Separation of church and life

Note: This blog was birthed from a conversation we had with some friends on New Year's Eve. Alcohol was not involved- but the Wii and pizza rolls were, so I cannot be held responsible for the ideas therein. Blame Tortinos and Nintendo.

One of the core tenants of Christianity is our oneness with Christ. Galatians 3:26-28 says "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile...slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (NIV). And in John 17:20-21 (also NIV), Jesus is recorded as saying "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me".

I have been chewing on this concept in bits and pieces over the past couple months. Now, I don't really think I'm inventing the wheel here- but like any good blogger with thoughts on his mind and a keypad at his fingertips, I'm gonna put it out there and act like it's the greatest thing since canned bread.

As I mentioned, we had some friends over on New Years eve. We kind of started talking about the development of a sort of independence in our spiritual lives- how we were coming to a point where the church was an asset in this, as opposed to an end-all-be-all. While conversing, I was reminded of something that a wise man once told me in regards to prayer- I hadn't been (in my mind) diligent about praying for something. He asked me if I had thought about it, and I replied that I had. He told me that I had prayed about it. It wasn't until our convo on New Years, though, that the implication of that idea really hit me. If I am in Christ, my very thoughts are prayers. (Or at least, can be. I really hope a lot of the drivel that goes on in my mind doesn't make it past the gatekeeper).

Obviously this isn't something new under the sun- in fact, this very idea has been spoken in probably every church that I've been to. But the real, practical life application has been taken a little while to sink in.

So during this renaissance of thought in regard to the role of the church in our lives, I have been processing the role of capitalism within our society, particularly in regards to the church and its role in our lives. How the attitudes and practices that are ingrained in us through our economic system can subtly infiltrate other areas of our lives. It's a lot of scattered thoughts, ideas, and musings. Really at this point, my goal for this blog is to reach the end with a fairly cohesive and somewhat coherent post. Anything above that is gravy, really.

Let's start by defining what the church is. Nowadays, we associate the word church primarily with the place we go on Sundays. The early church was a horse of a different color.

Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer....All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts...

This is the biblical "early church". Back then, the church was not just a building, or a social institution, or an organization. It was a group of people that were not only totally devoted to a cause- they were totally devoted to each other. Simply put, the church was the people- and the people were a family.

Fast forward to today, and the church looks...different. I mean, yeah, a lot of things look very different- technological advances and improvements in hygiene can do that for you. But the structure of the church looks really different. It is not so much a collection of people whose lives are interwoven- it's more like a patchwork quilt.

How does capitalism come into this picture? Patience, my young Padawans.

For those that aren't 100% sure what capitalism is, I will tell you. According to The Truth, capitalism is "an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit; decisions regarding supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are made by private actors in the free market; profit is distributed to owners who invest in businesses, and wages are paid to workers employed by businesses and companies" (I took the whole thing from the page I hyperlinked...but in case you don't click it, it's from Wikipedia).

So there are some key concepts that I want to tie into some areas where I feel that we have deviated from the early church.

1) Wages are paid to workers employed by businesses and companies
In a capitalist society, the primary way in which most of us acquire resources to live is through the trade of our time for currency. Laymen's terms- time=money. Aside from rendering most of us unable to survive apart from our socially created occupations (including yours truly), it ingrains in us the idea that in order to get something, we have to give it- a principle of fair exchange.

It is in this environment (or market) that a church is forced to compete- people live in a world where they have to gauge the cost-efficiency of whatever purchase or activity they wish to participate in. So in that manner, a church has to format itself to this mindset. They are competing against other weekend activities.

Now different churches will combat this in different ways- some may have modern music, some may really cool technology, amongst other things. But most churches will definitely have their service packed into a finite period of time, and set up some sort of schedule to ensure that finite period of time is adhered to. A service is broken up into various activities- worship, prayer, offering, sermon- many will have additions of some sort, but the general look is the same. The goal is to pack as much spirituality into that time period as possible to reach the most people. I would posit that like businesses, most churches are not really worried about the outliers- the 'Christmas/Easter' crowd or the Fired Up bunch- it's the middle section, the people on the fringe so to speak, that make or break it. So the church has to make sure that for these people, the bang is proportionately bigger than the buck.

