My second ministry position was a lesson in the danger of being a visionary.
The church was a two or three-year-old plant when I joined the staff, and it was full of life. We held services in a coffee house. Our music was intimate and unpolished. Our preaching was relevant. We staff members had a very clear picture in our minds of the ideal congregation, and everything we did helped move church members toward that picture. We were a testimony to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s observation in Life Together, that the zealous minister “set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and try to realize it.”
I only wish I had read Bonhoeffer then. He goes on in the first chapter of that wonderful little book to explain the danger of vision for a church:
The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly…He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself…
You can see where this is going. By the end of my tenure there, we had failed to make our expectations a reality. Many of the founding families left, and several of the new members had a different vision for where our congregation ought to go. I left totally disillusioned and uncertain of my calling. Fortunately Bonhoeffer speaks to this condition as well:
Only the fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God’s sight…The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both.Although it was painful, I learned as I watched my vision for our church deteriorate, that it had been my vision, and not the Lord’s. My efforts there had been to recast the congregation in my image, to create a space in which I was perfectly comfortable. Only after losing hope in my own vision of Christian fellowship could I begin see God’s vision. So how do you know that you’re chasing your own vision of the church, and not God’s? I’m sure there are other ways, but here are a few questions that might have helped me.
1. Do you surround yourself with a select group of church members who share your vision of ministry?2. Do you, at the same time, find yourself annoyed with or patronizing toward other church members who do not share your vision?
3. Do you perceive constructive criticism as a threat to your influence? Are you tempted to view your ministry partners as rivals or competition?
4. Do you hold your ministry partners to unusually high standards express disappointment when they fail to perform to your liking?
5. Do you feel the need to keep close oversight of all the church’s ministries?
There was a point when my answer to all of these questions—if I were honest—would have been “yes.” Sadly, I think if you had asked others at the church to answer those questions about me, their answers would have been “yes” as well. It’s difficult to hide visionary arrogance. What Bonhoeffer calls us to do, on Jesus’ authority, I believe, is labor faithfully where we are, “even when there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty.” This requires relinquishing control in a culture that values quantifiable success nearly above all else.
It requires, too, a commitment to incisive self-reflection through which we identify these tendencies in ourselves. It may involve asking someone else—someone you can trust to be honest—whether he or she sees these tendencies in you. The fruit, in Bonhoeffer’s words again, is that “our fellowship [will] grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.”
But the risk is great. Are we willing to ask hard questions to ensure our vision comes from Christ?
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Comments
There are so many fine lines here. I want to agree that on the one hand we should be content with what we have, but on the other hand we need to strive for progress, growth, health--right?
Is it right for a church to "fire" a pastor for not making a stated growth-in-attendance goal?
How do we tell the difference between "settling" and "being faithful"?
Posted by: Rick Payton | June 6, 2008 9:24 AM
Interesting. Is there a particular reason you didn't mention the vision Christ laid out for the church in the New Testament? Was that a 'given' or are you one of those who believes that cultural relevance is more important than propositional truth?
As the cynical daughter of a Baptist pastor I have seen just about everything there is to see about ministry gone awry and have come to the conclusion that the way we do church looks nothing like the intended vision Christ had for us. I wholeheartedly believe that the institutional, formulaic, corporate system of church government is completely wrong and counterproducvtive; I also believe the 'missional' experiment is even worse. A 'church' based on post-modern philosophy, compounded by a tangible anti-evangelical bias, borne out of rebellion and without the benefit of a clear belief system is even further from the Biblical mandate. In short---a recipe for disaster.
The early churches were held in homes where people knew each other. They shared a common Faith and understood what Grace actually meant. Even though we have so much more scripture than they did, we seem to have trouble with the definition of Grace in our modern church culture; on the conservative side, Grace seems to be something we work for, and on the 'emerging' agenda, it appears to be the equivalent of an 'indulgence,' or a way of justifying a worldly lifestyle. Both views are seriously missing the point.
In answer to Rick's question, I'd like to ask another; How do you define progress, growth, and health and is a steady increase in attendance an important goal or should it just be a byproduct of what we're doing right? There are many reasons to suggest a pastor needs to move on, but I can tell you that a low church attendance has more to do with the warmth and openness of the congregation than it does with the advertising efforts of the pastor.
Many of the problems associated with organized evangelical churches--including missional--are issues about knowledge, (actual Bible study) passionate discipleship, and accountability---none of which are easy to find in this spiritual wasteland we call church.
Posted by: marilyn | June 9, 2008 6:12 PM
Thanks for posting this. I saw this at work in our church last year that caused a minor split. There were those, including me, who looked down on others as spiritually inferior and instead of focusing on serving them, submitting to leaders and trusting God, they separated themselves (in a youth ministry, which is easy to do) and spent most of their energy accusing people and criticizing the leadership. They eventually left and took a few people with them. Now they meet in a house church because they believe there are no churches in the area worthy of them.
I was one of them, but I realized what was happening before it was too late and confessed my sin to those I looked down. Miraculously, I now passionately love the believers I once despised. Josh Harris' Stop Dating the Church helped me a lot to see that Jesus is madly in love with the church, as imperfect as it is, and that I insult my Lord if I don't love it like he does. Harris also helped me see that those who don't love and are committed to a local church are not only unbiblical, they are anti-biblical.
Posted by: Dan | June 12, 2008 6:16 PM