of us has been gifted by God to play an integral and important part in the edification and healthy functioning of the body of Christ.
I am going to jump ahead in my review of the book Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna, to Chapter 5 which is entitled: The Pastor: Obstacle to Every-Member Functioning. The reasons for doing this are many. The church that I attend is in the midst of a search for a “senior pastor.” I am the son of a “pastor.” My wife is the daughter of a “pastor.” We both come from families with “pastors” in our heritage. Many of my friends and relatives are “pastors.” There are many “pastors” that I love and respect. I have even considered becoming a “pastor” at different times in my life. At other times I have decided NOT to pursue that!
But, I am reminding the reader that I am on a personal journey to discover – if I can – what about the modern “church” is truly biblical, and what is not. This means that I have to put everything on the table ask the question if the “pastor” or “senior pastor” as we have come to understand and practice it, is actually biblical.
Very few would disagree that the “pastor” leader concept is a fundamental, biblical “must have” in the minds of almost every Protestant Christian. And within the evangelical sub-culture of which I have most of my experience, the more specific idea of a “senior pastor” is also considered sacrosanct. It certainly has been for me at earlier times in my life.
But here is the profound irony. There is not a single verse in the entire New Testament that supports the existence of the modern-day pastor! He simply did not exist in the early church. – Pagan Christianity? Page 106
There is only one verse in the New Testament where the word “pastor” is used.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. — Ephesians 4:1
Gulp! Not a very solid foundation for such a closely held “must have” tradition! Evangelicals are not alone. Roman Catholics have made the same mistake with the word priest. The word appears in the NT only three times and in every case it refers to all believers in Christ.
So, what can we learn from the New Testament about a “pastor?”
Barna and Viola point out that the word pastor is plural – pastors. They existed as more than one. The Greek word translated as pastors is poimen, which means shepherds. I think that we can safely assume that this is a metaphor for how they functioned in the church. Surely no one believes they were literally shepherds! If this word is a metaphor, then it does not describe an office or a title. The Ephesians verse simply mentions them, and offers no definition. Let us be clear then that we have provided our own meaning of the word based upon our own culture, and not because we have read it in the Bible.
Viola and Barna go on in this chapter to address and answer Where Did The Pastor Come From?
In each section, an overwhelming number of footnoted historical evidences, statistics, scholarly opinions and references are provided. You must read this chapter… it is powerful.
Of personal interest was the section on “How the Pastor Damages Himself.” In this section Barna and Viola cite numerous statistics including:
I’ll stop on that one…
I agree with Barna and Viola that very few pastors have connected the dots to discover that it is their “office” that causes the underlying turbulence in their lives. “Jesus Christ never intended any person to sport all he hats the present-day pastor is expected to wear. He never intended any one person to bear such a load.”
The authors go on to describe the unique stress the church places upon pastors with the unrealistic expectations, and dictated standards we often place on them. Many factors like this come into play to produce serious pathologies for many such as: loneliness, corruption, artificiality, lack of accountability, political games, and much worse.
I know of one pastor who discovered some of these things fairly early in his “career” and thankfully recognized it and has moved on to a much better fit for his gifts and service. I know of another who has served in several churches over the years, all the while battling serious depression. It has been a few years now since he left his “pastorate” and took a break. Thankfully, God opened up a new door of service opportunity in the church that fits him and his gifts much better.
There are many more personal stories that I am unfortunately aware of that match what Viola and Barna describe. I agree with their conclusion that our modern single-pastor idea has its roots in pagan culture and has no foundation in scripture.
The church at the beginning of the 21st century needs to examine this “tradition” and see if it measures up to God’s Word. If it is found to be lacking and wanting, we need to be mature enough to abandon it and follow a more biblical pattern.
I offer one alternative for consideration… team leadership based upon spiritual gifts. I found a recent article on this topic in Leadership Journal to be very challenging and thought-provoking. Read Next & Level, an interview with Next Level Church leaders in Denver, Colorado, who after a bad experience with personality-based, top-down leadership, took a whole new approach to what is truly The Next Level Church.
Yesterday I attended a wedding and reception of a family from our church. At the reception I met and talked with a guy who has been attending for a number of years, along with his family. I recognized his face and name, but had never actually met him and talked to him. This happens in a church of our size with multiple services and programs.
The discussion topic soon turned to our church, and the situation we find ourselves in without a “senior pastor” for almost 3 years now. Without any prompting on my part, he offered his perceptions of our church and our leadership styles.
