There’s little room for the body in the modern church
I remember hearing it from a celebrated pastor of a massive church. He was visiting a sister ministry in an effort to help navigate some uncertainty and confusion within the community. One of their highly-respected and well-loved leaders had recently and abruptly disappeared from leadership, and moved away.
After a generous introduction and an affectionate greeting to the room he opened with his counsel to the larger community:
“If God wants your gift to be elevated, he will do that all on his own, in his timing.”
Interesting…
It wasn’t the first time I heard this message—I’d heard it seemingly dozens of times across multiple platforms and pulpits—but this was the first time I was honest about my feelings towards it.
Specifically my disagreement with the context of this statement. It wasn’t that I think there’s no truth to what was said; it’s that underneath this humility-centric message is quite often an underlying control mechanism. There’s a form of narrative-coercion that plays on the desire to be a pure-hearted follower of Jesus.
But to get there we first need to peek into the rest of this often-repeated sermon.
As the message continued another theme sprung up hand-in-hand with humility: the theme of God’s sovereign “favor” or “spotlight” as some call it. To find God’s favor, and ultimately to experience his “spotlight” would require quiet faithfulness in your current church. And as is common, this evolved into a disapproval of people who leave one church to go to another; specifically it was a sort of accusation toward anyone who left because they “wanted the spotlight.”
“If you want the spotlight, start with cleaning the toilets.”
“If you want the spotlight, serve in the nursery.”
“If you want the spotlight, help set up before service, and clean up after.”
Humility. Who can’t get behind that? Surely this is the way. And surely anything different reveals an arrogant heart. After all, we have the scriptures to back it up:
It’s right there in Matthew 23:12: “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” and in James 4:6 we are reminded so clearly that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
These are the words of Jesus and his brother, James—surely this is wholly applicable here. And I would say that, yes, humility is the way. Always.
But what if this situation—when people leave one church for another so they can contribute more (or they simply leave altogether)—isn’t actually about humility and arrogance?
What if we have the context wrong in our application? What if it points more to an inability to value others than it does their ability to prove themselves faithful and humble?
Who God made us to be
Over the years I’ve served in a “teaching” role at various churches and ministries and I remember how often I was taken by the people sitting in front of me. I remember looking at older men and women who had demonstrated faithful, selfless lives; lives full of gentleness and wisdom that was so needed in community.
I remember sitting with many of them, exploring their memories and the stories they had to tell. They shared tales of decades-long love and navigating a life through pain and loss; some had stories of crushing failure and life-altering resurrection, of rising and falling and learning to walk with a limp; others offered gently what it took to re-learn a life lived with joy and wonder.
They had experienced so much, and had so much to give. Yet I was the one on stage with a mic using some of my gifts while they sat in the seats on theirs.
Over time some would come to me or another leader to share their ideas, their dreams, their passions in hopes that these might come to life within our community. Some were enthusiastic and verbose, others were hesitant and quiet but clearly passionate.
And I rarely knew what to do… or even what I could do for them.
I remember that for the vast majority it wasn’t the stage or platform they were seeking, they just wanted to more fully be themselves in community. They wanted to use what God had given them to encourage and build up the people around them. They had dreams of God moving in and through his people in ways that maybe hadn’t been seen yet in that community.
But ultimately the response, in one way or another, was often, you know, “start with cleaning the toilets…”
The problem was that, for many, they had been “cleaning toilets” for decades now. What they were looking for was the chance to more fully be themselves within the community; being their unique part of the body as the apostle Paul describes it.
But it’s almost like they had been told instead, “if you want to be the part God made you to be, you need to first be the spleen until he shines his favor on you, and then you can go be the hand he formed you into.”
But honestly, for most, it didn’t seem to matter how good they were at being a spleen…
The dynamics of vision and power
In my life behind the scenes of modern church ministry I remember three primary dynamics that determined how much someone could be supported if they managed to cross the threshold of consideration.
The first was how much their idea or approach aligned with the unique vision and direction of the church itself. At the time this made sense to me; there was pretty much always a unique calling that set this church apart from the others and it was our responsibility to maintain and propagate that unique vision.
This seemed to work. It provided a reference for decision making, and made it far easier to tell people that their idea, passion, interest, etc didn’t really fit in the larger picture and it therefore couldn’t be supported.
But that sentiment is a problem.
Almost without exception, the unspoken mode seemed to be “tell them no” and find a reason. There was a big church organization to run and those who worked in the church were already tapped for time and energy, and almost certainly for money.
Unless it was an obvious alignment with church vision and it was also brought forward via some form of ingratiation, it didn’t tend to make the cut.
