Eugene Peterson on Church Leadership Today

Got this from a friend of a friend of a friend (in the blogosphere, that is). From Eugene Peterson:

“American pastors are abandoning their posts, left and right, and at an alarming rate. They are not leaving their churches and getting other jobs. Congregations still pay their salaries. Their names remain on the church stationary and they continue to appear in pulpits on Sundays. But they are abandoning their posts, their calling. They have gone whoring after other gods. What they do with their time under the guise of pastoral ministry hasn’t the remotest connection with what the church’s pastors have done for most of twenty centuries.

A few of us are angry about it. We are angry because we have been deserted…. It is bitterly disappointing to enter a room full of people whom you have every reason to expect share the quest and commitments of pastoral work and find within ten minutes that they most definitely do not. They talk of images and statistics. They drop names. They discuss influence and status. Matters of God and the soul and Scripture are not grist for their mills.

The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper’s concerns–how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customers will
lay out more money.

Some of them are very good shopkeepers. They attract a lot of customers, pull in great sums of money, develop splendid reputations. Yet it is still shopkeeping; religious shopkeeping, to be sure, but shopkeeping all the same. The marketing strategies of the fast-food franchise occupy the waking minds of these entrepreneurs; while asleep they dream of the kind of success that will get the attention of journalists.

The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated
responsibility in the community. The pastor’s responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades.”

Peterson's comments run a little counter to my idea of church polity (I believe in a plurality of pastor/elders as opposed to the Presbyterian model of a singular head "pastor"), but they're prophetic to this age of Christian leaders.

Pastoral Training Today

My good friend Anonymous' (probably a more creative screen name needed) comment on the One-Stop Shopping post got me thinking about the changes that are coming to how we train the next generation of Christian leaders. This is of particular interest to me, as a professor of a "classic" Bible College -- but hopefully I'm more concerned about the growth/expansion of the Kingdom of God rather than my own job security.

The preacher-training schools got started because the church wasn't doing it's job. That's the truth of every parachurch organization. It is the job of the church to train up it's own in the study of the Word (2 Tim 2:2) and in the service of the Kingdom. Paul doesn't recommend that Timothy start an accredited school with different degree offerings, he's more interested in a mentor-disciple model (which makes sense given Paul's Jewish heritage).

We at the college where I teach are starting to worry about our relationship with our brotherhood's larger churches -- that the megachurches are no longer sending their brightest ministry candidates to the bible colleges but instead training them on their own.

Why aren't we applauding this instead? Isn't this what the church is supposed to do?

The problem, as I understand from my collegues (and agree with to a certain extent), is that the depth of study of the Word in the megachurch isn't at the level of the bible college. Okay, granted -- they're not learning Greek or church history. In addition, ministry training in these larger churches is mostly about learning the mechanisms already in place in the church rather than developing real pastoral skills. Will those who have come up "through the ranks" in the megachurches be able to adapt once the mechanisms of the church are forced to change with the culture?

The time has come for some real creative thinking between our "training institutions" and the churches. With the internet, virtual/video classrooms, and networking potential, a student could stay at home, be mentored in ministry by his/her elders and church staff, all the while taking excellent classes in the study of Scripture, church history, apologetics, and theology. Why not also have professors "making the rounds" to some areas with a number of churches for intensive week-long and weekend classes?

It's time to think "out of the box" about how we train future Christian leaders. The kingdom is just too vast to be contained by the campuses of a few bible colleges/seminaries. Let's think less about protecting our "territory" and more about unleashing the incredible potential the body of Christ has on the world.

Half-Finished Thoughts

Yes, I know I'm rather inconsistent on this blog (my very first response told me so!). Today I was pondering why this is.

The problem for me in writing down these thoughts (other than my ADHD, which you can see from the numerous parenthetical comment; like this one, for instance) is that I'll have an experience or an idea and think, "this would make a good blog post." But, in the course of thinking about how I'll frame it, it'll die right there. The reason it dies is because I have this tendency to want to wrap everything in a pretty little bow -- take a thought/experience, derive some sort of life-affirming or life-challenging lesson from it, and end with a cute last line.

I blame my training as a preacher for this.

But, I guess, the thing about life is that your experiences don't always lead to life-affirming or life-challenging conclusions. And they certainly don't end with a cutesy last lines. No, they just are.

So, from time-to-time, I may present some half-finished thoughts -- some ideas that could have been whole posts on their own, if I could have figured out how to present them as such. And maybe you, dear reader, could find the life-affirming or challenging lesson in them and comment below. Cute last lines are not required, though appreciated.

• We had Convocation last Monday, with the inauguration of Matt Proctor as president of OCC. Fantastic move on the school's part, fantastic message from Matt, fantastic image as he chose to wash the feet of a freshman student at the close of the message. As Matt began talking about John 13 and "taking up the basin," I started wondering, "will he do it here tonight." And he did. And it was incredibly moving.
• The only thing that slightly bothered me ("bothered" is even probably too strong a word) was how, while the worship was led from the piano only and not our usual full band with guitars and drums, it was the same songs we always sing. Is it a bad thing to have a hint of formality at such a historic occasion, and maybe sing a historical hymn of the faith? Do we always have to sing the "now" songs? For some reason, we here at OCC bristle at any hint of "formality," as though formal is the opposite of genuine. Is casual always better?
• We held the Community Volunteer Expo last night, and it was good as always -- maybe not great, but okay (in my view, the CVE is like pizza. . . even if it's just okay, it's still pizza). Again was amazed at the diversity of the ministries that happen in such a place as Joplin (I don't care what Mark Driscoll thinks of the place. . . but, then again, I like gravy).

Well, that's it for now -- I'll be back as often as the spirit inspires (though maybe the HS doesn't want the blame for this).

[Cute last line still intact]

I Miss Accountability

Summer at the college is lonely. I have had actual days where I have not seen or spoken to anyone.

Now, part of this is healthy. As Bonhoeffer says, he who cannot be alone should beware of community. Unless I am secure in my solitary relationship with God, I am of no good to the community. But St. Dietrich also says that he who is not in community should beware of being alone. . . and that's where I feel I've been for the last few months.

Since I work in an office building that is largely unoccupied during the summer, away from the busyness of the admin building, I have had a lot of freedom this summer. Freedom to wear what I want (shorts and sandals have been my attire for most of this dreadfully hot summer), freedom to come in when I want (after Regis and Kelly!) and freedom to leave when I want.

Now, I like this freedom -- and I certainly shouldn't complain about it! But the laissez faire attitude has effected my mood and my devotional life as well.

There have been some real spiritual highlights this summer, and none of them have come when I was alone. They have all come when I was in a community -- and when I was held accountable in a community.

Accountability is not always come with direct questions and pointed fingers. Sometimes it's passive, unspoken . . . but nonetheless there. I was late for an ordination service I spoke at -- and it's bothered me since. Not because 10 minutes makes that big of a difference in the scheme of eternity, but because I should have been there on time. The bride at a wedding I performed was 25 minutes late -- do you think she'll repress that anytime soon?

We have expectations of one another. And we should -- because what we're involved in is so important that we can't afford a freedom-bordering-on-apathetic attitude. In a couple of weeks, I get to stand before students and talk about such things as faith, living a life "worthy of the calling we have received" (Eph 4:1), and he beauty of God's bride, the Church. And as valuable as those lectures will be for the students (hopefully!), the expectations of those lectures will have a profound effect on me.

My community returns! They come tired, ready, confused, energetic, and much smarter than I'll ever be. Glory, Hallelujah!