A friend of mine is an elder at her church. She was telling me that she was working on a new policy for who uses the church building and how much they should charge people for its use and the personnel. I asked her if she writes many policies for things like that? She said that she has been in many committees and discussions on new policies her first year. I asked how many committees or discussions she has been on where they talked about releasing people to do ministry? She said none.
Hmmmm.
3 comments:
I think I've posted here on this before. Institutions are problematic. They, like we - I am sure because they are made up of us - are ever turning to their own interests and preservation rather than the Lord which they were created to glorify and serve. Unless the Christian body is going to splinter into groups of no more than 10 to 15 people, we will continue to need institutions to facilitate our existence as the body and further our efforts to corporately do that which Christ is doing in the world.
Institutions create freedom to do ministry
I affirm that freeing people up to do ministry is important. Institutional structure will do exactly that when it is functioning. If the body can not create a policy or corporate understanding of how the building will be used, outside groups won't be able to find out how to use it, won't know how to get permission from the body to use it, or it will be poorly managed and needs of one ministry won't be met versus the needs of another. When the institution is healthy and functioning, though, there is a structure that provides for logistical needs of ministry and allows freedom for people to do ministry.
Where are the chairs?
Without it, every time we get together we have to answer the questions, "How do we get chairs in here so we have a place to sit" and, "Can't we put these three hundred chairs somewhere so we have a place for our youth group to meet," and "Wow that is a spectacular 30,000 foot facility, wouldn't it serve Jesus better if Alcoholics Anonymous could use it one of the six and a half days a week that it sits dormant?"
I am enumerating the benefits of the institution because your post might suggest that we would be better off without it. Perhaps you did not intend this.
Calling the institution back to its intended purpose
My call, as I began, has not been to eliminate the institution, but forever to call it back to that for which it was created. As Christ continues to call me to lay down my life and serve him over and against my own selfish wants and desires to cling to my life, so Christ calls institutions to exist for his service rather than for their own growth and gain.
They need to be permission giving rather than hording so they facilitate rather than stifle ministry. They need also to create structures that allow us to be the body in groups larger than fifteen people.
(I posted this on my blog as well.)
Thanks for this Tony... it is well timed.
The church that I came to faith in just passed on holding the memorial service for my grandmother because they have a policy that only members and their families will have memorials there.
I went thru puberty there. I was their youth pastor for a spell. I was a member there for 15 years.
But... it's a new policy. They'd hate to make an exception.
Michelle, I am sorry to hear that the bureaucrats in your home church cared more for the strength of its institution than the ministry for which it was created. That is a common failing, and it is a shame.
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