I attribute it to the development of individualism in the founding of our nation. What began as a spirit that drove exploration and the establishment of civilization in the frontier, has grown to become isolationist.
Our stress on individualism is just as rampant in the Church as anywhere. We encourage followers of Jesus to have a "personal relationship" with Christ. We train people to discover "their own" passions, interests and places of ministry. And all of this has enabled the Church to grow, like a squid, into a multiplicity of ministry emphases. No matter the need globally, there are likely a dozen, perhaps hundreds of ministries devoted to that very thing. Be it developing worship music, providing clean water, treating AIDS, feeding the hungry in the inner city, translating the Bible, reaching out to homosexuals, building and staffing schools in the Third World, training women for jobs in oppressive cultures. . . everyone has a ministry.
I am beginning to wonder about how much of this we can tolerate and be effective. I don't mean to sound nit-picky toward a phenomenon which has caused so much good to be accomplished, but I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the thousands of ministries which plead for my help and money - via mail, e-mail, website banners, billboards, phone calls, television ads, news articles, appeals at concerts, and personal invitations by acquaintances. The omnipresence of ministries, at times, does not tantalize with options. It paralyzes me.
The local church often suffers from the same dilemma.
It is rooted, I believe, in the loss of true community and the inability to adopt common vision. As a minister in a local church I have seen it happen countless times - a great ministry initiative is proposed, backed by a very small group (maybe only one or two), but which cannot sprout wings and fly without a broad-based support. The proposal is innovative, exciting, bursting with potential. The listeners hear the plans and enthusiasm of the presenter(s) and feign their approval and support. And then. . . nothing happens.
You see, the "support" was the "I'm not opposed to that, so go for it and let us know how it's going" - not the "That is a great idea, how can I help us accomplish this?" The reasons for opting out of involvement sound justified.
"That's not my area of giftedness/interest/passion, but I think YOU should definitely run with it."
The potential ministry sits on the runway without fuel and never slices the blue skies.
The driven idealist will forge ahead and attempt to do what they can alone or with a skeleton crew, while everyone else tries to find her/his own niche. After time the local church becomes a multi-headed freak, doing everything, but few things well.
In Luke 10 we are given a peek into the home of Mary and Martha. The story contrasts the quiet devotional attitude of Mary with the frantic spirit of Martha. In vs. 40 Luke uses the word "distracted" to describe Martha's mindset. The word means to be pulled in many directions at the same time. Think of the guy spinning plates on the end of sticks, trying frantically to keep a dozen dishes spinning until the numbers and the effort become too much and everything begins to crash to the floor.
Has the Church started too many plates spinning?
The roots of our multi-directional distraction are pride and selfishness. We want to be the chief of our own ministry tribe.
"If it wasn't my idea, I don't want any part of it."
And we wear our selfishness on our lapel when we decline involvement in an existing ministry because it doesn't perfectly fit our plans.
I am in the ministry business - I know, a crude way to put it - and I have seen ministry morph into an image that Jesus did not intend. The Church universal has become an open market with an infinite number of vendors pushing different ministries. Walk along and sample.
Wouldn't it be bizarre if this was all Satan's idea? Divide and conquer. Have the people of God so scattered and fragmented in their efforts that they do little good because of their detachment from one another and their limited resources. Hmmmm.
The cornucopia of ministries seems to go against the grain of Jesus' prayer. It also paralyzes the power of the unified Church. How many missions should we support when we have phone calls every week wanting a mission work to present their ministry? How many events can crowd the church calendar before we have people worn out in many things, rather than sufficiently weary from a few powerful ones? Have we nickel-and-dimed our way in ministry, and done little more than underwrite administration costs, preventing sizable gifts which might become beacons of hope to the hurting? And is the multiplicity of local churches a declaration of this same isolated self-absorption?
Excuse my cynicism. I only yearn for the Church to become simpler that it might become the transformational power it could be.
Your thoughts?
2 comments:
Good thoughts Dave!
I kind of agree with you. It's really easy to get caught up in the number of ministries and not ever actually in a real way love people or share Jesus with them. Those who have a heart to help often end up overwhelmed and feel guilty because though they were asked to help with a new ministry, they don't have time or are already otherwise committed. That, or they commit to everything and become burned out or fatigued from the overload. It doesn't help that sometimes the people who come up with the ideas sometimes then look to those they recruit to help to do the leading and footwork, which further overwhelms those who commit to trying to serve.
That I guess sounds pretty negative... I don't really mean it that way. I guess what I'm saying is that we should be careful to be purposeful in our personal lives as well as in our churches' commitments and not be afraid to say 'no' if we are committed already. It is, like you said, better and more beneficial to do a few things well than to do everything in a half-way manner.
The back doors to our churches must close. The church hopping must stop! We must learn to be last of all and servant of all and to sit in the last chair.
Our love for God will prove insincere,
Our love for the world will prove ineffective,
until our love for one another proves indisputable.
I agree with your post.
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