Barry's Blog

Mon,Aug 20 2007 08:20:26 AM

"Henri J.M. Nouwen, in his book “The Way of the Heart” wrote something that I thought got to the point of the church-worship issue. “The Compulsive Minister” is the work that follows.

Thomas Merton writes in the introduction to his “The Wisdom of the Desert:”
Society was regarded [by the Desert Fathers] as a shipwreck from which each single individual man had to swim for his life These were men who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster.

This observation leads us straight to the core of the problem. Our society is not a community radiant with the love of Christ, but a dangerous network of domination and manipulation in which we can easily get tangled and lose our soul. The basic question is whether we ministers of Jesus Christ have not already been so deeply molded by the seductive powers of our dark world that we have become blind to our own and other people’s fatal state and have lost the power and motivation to swim for our lives.

Just look for a moment at our daily routine. In general we are very busy people. We have many meetings to attend, many visits to make, many services to lead. Our calendars are filled with appointments, our days and weeks filled with engagements, and our years filled with plans and projects. There is seldom a period in which we do not know what to do, and we move through life in such a distracted way that we do not even take the time and rest to wonder if any of the things we think, say, or do are worth thinking, saying, or doing. We simply go along with the many “musts” and “oughts” that have been handed on to us, and we live with them as if they were authentic translations of the Gospel of our Lord. People must be motivated to come to church, youth must be entertained, money must be raised, and above all everyone must be happy. Moreover, we ought to be on good terms with the church and civil authorities; we ought to be liked or at least respected by a fair majority of our parishioners; we ought to move up in the ranks according to schedule; and we ought to have enough vacation and salary to live a comfortable life. Thus we are busy people just like all other people, rewarded with the rewards which are rewarded to busy people.

All this is simply to suggest how horrendously secular our ministerial lives tend to be. Why is this so? Why do we children of the light so easily become conspirators with the darkness? The answer is quite simple. Our identity, our sense of self, is at stake. Secularity is a way of being dependent on the responses of our milieu. The secular or false self is the self which is fabricated, as Thomas Merton says, by social compulsions. “Compulsive” is indeed the best adjective for the false self. It points to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. Who am I? I am the one who is liked, praised, admired, hated or despised. Whether I am a pianist, a businessman or a minister, what matters is how I am perceived by my world. If being busy is a good thing, then I must be busy. If having money is a sign of real freedom, then I must claim my money. If knowing many people proves my importance, I will have to make the necessary contacts. The compulsion manifests itself in the lurking fear of failing and the steady urge to prevent this by gathering more of the same—more work, more money, more friends.
These very compulsions are at the basis of the two main enemies of the spiritual life: anger and greed. They are the inner side of a secular life, the sour fruits of our worldly dependencies. What else is anger than the impulsive response to the experience of being deprived? When my sense of self depends on what others say of me, anger is a quite natural reaction to a critical word. And when my sense of self depends on what I can acquire, greed flares up when my desires are frustrated. Thus greed and anger are the brother and sister of a false self fabricated by the social compulsions of an unredeemed world.

Anger in particular seems close to a professional vice in the contemporary ministry. Pastors are angry at their leaders for not leading and at their followers for not following. They are angry at those who do not come to church for not coming and angry at those who do come for coming without enthusiasm. They are angry at their families, who make them feel guilty, and angry at themselves for not being who they want to be. This is not an open, blatant, roaring anger, but an anger hidden behind the smooth word, the smiling face, and the polite handshake. It is a frozen anger, an anger which settles into a biting resentment and slowly paralyzes a generous heart. If there is anything that makes the ministry look grim and dull, it is this dark, insidious anger in the servants of Christ.

They had come to appreciate how hard it is not only for the individual Christian but also for the church itself to escape the seductive compulsions of the world. What was their response? They escaped from the sinking ship and swam for their lives.
"

–Th

Mon,Aug 20 2007 08:14:00 AM

"rnFrom my armchair, I'll throw out a few thoughts.rnrn Worship has not just been trivialized it's been replaced by “large study groups.” In this society, personal witnessing can be prosecuted as a “hate crime” or “harassment” and definitely considered “not hip” even by many leaders in the church. So, how does one assuage the guilt of not “going out into the highways and byways” and “preaching the gospel?” That leads to the question, where has the “gospel” gone? Where are the preachers?"rnrn Instead of “going out” we have to entice them to “come in.” Once we get them in, very subtlety, hit them with the "good news." How will we do this? Offer them a comfortable, nonthreatning atmosphere with coffee, doughnuts, etc.; Give them today's music so they won't be bored. Give them food and clothes as a hook rather than out of compassion and generosity. Make sports and entertainment a high priority. Take surveys of the “unchurched” in the community and let “them” determine God’s will for the “churched.” Hire people that just want to study and teach but not have to take authority roles where hard, unpopular decisions have to be made. Oh, and the teacher will dress in a manner that is very in tune with the culture.rnrn As a result, the feeding of the “flock” or the “churched” happens at "small group" and the Sunday worship is now an “evangelical tool,” for the “unchurched,” that is more like a Sunday School class. All with a teacher, arts and crafts, refreshments, music, a lesson......all but a nap mat. rnrn Other tools are high tech marketing, writing books and the music business. While all of these are very legitimate forms of communication, they lead to fame and fortune which in turn contributes to the human struggle with humility, greed and the desire for self adulation. rnrn In the end, it seems that “evangelizing for Jesus” takes place in the church and the “feeding of the flock” is left for the “high ways and the byways.” In the effort to church the unchurched, the churched are in danger of becoming unchurched. What about the term churched instead of believer and unchurched instead of sinner? It must be that churched and unchurched is not so judgmental. But it sounds so clinical doesn’t it?rnrn A good friend of mine wrote a book, “Heaven Observed” where Qohelth, the preacher comes to the conclusion that “all is vanity under the sun” even if it's good works or religion. Doing the right things for the wrong reasons or the wrong things for the right reasons will not bring happiness. Maybe we are practicing the religion that Qohelth found empty. rn"

–Tom