This was especially true when a second dynamic was at play, and this dynamic was the threat to leadership. Individuals who possessed a certain amount of charisma and likability, blended with experience and certain gift mixes, were never going to be allowed beyond the influence of what the top-leader sanctioned.
There was a very real fear of losing control. And I understand it—many of these leaders had spent years laboring to create what they had. Many had sacrificed more than they’d like to admit, and quite simply, I don’t think anyone wants to lose what they have built.
But that sentiment is the symptom of a greater problem: when it comes to the church we are not the builders, Jesus is. We are not the head, Jesus is. And when we believe that what we have labored in is ours, we have inserted ourselves into Jesus’ headship role.
We are the living stones (including the “leaders”) and Jesus is building us up together.
The result of this very-present, fear-driven reality is an approach to leadership that creates measures of increasing distance between the top and everyone underneath. Power differentials masked in Biblical language and human wisdom are introduced so that position could never be usurped, and in most cases could never even be challenged.
A strong individual building a more-successful something within the larger church ministry is seen as a threat—a challenge to leadership, whether that is the intention or not. And the most effective way to deal with this kind of threat is to eliminate it before it can manifest.
You see the deepest expression of true leadership is influence, and if someone else in community with greater charisma or gifting gains more influence… there is now a power struggle at play. The awareness of this reality leads to decision making that prevents the growth and elevation of other influential people in community.
Any former leader from a sizable church, if honest, would tell you this is at play more than it isn’t. And if they’re deeply honest, they would tell you that seeing the body of Christ in full use of their passion and gifts isn’t actually on the agenda.
The impossible context
There is so much power in a unique vision. It’s a rallying point, a gathering of passion, a claim of identity, and a path forward together. Proverbs 29:18 has graced the banners of more than a few churches:
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
The problem is that the pursuit of a unique vision for individual churches has led widely to the abandonment of the original vision for the body of Christ known as the church.
I never knew what to do with the ideas, passions, proposals and dreams brought to me by members of the body when I was in “church leadership”. I did my best to encourage while explaining generally that we couldn’t support them. Because we couldn’t. There was no way that the unique gifting and expression of every person could be supported within that church structure. We didn’t have the resources, personnel, finances or facilities to do it.
I think 99% of church leaders in the West would agree.
And that, that right there, is the problem.
It is also the third dynamic: we have adopted an approach to church that will never be able to embrace and support the full body of Christ in its midst, no matter how much resource we possess. We have embraced a structure that exists at the expense of the original vision and expression Jesus gave us for church—an expression for the body.
Paul is not unclear on how gatherings worked from the earliest days of the church. There was time and space for anyone who had something to share to do just that (1 Corinthians 14:26). There was room for all the gifts, for all the expressions. Honoring each other, giving place, prefering one another, submitting one to another—this was the context, this was the expression.
The structure and hierarchy we know today did not exist until roughly 320AD. There was not a value-distinction of equippers and equippees, there was simply the family who all possessed equipping gifts (see Ephesians 4:7), spread out in contexts where there was opportunity for every person to bring their part to the whole, for every person to be known and valued, for every person to belong.
Modern Western expressions of church simply disregard the original context. Most often because they’re doing what they’ve always done or doing what they saw somewhere else. I think many aren’t aware of this because many aren’t observing and asking necessary questions… but for those who are aware and have asked questions, most still choose not to change because they believe it to be too costly.
I’ve heard it first-hand from many church leaders.
So when I now hear, “If God wants your gift to be elevated, he will do that all on his own, in his timing” I know that it’s not really about the encouragement to choose humility; it’s actually a reflection of a system that can’t authentically and functionally support the body of Christ.
It’s the result of structures that inherently bestow a power differential into the hands of a few near the top, at the expense of the many good-hearted people who genuinely want to help and make a difference around them.
From my vantage, this is no small thing. It’s costing us the body of Christ; costing us the revelation of God in his people in all of his diverse wonder, wisdom, beauty and power.
May we have the courage not just to admit our faults and the brokenness of the structures we uphold, but may we have the courage to live this Christian life differently, together.
Oh yea… that story from the beginning? It turned out the well-loved pastor had been cut off in a day. He had been gaining too much influence and asked questions that weren’t welcome, threatening the hierarchy.
So they brought in a bigger name to denounce his exit and keep people from asking questions or hearing of the abuse that occurred behind the scenes. All tied up in a beautiful scripture-filled, humility-themed sermon.
I feel like I’m hearing this story all too often these days…
The Response is an encouragement to do something with your discomfort. Respond to your own frustration and curiosity. Ask hard questions, try something new.
There are still fields where the sun shines.
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"When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up."