Gathering – Ezekiel 34:11-16

In Ezekiel 34 the Lord’s crosshairs are trained on the shepherds of Israel who have selfishly consumed resources intended for the flock at large, scattering them, causing them to forage for their survival. The shepherds Ezekiel was aiming at were both civil and ecclesiastical leaders. These rascals were skimming and they were in huge divine-trouble.

However, shepherds in a kingdom of God sense, are those who have been charged with caring for the inner – eternal lives of men. True shepherds see their mission in Proverbs 4:23 …

          Watch over the heart (inner life) with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life.

Having been birthed in a church split, nurtured by a para church, and planted in a community, I have always been the square peg that did not fit neatly into the round hole of organized Christianity. (The two decades between 1992 and 2012 were the rubbing experience which proved this out.) Even today, my heart strains in its attempts to maintain connection in the Body of Christ. It is not much fun to be square when one’s greatest felt needs is to fit in.

The experience causes me to think of Jerry Fletcher. He is the paranoid taxi driver in the movie, Conspiracy Theory who is convinced that everything is manipulated by “them.”  Them happens to be a covert government program gone rogue. Courtesy of them, Jerry is crazy but not completely, as the story ultimately reveals. Perhaps Jerry comes to mind because his Conspiracy Theory news letter has 6 prescribers – about the same as In the Middle with Mystery. I too feel the strain of trying to remain connected and not-completely-crazy.

My sanity & connection-mission has taken me to the scriptures. At face value, they only compound the problem. It is not easy to reconcile the New Testament with the practices and outcomes of our current traditions. However, I have discovered that asking questions about current practices and traditions will draw fire. And, it will not be conspiratorial paranoia you are experiencing. The crosshairs will be trained on you if you questions sanctified ideas, like “Pastor”.

Since MwM is a subscriber-based newsletter (with a modest readership), it is safer here than say, in an elder’s meeting, to ask, where in the holy Bible did this idea come from?! The word “pastor” is not used even once in the New Testament and the plural form is used just once. Yet, “pastor” (or Pastor, in our case) wields the bulk of religious authority within Christendom.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-12

“Pastor” has become the undisputed head of all things Christian. These well meaning men and women, do it all! They preach. They lead in prayer. Like CEO’s, they launch construction projects and programs. They collect the tithe to fund their operations. Want to know how many times the tithe is mentioned in the New Testament? Four, and each of them were references to the Old Covenant. I think I just saw a red dot on the wall.

I learned the hard way to not challenge, at least not at close range, the idea of pastor as CEO and the tithe. No, if you want to fit in, it is best to set aside the New Testament example and continue following hybrid OT/NT theology and customs which, through practice, have become sacred.

If our traditions were producing NT outcomes, perhaps questions would not be in order. Even if we recognized this as a problem, how would one correct it? The remedy would be the equivalent of handing Pastor the saw and asking him to cut off the limb on which he and his staff are perched. The truth is I love pastors. They are typically bright and well intentioned people. The sad thing is, as they accept the traditional yoke which the institution has prepared for them, they must expend massive energy caring for organizations, outsourcing soul care to staff or outside professionals. The corruption can then become…

Watch over the organization with all your heart, for from it flow all the issues of life.

Beyond administration, Pastor’s other major contribution is the sermon. Pastor is often a gifted orator, so by default, “the sermon” (also a rare NT idea) becomes the main course of most meetings. Sermons are how most pastors believe they are to feed their flock. Think how many sermons are preached each week; multiply that by how many weeks have passed in your life, or better yet, since Christ’s life. Unless we are in a dispensation of decline, one would anticipate some kind of tipping point toward righteousness if sermons were, in themselves, our sufficient bread. Perhaps true pastors need to teach sheep how to feed themselves.

Questions about pastor, tithes and sermons are absurd and innapropriate only if we measure ourselves by ourselves and by our traditions. I warned you we were wading into complex and controversial waters.

