Thursday, March 06, 2008

When will the church live out the vision?

I grow increasingly weary of the church. I understand how many have lost their 'faith'- not in God, but in the human enterprise which seeks to represent him. I'm especially tired of modernistic mainline denominational thinking. And I think if I hear "well, that's they way it's done in businesses" as an excuse to behave in a totally worldly way one more time, I might retch. So what if that works for a Fortune 500 company- that's not a good reason to treat church ministers the same as you would a cubicle dwelling data entry clerk. "Best practices" simply are the most efficient ways to make profits and get businesses lean, mean and ever chugging towards their capitalistic goals. Is that the same mission as the church's? Aren't the 'best practices' for Christians ones that involve denying oneself, taking care of others and generally saying no to a constant satiation of appetite? And the corporate world is all about consumption, accumulation, looking out for oneself and encouraging more appetites so you can sell more product? So if we don't have anywhere near the same missions, why should we use the same practices? Of course, the unnamed elephant in the room, is that for many, the church is but one more capitalistic enterprise, seeking to franchise its way into being the most prominent 'brand' of Christianity around.
Perhaps even more disturbing to me than this omnipresent trend of Christian capitalism, is the very few people who would agree with me, or find any ethical dilemma in having a church work as a company, complete with the pastor as CEO and vestry as the board of directors. There is, after all, a certain size of church that gets called a "corporate parish". There is far too much interest in bottom line and balanced budgets all in the name of maintenance, and very little discourse on sacrificial living for mission. We must keep the doors open, the heat on and the preacher's salary paid so we can.....what? So we can have a great building to open up for 2 hours a week and meet together and feel good about the 3% of our budget we're giving to the poor. When, oh when, might we stop trying to emulate the 'success' of the corporation and finally start living the alternative( as in different than those of the world) lifestyles of Jesus followers?

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