I'm not trying to say that all churches intentionally try and do this, and I'm not saying that these activities do not have spiritual significance. But look at the early church. Those people were there because they wanted to be there. They loved God, they loved their cohort- to the point where they sold everything they had! Nowadays, we come together on Sunday mornings (and maybe a couple times during the week), and maybe talk to some people sometimes. But for the most part, we aren't being the church- we're doing church. We are living separate lives that sometimes intersect, but aren't really bound together by anything of substance.

2) Means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit
To control the means of production is to control power. If I am able to dictate the terms of the production of some item- I have power over that item. I can decide who gets it, how much they get, and how much they are going to give me for it. Obviously in economics, the laws of supply and demand will temper that power to a degree- it doesn't matter how much power over an item that I have if no one actually wants it. But what about the church?

Now this will probably be a touchy subject, and I will attempt to navigate it with the same degree of care that Anakin Skywalker did when he was in the pod race. Actually, probably more care than that. Since he almost killed himself.

Because of the spiritual nature of church, and the enormous implications of spirituality in the lives of many people, the church is given a significant amount of power right from the onset. While many people can obtain or be given power for different reasons, there is one person who is granted a degree of power and respect simply for the title that he has- the pastor.

Now, I have been very blessed to know some great pastors- men that love God and are very approachable human beings. I don't think ill of any of them, and they've all played a huge role in my development as a young man and as a Christian. I don't believe that any of them tried to abuse their position.

However, the power of their platform is that we allow them to speak on God's behalf. And that is an immense amount of power for someone to have. Like I said, I don't know any of my pastors that have willingly abused this power. I'm 100% confident that they believe they were specifically called by God to do this ministry. And I don't disagree with them or disbelieve them- I'm just throwing out thoughts here.

It is an interesting offshoot of the modern church set-up- fallible human beings, just like me, responsible for leading the spiritual lives and growth of numbers of other fallible human beings. I know there are many biblical-based spiritual gifts that tie into the pastoral position as we know it. And I know that even the early church was still involved with the local religious establishment. I just think that the church now is set up to be more of a spoon-feeding institution as opposed to an empowering one.

What I mean is that the church now is not an open forum. There is no real place for discussion. This is a setting where one person comes to preach and the rest come to listen. Can you see how that might be a little problematic? This is not an environment that fosters deep thinking and open questioning. This is an environment that says "I am the Pastor. I hear from God. Therefore, the words that I give to you are words from God". And if you have paid any attention at all to events in, say, the Middle East- you know that one of the quickest way to a volatile situation is to question or doubt another person's "God card".

Pastors aren't the only ones that are granted a portion of power. The worship leader (side tangent- why does worship almost always involve music in churches today? Are there no other ways to worship?) also wields power- music is a huge emotional conduit, and the right songs or musical mood can make all the difference in a person's worship experience. Hey, I love worship music- as a drummer, I find it to be an amazing outlet to express my worship and praise. And I really enjoy the magic of being able to share that experience with other musicians.

But I do struggle at times with the knowledge that because of the power of the medium (music)- that realistically, I can help manipulate the mood by which drums or cymbals I use, or the dynamics of build-ups. As musicians, we have a type of power, and we have to be very careful of how we use that power.

Of course, there is political power as well. All you need is a couple Bible verses- in or out of context- and a cause, and you have a pretty well united block of voters. And you know what? I was there. That was me, sitting in the pews, listening to messages and sermons and such, allowing my world view to be shaped by what others were saying. I used to vote for candidates strictly by what their policy was on abortion. In 2004, I voted for George W. Bush because he opposed gay marriage. Seriously- that was the issue for me. And I've heard many other preachers and speakers tell congregations what God considers to be the most important issues in the political climate. That's serious power.

I don't want to say that the early church was perfect- but it's pretty obvious to me that power wasn't really an issue. Yes, there were apostles, and they devoted themselves to their teaching- but it seems to me that they processed it together, as a unified social group, as opposed to just sitting there and soaking these words in as a collection of individuals.

3) Profit is distributed to owners who invest in businesses
Ah yes- the "haves" versus the "have nots". An age old struggle in humanity, and unfortunately one that rears its ugly head in churches today. Because of the spiritual nature of the power at play, cliques can arise with devastating consequences.

How do you get to be a "have" in the church? How do you get to be in the clique? You invest in the business- that is, you are ultra-involved. Go to all the services. Do the activities. Listen to the messages and say the amens at the right times. Interact with the right people. Say the right things. Put your best spiritual foot forward at all times.