Here is a true and humbling confession. In raising these questions, I had an outside hope that a true shepherd, from some flock, would come and gather me in. I had dreamed they might see the biblical merit to my questions. I imagined we might provide each other some mutual cover, knowing that changing a culture is nothing short of jihad to traditionalists. This has not panned out. My face is still red with embarrassment at my naiveté.

I don’t relish my squareness and I would prefer not being shot at it. It is simply not good for man to be alone or full of holes. However, if the cost of achieving these luxuries is abandoning the New Testament or switching off my brain, I must remain here in the mystery with my fellow expatriates, asking question, exploring the kingdom of God. I have continued to dream however about the Body of Christ in the earth. The following is a supplement for other dreamers with stamina to spare.

Finally we discover who the mysterious organization was portrayed in today’s lead-in.

The al Qaeda network is adaptive, complex, and resilient. Today, it has a formal organizational structure, with the core group at its head providing overall direction. Informal relationships and human networks create an underlying latticed structure that bridges the formal structure of the network. The decentralization of the al Qaeda network has not made it weaker. On the contrary, affiliate-to-affiliate relationships may have increased the overall network’s resiliency. These relationships may also ensure al Qaeda’s survival even if the core group is defeated completely.

I suspect someone’s finger is now on the trigger, “How dare you even remotely try and compare the Church of Jesus Christ to al Qaeda!” Please! Do not shoot, at least not yet. Please endure a bit longer. Think about the early church. As al Qaeda cells independently wage hate-driven jihad against non-believers, imagine cells of saints who are waging a love-driven war against darkness by taking ownership of the relational and geographic space God has entrusted them. Unless they are large or systemic, they do not refer needs to Pastor and committee. Instead, they have been equipped by a core of leaders, to activate their our own networks of care and giving.

Instead of the annihilation of unbelievers, which is Al Quada’s mission, Christian-cell members will intentionally love those who do not believe like them. Instead of the salt being dumped out by Pastor alone, why not re-envision Church where the salt can be distributed more broadly into the world by mere lay persons within their existing, informal networks?  Perhaps the army is already arrayed within its relational networks and all we need and all thats left be break from the idea that attending church, tithing and listening to sermons is the fulfillment of our obligations of worship. This routine, which has become perfectly normal to us would have been utterly foreign to first century Christians. Wouldn’t this get us closer to what Paul was trying to say to the Ephesians?

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-12

Just as Al Quada lives on (and even thrives), after its core leaders are taken out, so too will the Church, whose resiliency is guaranteed by the affiliate-to-affiliate relationships native within the Body of Christ. Informal networks of believers will create an underlying latticed structure that will bridge the formal structure of the network. When the original apostles died, they had accomplished this by way of practicing 2 Timothy 2:2:

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 

The underlying, informal, relational-lattice structure will be essential when our value become illegal, our gatherings are outlawed and our tax deductions disallowed. If you think this is paranoid thinking, please reread church history and the daily headlines.

I’m not discounting the value of pastors in the life of the church. I’m advocating a multiplication of the pastoral gift. These men and women are essential catalysts of these love-driven, informal cells. Let’s just call the sum of them communityThis communal relational Church will not decline in membership. It will never have budget shortfalls or a shortage of resources. It will never be constrained by physical space. Like al Quada it will inspire its members to lay their lives down for their cause. This community will produce infinitely more leaders than organized Christianity because it rediscovered the reproductive DNA of New Testament Christianity where Pastor was not an office – it was a gift.

To get a new (and clearer biblical) view of Pastor and the local church read The Pastor Has No Clothes by John Zens. Note: The Pastor of my city’s largest church recommend this author. If your traditions are working just fine, don’t even go near this book (unless you are just adding it to your personal library of heretical writings).

Father, raise up shepherds with hearts like your own who will gather us up into safe places, redeeming the dark and gloomy days. May this world see that we are those whom you have gathered, healed and called. Succeed wildly Lord in this hour with a transformation whereby both you and your bride will be honored in all places and at all times. Amen.

 

 

 

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