This is the second excerpt from Megashift written by James Rutz. The first excerpt and my thoughts about the book can be read here. The concept of traditional church pastors becoming surrogate husbands is a topic worth exploring.
What do you want, geldings or giants?
No issue could be clearer: It’s emasculation vs. empowerment. The ordinary sit-‘n-sing church brings one, a team church brings the other.
For many of us, the most exhilarating part of the new Christianity is our rapid growth in power, versatility, and knowledge. We’ve put in too many years in the closed-church system, which locked us into piddly roles, put a cork in our bottle, and gave us burgers and beans instead of a banquet for the soul. Now we’ve got a life without limits.
The house church meeting pattern is great, but the real goal is the house church dynamic, the wide-open tornado that sweeps us into action, propelling us into countless situations where we must use our gifts, take exciting steps of faith, and grow like a radish. Perhaps we’ll even see more miracles soon. As someone has said, “If you want to see what you’ve never seen, then do what you’ve never done.” In an open church, you fall kersplat on your face now and then, but you learn to stand up, wipe off the mud, and keep going. The kersplats are part of the lifestyle. The fast-track discipleship of the new churches is not for invertebrates.
The Holy Spirit has millions of growth tracks to choose from, and your own path of growth will depend to a large extent on what gifts He has given you. Team Christianity opens up avenues of ministry for you that will utilize the full range of your current gifts plus an extended range of higher gifts that you don’t have yet. But take it from me, you’ll love the feel of the wind under your wings.
We have few spectators in open fellowships. “Every-member ministry” sucks in everybody sooner than later. Call it your pilgrim-age, quest, journey of faith, or adventure of adrenaline; the core reality is that you’ll spend the rest of your life in uncharted waters!
The emasculation problem springs from the Christian caste system, which feeds on itself: The greater the pastor, the more that people sit back and say, Wow! I could never preach like that. As lazy laymen dump more responsibility on the pastor, he accumulates a larger share of the church’s spiritual experience, and before long, he is indeed far above his flock.
Tragically, he may even begin to think this is God’s ideal, that he is supposed to hover in the heavenlies and bring down to his benighted followers a weekly blessing of wisdom and inspiration. Christianity Today, which does run a lot of helpful articles, is a leader in this sorry trend. In 1997 they featured a cover article in which the pastor-author tried to woo readers back into pre-Reformation darkness. Excerpts:
…in worship, the pastor must become priest…The pastor assumes the role of mediator, incarnating God to the people…
Through our craft, we will facilitate worship…As pastor-priest, we bring to the congregation the glory of our encounter with God. Having spent long, enduring time in the Lord’s presence, we speak to our congregations out of those encounters…And as we worship, liturgists and leaders become a priesthood, mediating God, showing the depth of their own experiences, radiating God’s glory, pointing weary souls heavenward…
I remember when one of our daughters was baptized. She stood near the baptismal font as our pastor bent over, asking her questions of faith…Later she said, “I remember Pastor coming near, and I was covered and lost in his long, black robes, and he baptized me.”
Mediator? Incarnating God? Lost in his robes? In such veneration, Christianity Today has spun out and left the track. As Paul wrote in I Timothy 2:5, “There is but one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” And Peter added that all of us are “a royal priesthood.” (I Peter 2:9)
Am I quibbling here? Perhaps a bit. But why don’t more American men attend traditional services along with their wives? Is it maybe because they’ve figured out that the pastor has taken on the role of surrogate husband of every woman in the congregation? Is it because they instinctively recoil from a game where they’re shut out and have to play a passive part? You betcha. When there’s no room left for strong men, they opt out.
Open churches offer a reason to opt back in: unlimited empowerment,which produces men of iron and women of fire.