What's Going On

I've been struggling for quite a while now with something going on in the church. I discussed this recently with a fellow pastor and his experience mirrored mine which was helpful because it demonstrated I'm not alone, or crazy, or simply a poor leader. Instead it led me to believe there is a genuine problem; one that needs to be addressed.

I don't really know how to express the issue succinctly, but basically it has to do with the fact that churches aren't producing disciples - real Christ-followers - anymore. Instead we seem to be creating fan-clubs (especially in evangelical circles); tribes of people bent on being "hipper," or "flashier," or whatever than the church down the street. This isn't new; the Bible teaches there's nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9), but that doesn't make the fact that it is happening any less troublesome.

In Paul's scolding of the church at Corinth he asks a rhetorical question: "When one of you says 'I am a follower of Paul,' and another says, 'I follow Apollos,' aren't you acting just like people of the world?'" (1 Cor. 3:4). These days in my particular neck of the woods Paul might phrase his question slightly differently: "When one of you says "I follow Andy (Stanley of Northpoint)" and another says, "I follow Louie (Giglio of Passion City Church)" aren't you acting just like people of the world?"

The really tough part of this problem is that it is so multi-faceted. For one thing, the two pastors mentioned above will both tell you, and mean it, that they did not set out to create "fan clubs." It just happened that way. Second, when a pastor (like me) criticizes one of these tribal fan clubs it comes across as "sour grapes" because the churches we (the other pastors, who are viewed as "less successful") haven't had the "success" the  other churches have, so we're accused of being overly critical or judgmental. Worst of all, when we (the other "less successful" pastors) lead our churches, they inevitably drift towards the model the "more successful" churches employ. Restated - take a healthy, idealistic pastor who plants a church with the understanding that this problem exists and "it's not going to happen to us" and slowly but surely things in worship, with children and youth, even church structure begins looking suspiciously like one of the current hot churches. This drift may be caused through the fault of the pastor, who is fed a constant stream of tweets, conferences and popular church and leadership books that tout this style church - or it could be from the near constant pressure exerted by the members of the pastor's "less successful" church who want to be the next latest and greatest thing so they continually press for what they see in the "more successful" churches.

Could it be our definition of success is less than biblical? Is our problem the same as the Corinthian problem - too much world in the church and not enough of the church out in the world? I confess I do not have the answer; if I did I'm sure I'd be out there trying to do something about it. One thing I do know - it's time for the church to at least acknowledge this is going on and to do something about it.

By the way, I'm confident I'm going to angry responses about this post. "I love my church!" people will cry. I know you do, and that's a healthy thing. But do you love your church - or your pastor or your band, or your facility, or anything about your church more than you love Jesus? I believe honestly wrestling with that question will lead us closer to a solution to this problem. It's definitely something to pray about.