Basically, he told me that he saw our church and leadership as “not wanting to change” and unable to articulate a vision for the future. He told me of his experience and giftedness in worship leading and music ministry in past churches, and his frustrating experience trying to “break in” to the music ministry at our church. He communicated his utter lack of understanding of some of the decisions made by our leadership surrounding worship services, schedules and types of worship communities.
He told me that if our church wanted to reach our community, in his opinion we would need to learn how to communicate with it. He was very concerned about the younger generations, and how they would be drawn to the church if we keep going as we are.
He told me how he and his family currently decide if they will attend our church based upon who the guest speaker is for the coming week. If the topic doesn’t sound very interesting, they will visit other churches, always much further away, usually down in the city. They’ll just make a day of doing other things in the city.
To me the conversation was bittersweet. Here I was getting to know someone else in the same body that I belong to, in a more personal way. Yet, the topics and experiences shared were sad. Sad because I heard many of the same issues that I sense and feel and hear many others articulating as well. Themes like: general lack of direction, missed opportunities, resistance to putting everything on the table for possible serious change and radical renewal.
On the positive side, I was hearing from a guy who actually cares about the church – our church. A guy who wants something better spiritually for himself and his family. A guy with gifts and abilities who would rather use them, than not. A guy with a heart for serving in our communities, demonstrating the gospel by action.
What concerns me is what we will do about people like this guy, who are becoming disheartened, and disenfranchised, and are looking elsewhere – slipping through the cracks. By waiting for the “senior pastor” to come and lead us, are we not losing so much ground, momentum and opportunities? This guys experience and willingness to serve is one of the missed opportunities.
One thing that I take away from this “chance conversation” is that I am not alone. Many others are feeling like I do. In a climate like this, all it would take is for someone with some credibility and boldness to articulate a vision and mission for reaching our community in a new and relevant manner, and there would be a lot of people who would rally to follow and pursue that vision.
What does God want our church to do? Are we willing to get on board with His vision and plan for us and our community? That is the real question… and what am I going to do about it?
Continuing in Chapter 3 of Pagan Christianity?, writers Viola and Barna next tackle how the changes in early church buildings affected worship. Because Emperor Constantine was the #1 “lay person” in the church, a simple style worship service would simply not do. To honor him, much of the pomp and ritual of the imperial Roman court was integrated into Christian worship.
These pagan cultural imports included:
The outcome of these and more cultural imports was a “loss of intimacy and open participation. The professional clergy performed the acts of worship while the laity looked on as spectators.”
A Catholic scholar is quoted as writing that “even the ceremonies involved in the ancient worship of the emperor as a deity found [its] way into the church’s worship, only in their secularized form.”
4th century Christians came to view Constantine’s rise as an act of God, and divine provision for their rescue. He even instituted the “tax-exempt” status idea for these churches. This is in contract to 1st century Christians who were taught to avoid pagan culture and its futility, and to be living counter-cultural examples through their new life and community found in Christ.
To see Christians slowly blinded and overcome by the world system is a sad story. Buildings made with hands become holy shrines. Pagan ceremonies and objects become “holy” traditions of the church. They even began to attribute all of these things to principles and ideas found in the Old Testament. “Dignified and sacramental ritual had entered the church services by way of the mysteries [the pagan cults]. and was justified, like so many other things, by reference to the Old Testament.”
But this idea is self-defeating. We know from the New Testament that on the cross Jesus Christ destroyed the old wine skins [forms and structures] of sacred priests, sacred buildings, sacred rituals and objects. He replaced it all with the new wine skins of a nonhierarchical, nonritualistic, nonliturgical organism called the ecclesia.
REFLECTION
I do not personally come from a high-church tradition with lots of liturgy and ceremony. I can appreciate some of the beauty and wonder of these forms of worship, but it really doesn’t help me connect with God. Even within the Protestant traditions that I am more familiar with, I am growing tired and weary of some of the outcomes we see outlined in this book.
How many “churches” have spent years of time, and millions of dollars on their buildings? Buildings require upkeep, maintenance, expansion, heating and cooling, parking and all the rest. They can become a huge weight around the neck of a local congregation. How many have floundered and failed because of a building? How many other needy people were not ministered to because a “church” was focused and sidetracked on their building?