Of course...if you're a "have-not", and you have an understanding of what the church is supposed to be like, and you're not really feeling it- where do you turn? Because Christianity is so dependent on the subjective religious experiences of its adherents in the broader scope of a supposedly objective framework, it can be very frustrating when your beliefs or ideas do not fit in with those accepted by those on the inside.

Again, I can't say that the early church would solve all the problems and make everyone feel like a hero. But look at the description- these people sold all they had, gave to everyone who had need. They hung out every day. Every. Day. They broke bread together. This doesn't strike me as the type of people that would take a laissez faire approach to those that felt like they were falling out of the group.




So what do these thoughts all mean? Am I saying that we should tear down the church buildings and sell our homes and go live with other people that sold their homes? Yes. I mean no. I mean....I don't know what I mean.

I am not talking about dismantling organized religion- I believe that churches have uses, particularly in the organization of humanitarian efforts and things like that. Because of the leadership hierarchy and organization structure of a church, they can move much faster in organizing aid to Haiti, for example, than can a loose group of people. And I do think that todays church can serve as an excellent supplement to the body of Christ as a whole.

Besides, the early church still met at the temple every day, and were immersed in the teaching of the apostles. I do believe that there is a need to have organized teaching of the Bible- it's a pretty big book, after all.

But I think it's very important that we look at the role of the church in our lives- are the people more important- or the institution? I'm not even just talking about the physical building- I mean, churches themselves will tell you that it's not about the location- but unfortunately, I feel that the church today falls short of teaching us the appropriate alternative.

Here's where I bring back that whole concept of being one with Christ. You remember, don't you? All the way up at the top of the page. The....first paragraph? The one that led off this whole shebang and then promptly fell off the radar? Yeah. Yeah! That's the one!

Because of our position as being one with Christ, we don't have to go somewhere to do this spiritual thing- it's wherever we are. We take it with us at all times. When the Bible says that they will know we are Christians by our love, I don't think it was talking about anything the American church is. I believe that it's talking about the acts of love that the early church showed to each other.

Human beings are social creatures, and people just want to belong- there is security when we are in a group, knowing that there is someone out there who has our back. The early church sold their own belongings for the benefit of others. They were intricately involved in each others lives- a cycle of self-perpetuating unity.

So how do we integrate that into our very busy 21st century lives? I think a good place to start is by putting away pretenses and just letting people get involved in the nitty gritty details of us. We are all people that have blemishes and imperfections- but we try to move forward in our spiritual growth by putting our best foot forward. There is no time to be broken. The show must go on. We can't rely on our churches to take us into this realm of unity- we have to take a step of faith and initiate the effort.

A practical way that we have walked this out is to have people over when your house is messy. This was a big step for Sara and I- we used to work very hard when we knew we were having people over to get the house as clean as we possibly could. But that's not being real with people- that's us, controlling the situation, wearing our happy face, and allowing others to see the side of us that we want to have seen.

But come on- how often do we actually keep our house clean and spotless- especially with toddlers? Not very often. And so gradually we started to relax on this. Now, we do try to make sure there is a semblance of order, and I do feel a little self-conscious about clutter when we have visitors. You know what though? This is us- this is our life- and if you want to be a part of it (which we would like you to, since we're having you over) then you have to be able and willing to look past our faults and flaws and to see us for the human beings that we are, and the greatness we are trying to achieve.

This is where I think the church fails to teach us how to be the church- because to be the church, you have to be a human being. You have to be able to love, unconditionally, as Christ loves. And right now, I don't believe that we taught that- not in its fullness, anyways. It wasn't until I entered into the social work program that I feel I learned how to be a human being. I learned how to separate the parts of a person that would reduce them to a label or category and appreciate them for the human being that they are.

How do we "be" humans? Short of entering into the Social Work program at NMU...I can't tell you a checklist. Here's something you can do, though. Find someone that represents a demographic that you hold predjudice against. Maybe it's skin color, or political/religious affiliation, or sexual orientation. Whatever the label, find someone with that label, and try to get to know them. Not to win their souls, or to bring them into the fold- but just get to know them. Humble yourself. Listen to them. Learn what it is to be them. What makes them who they are. Let them set the agenda. We are one in Christ, right? So we shouldn't have to worry about what to say or what to do or what to condemn. If we are cultivating our relationships (both with God and other people) then we can just 'be', and out of our being will come the fruit of love and sacrifice that came with the early church package.

I now sit and await my pending excommunication. Or becoming a saint. Whichever comes first.