unchurching

The excerpt below is entitled Raising Veal from unchurching by Richard Jacobson. Richard’s website is no longer active but you can still access his podcasts by going here. This book has some great points but the overall flow seemed a bit disjointed.

It was the Romans who eventually institutionalized the church, starting in the early 300’s. Previously, believers had only known church gatherings where each person participated in the meetings, where everyone was encouraged to bring a hymn, or a teaching, or a personal revelation, and so on. Clearly, the Romans had a very different vision for the church. And the moment Rome embraced Christianity as its national religion, they began implementing that vision.

The Romans had a great respect for oratory, the art of public speaking. This is why the layout of the new Roman church buildings made it clear the congregation was now an audience, expected to listen to lectures. One of the first things the Romans did to institutionalize the church was hire eloquent orators to serve as church priests. Employing such skilled, professional speakers helped elevate the role of priests far above their fellow church members.

Further levels of separation between these professional priests and their congregations were introduced through the addition of official robes and rituals. Over time, unbiblical words like “clergy” and “laity” entered the vocabulary of the church and solidified the divide. Likewise, special requirements for ordination were introduced and seminaries were formed. Eventually, any vision for church gatherings where every member exercised his or her calling as a fellow priest was lost and forgotten.

Many of today’s churches have maintained this trajectory and fully embraced a model in which church members get spiritually fed without ever exercising their calling as fellow priests. But how long can church members be spiritually spoon-fed before they develop a dependency? Developing this kind of dependency is known as becoming institutionalized. In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, an inmate named Red explains how, over time, prisoners become institutionalized:

“These walls are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.”

Today’s churchgoers enjoy sermons with PowerPoint slides, Sunday School lessons on whiteboards, Children’s Church, Bible studies, book studies, podcasts, and more. But what good is all this spiritual education unless it results in genuine spiritual formation? The Body of Christ doesn’t simply need to eat; it needs to exercise.

1 Corinthians 14:26 tells us we build up the Body of Christ whenever we allow each member to participate in the meetings by instructing others or by bringing hymns or sharing personal revelations, etc..’ ‘This is a completely different picture of church from passively listening to lectures from a handful of professional Christians.

So, what happens to a church when most of its members get spiritually fed without having the opportunity to exercise their true calling? Rather than shepherding sheep, this sounds more like raising veal.

If you are unfamiliar with the process, it looks something like this: a young calf is placed in a box. The purpose of the box is to keep the calf immobile, never allowing it to build up muscle. This ensures the calf will eventually make for tender, tasty veal. From then on, the calf is constantly fed but never allowed to exercise. Over time, it grows fat and weak. Eventually, it won’t even be able to survive outside its box.

Much like the veal calf, many of today’s churchgoers spend their entire spiritual lives inside of church boxes, both literally and
figuratively. This might be the best way to develop strong institutions, but is it the best way to develop strong individuals? In our pursuit of numerical growth, are we sacrificing spiritual growth? In such a consumer-focused culture, maybe we need to be reminded of how Jesus measured the success of his own ministry.

Richard Jacobson, unchurching