Buildings tend to become a huge distraction to people being a church, and doing the work of ministry and service that it is supposed to be about. Instead of investing in people, the community and outreach, we spend most of our time and money on the physical needs of the building and the programs in it.
Given this background and cultural conditioning, when it comes to worship, we feel we need sound systems, comfortable seatings, projection systems, technology, nice decorating, stained glass, beautiful objects, and all the rest… or “we can’t have a good worship experience.”
I don’t see any of this in the New Testament descriptions of the church. I see simplicity, mobility, agility, and more of a “freedom from,” rather than a “bondage to.” Perhaps the early believers we so thrilled with their new freedom in Christ that the old patterns, forms and structures didn’t have much appeal. Why have a building when you can worship from house to house and enjoy fellowship out in the neighborhoods, courtyards and places where the people are?
I think the 21st century world and culture is moving back toward these early NT church patterns. We have experienced spiritual life with the weight of programs, budgets, staffing, annual reports, fund raising, boards, buildings and committees, and found it wanting. We are yearning for a simpler and more basic spiritual experience with fewer encumbrances. We would rather invest a greater part of our time, money and talents in people, relationships, discipleship, ministry, service and outreach.
Does the community I live in need something like this? Do I need this? I think so. How do I make it happen? What are the steps? Where do I go from here? That is the question and the process of discovery I find myself in.
Exploring the First Church Buildings
In the book Pagan Christianity?, authors Frank Viola and George Barna continue Chapter 2 by exploring the evidence we have about the first “church buildings,” a trend started by the “Christian” Emperor, Constantine in the 3rd Century AD.
We have already learned why early church buildings were considered “sacred” places. This lead to the idea that congregants had to be purified in order to enter. This necessitated the design and construction of fountains and courtyards to pass through before entering. Early church buildings were huge and modeled on the Roman “basilica” – the common Roman government buildings, the design of which was borrowed from Greek pagan temples.
Basilica design included:
The paternal hierarchical message embedded in this visual architectural layout and design were unmistakable.
This leads me to consider our typical modern day church building layouts. We also tend to have a stage or platform that separates the “leaders” from the “congregation.” Many churches still have a special chair on that platform for the “senior pastor.” Many “churches” have other smaller chairs next to it for other leaders, be they pastors or elders, deacons or worship leaders.
Even though the original pagan influence is quite clear, there are many today who would still argue that these “traditions” of the modern institutional church ought not to be questioned, changed or tampered with because they are “sacred.”
As a missionary friend recently pointed out to me in a personal conversation – the physical layout, decorations, architecture, design, lighting, etc. of a worship space – all contribute to a subconscious message and expectation as to what a worshiper will experience in that place. We are sending messages, good or bad, positive or negative, about ourselves, our view of God, about the purpose of worship, the source of truth, and all the rest, by these choices we make.
At the dawn of the 21st century, what are those messages we want to send?
What does all this really communicate about our God and our view of him – especially to those who do not yet know Him, and are unfamiliar with our customs and traditions? How many people have entered our special worship places, and received these unbiblical, negative messages, because they did not understand our culture and language? I wonder.
I believe that this kind of unthinking, blind acceptance of “the ways things are,” is unhealthy and damaging to the growth and relevancy of the ecclesia in the 21st century. I don’t see how we will reach our culture with the Gospel while thinking and acting like this.
The Creation of Sacred Spaces and Objects
Authors Frank Viola and George Barna record that a shift occurred in the late second and third centuries when Christians began reverencing their dead. Christians began to meet in two places… their homes and the cemetery. They picked up the pagan practice of having meals to honor the dead. Their original intended purpose was to honor the memory of the martyrs.
It became their belief that to share a meal at the cemetery, honored their dead brothers and sisters. Since the bodies of the “holy” martyrs were there, the idea of it being a “holy space” also developed. They eventually copied the pagan practice and erected small monuments over these spaces.
In Rome, the Christians started decorating the catacombs (underground burial places) with Christian symbols. The authors point out an interesting fact that the cross as an artistic reference cannot be found prior to the time of Constantine. Thus art became associated with sacred spaces.
Around the second century Christians started venerating the bones of saints, regarding them as sacred and holy. This gave rise to relic collecting.
Later in the second century, we see how the Lord’s Supper was changed from a full meal shared among believers, to a stylized ceremony called Holy Communion. By the fourth century the bread and wine produced a sense of awe, dread and mystery. As a result, some eastern churches put a canopy over the altar table, and later rails to separate and reinforce the idea of it being holy, separate and only for the holy persons (clergy) to handle.
So now we see more clearly how Christians developed sacred spaces, places and objects, as well as the beginnings of a sacred priesthood. During all of this, they also began to assimilate the “magical mind-set” common in pagan thinking. All of this prepared the way for the man who would be almost single handedly responsible for changing the meaning of the word church.
Temples, Priests, and Sacrifices
Continuing in Chapter 2 of Pagan Christianity? authors Frank Viola and George Barna point out that the Old Testament Hebrews had a faith experience centered around the Temple, the priesthood and the sacrifice. But Jesus fulfilled all three of these by becoming the “Temple” made without hands, the final high priest who has made each believer a priest, and he became the final, perfect, sacrifice. He thus ended all three of these Old Testament practices.
The Greeks and Romans at the time of the early church also had temples, priests and sacrifices. The early church was the first non-temple religion ever to emerge. To the early believers, they themselves were the temple or house of God. Nowhere in the New Testament writings is the word church (ecclesia) used to refer to a building or a place. To “go to church” would have been a foreign thought to a first century believer.
We first see an example of the word ecclesia used to refer to a building in AD 190 by Clement of Alexandria. But even here it refers to a private home used for Christian meetings.
New Testament scholar Graydon F. Snyder writes:
“There is no literary evidence nor archeological indication that any such home was converted into an extant church building. Nor is there any extant church that certainly was built prior to Constantine. The first churches consistently met in homes. Until the year 300 we know of no buildings first built as churches.”
The early church also did not have a priestly tribe or caste. They understood that every believer was a priest unto God and encouraged each other to act and worship accordingly. They each brought sacrifices of praise, thanksgiving and their very selves in worship to God.
It was much later, when Roman Catholicism evolved in the 4th to 6th centuries, that a professional priesthood was started, they erected sacred buildings, and turned the Lord’s Supper into a mysterious sacrificial event. Later, the Protestants dropped the sacrificial use of the Lord’s Supper (as it should have), but it unfortunately retained the priestly caste and the sacred church building concepts to this day.
In my own mind, I find it incredible that many in the church today still hang onto the remnants of this kind of thinking. Our houses of worship are not any more holy than any other place, including our own homes, or public buildings, schools, bars, and the like. Holiness and sacredness have nothing to do with physical things or places. Separating the secular and sacred was a gnostic idea, a heresy that the early church constantly battled. Ascribing sacred or holy qualities to objects of any kind is idolatry.
I also find our modern ideas surrounding what we call pastors or elders hard to square with the New Testament. The idea of a hierarchy of leadership with a “senior” pastor, or “head” elder along with associate or junior pastors and leaders is not in the New Testament. Elders and pastors were regular church members who were gifted in leadership and other teaching and pastoring gifts. Since these gifts were given by the Holy Spirit, the individuals so gifted were acknowledged and expected to function using their gifts for the edification (building up) of the body. They had no concept of these words (pastor, elder, bishop) describing an organizational position or a separate category of holiness. Jesus Christ was considered the only “head” of the church.
In my opinion, our modern traditions and expectations about the “senior pastor” position are more similar the the Roman Catholic “priest” idea than to the New Testament concept and practice. Others have called this phenomenon the “pedestal complex” (Chuck Colson and others) and have written and spoken extensively about the inherent dangers. In the New Testament, all believers are saints, priests, and uniquely gifted by the Holy Spirit to function and serve in the body of Christ. No one is more important or necessary than another. All are equal in Christ… this is the message of the Gospel.
When we put pastors, elders or other church leaders in a special category, or up on a pedestal as it were – consciously or subconsciously – we are practicing another form of idolatry.
Finally, I am also pained by the somber, joyless and introspective manner in which we often focus on the Lord’s Supper. What happened to experiencing it as an actual meal (as the original was) and a body life celebration or a “love feast?” Why have we abandoned that tradition of the early church? When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about their excesses in it, he never suggested that they discontinue the love feast altogether!
I my mind’s eye I can imagine a group of believers gathered around a meal in a home, weaving together fellowship, prayer, song, thanksgiving, confession, and scripture reading, as they also share bread and wine to remember what Jesus Christ did on their behalf. I hear responses in laughter, quiet reflection or prayer as well as the whole range of human emotion and expression as they “do this in remembrance of me.”
I find myself longing for that experience.