It is Jr. High All Over Again!

This one is for all the Baptists out there! It doesn’t mean others couldn’t or shouldn’t read this, you still might learn something.

I have been doing some work and some thinking about the role of the association/region in Baptist life (the denomination for you non-Baptists folks). Specifically, I have been thinking about the way churches relate to each other via the association/region. Baptists tend to give a good deal of lip service to the idea that we are interdependent and that we have to rely on each other in order to do ministry, but our associations/regions are loosing resources, staff, and credibility quickly. Maybe churches don’t care about each other and thus don't care about our association/region?

I really don’t believe that is the case, we still care about our connections with other churches, be we have to relearn how to care. For one thing associations/regions are dying because churches are struggling with their own resources and would rather give higher priority to the pastor’s salary and heating the building over the association/region. <> There are, no doubt, other reasons for the decline of the association/region that I just don’t want to take the time or energy to get into. For me right now, it isn’t the why but the what that I am interested in.

In the past 50 years or so the association/region has been fairly strong and acted as a central hub for the relationships of churches. Churches related with other churches through the association/region. Now, with the association/region weakening churches are finding themselves more and more on their own, not sure what to do when faced with the idea of working directly with another church. Because of this a direct encounter between churches is similar to the awkwardness of a Jr. High dance:

Church 1 – uh, do you, uh, wanna, maybe, I mean if you want to, do some ministry together?

Church 2 – um, sure, I mean if you want to, I guess, um… looks away awkwardly

Church 1 – ok, great!

both stand there, looking at the floor, not sure what to do next

Church 2 – ok, by!

Church 1 – um, ok. By.

Painful, isn’t it. Here is my thought – through the presence of the association/region we (churches) have been taught and conditioned into a certain approach and nature of relationality. Think of Foucault’s analysis of institutions and relationality (specifically his work on the Asylum and the doctor-patient relationship). The institution of the association/region has shaped the relationships of churches.

Or think of Peter Berger’s The Sacred Canopy (which I just started reading). Religion (in this case the association/region) serves to legitimate as certain social structure. As religion crumbles the social structure crumbles (or the other way around?). The legitimacy for that method of relating is lost and churches now have to redefine themselves and their society.

Pretty down stuff, huh? For the non-Baptists out there, consider the overall decline of the presence of religion on the American landscape. Society is changing, can churches change with society in a way that will allow them to thrive and still maintain their integrity?

The last thing we want is a church to wake up in the morning and regret what it did the night before in order to be seen as popular.

The Pulpit is Not Free

Last Sunday (10/7/12) was for many folks, “Pulpit FreedomSunday.” The purpose of this concocted day was to argue that a pastor should be able to endorse a political candidate from the pulpit despite tax laws stating otherwise. There are so many things I could say about this but I have not the time or space. I’ll try to keep my ramblings somewhat focused.

First, stop whining. A pastor can say whatever he or she wants from the pulpit as long as he or she is clear that there are going to be repercussions. If you say the walls need to be painted purple during your sermon, you will face some pushback. If you endorse a candidate from the pulpit you may also face pushback. One might be from a more powerful group than the other but you will face pushback (can you guess which group would be more powerful?). So say whatever you want. Curse, make farting noises, and do bad impressions of Marlon Brando as the Godfather, just realize that there are consequences to everything you do.

That is a pragmatic response. Here is a theological response.

As a pastor you are not free to say anything you want. It is not because of the laws of the State but because of your calling. When one is claiming to be called to preach there is an assumption that God is a part of that calling. God is calling you to fulfill a specific role within the community. When the community endorses that role the community is giving the pastor a certain amount of power and responsibility to speak from the pulpit.

Loosely stated, the act of preaching (speaking from the pulpit) is an act of connecting the experience of the people with the presence of God via scripture. A sermon may be considered to be a sacramental act (calm down Baptists, I didn’t say it is a sacrament). Ideally something happens via preaching where God is encountered. If you aren’t sure about this go and preach a really crappy sermon and then notice that people still find an encounter with God. It wasn’t you, it was God. This doesn’t give you license to preach crap, but hopefully helps us realize that something is happening when we preach.

What this means is that when you are ordained you are not free to say whatever you want from the pulpit. You are accepting the call, the relational place within the community, to do your best to connect people with God. The pulpit is a place where we connect with God, not a place where we endorse mundane things such as political candidates.

Away from the pulpit say what you want (understanding that you still have a responsibility to the people of your congregation via your relationality with the people). In the pulpit accept the reality that you are not free but instead called to preach. It takes a heaping lot of humble pie to accept that responsibility and that call, and those pastors who feel it is so very important to endorse a political candidate from the pulpit seem to have passed on any size slice of that pie.

If you really need to endorse a political candidate because you get off on manipulating and controlling the thoughts and ideas of people who have placed their trust in you, or you are on some kind of power trip, or you like playing the victim to big bad government then I humbly suggest that you reconsider your call to ministry.

I must be serious because for a blog titled “theosnob” two uses of the word “humble” is no small thing.

By The Power Of...Words?

One of the fun things about church life is that we have our own language. I don’t mean a completely different language, but there are words and phrases that hold a certain amount of power and influence in a religious context. For example if I were to say, “the Spirit is moving me to pray” in a McDonalds in order to get a little more time before ordering I would not be understood. Yet if I said it in a church context, a meeting, small group, or worship service, then people would most likely understand what I am saying.

            

This being the case, there are certain phrases that hold power that I think people knowingly use to claim that power. Here is a situation. You are in a church meeting trying to decide to buy new hymnals. You have been involved in the conversation for 45 minutes and are nearing a decision. It is almost time to take a vote and move on when someone who does not like where the conversation is headed stands up and says:

I really feel that the Holy Spirit is calling us to stop everything and pray.

What can you do in response to such a statement? The only statement that could counter such a claim would be, “I really feel that the Holy Spirit is calling us to take a vote.” Then people have to figure out which Holy Spirit is the true Holy Spirit and which is just trying to derail the meeting process (or the Holy Spirit is just messing with the church and enjoying the chaos of the moment).

            It reminds me of a couple of wizards throwing spells back and forth, one trying to counter the other. How do we know who is speaking from a place of truth?

                                                        "No, I'm moved by the Holy Spirit!"

                         

            Another phrase that holds power is around the idea of the “call.” In this instance someone could volunteer to be a Sunday School teacher claiming that God had “called” him to teach. The problem is this person has no relational skills with anyone let alone children, has personal hygiene that would make Oscar the Grouch blush (at any given moment there are at least four flea circuses concurrently performing), he believes that only the books in the Bible that start with the letters J, R, and Z are relevant, and that Jesus Christ talks to him through his fish who have been dead for at least five months. This may not be a bad person, but probably not someone who you want teaching your children. Yet what do you say when he says that he is “called”? Do you say that the Holy Spirit told you that he is not called? How do you know when he is speaking from a place of truth?

                                                   Don't you trust me with your children?

            I am sure that there are other religious phrases aside from invoking the Holy Spirit or claiming that one is called that hold power and sway in a religious community. Phrases will vary depending on the religious community. In a Catholic context one could say that the Pope said it is so and leave it at that. In a Lutheran context you could point to Martin, and in a Quaker community you can say you need to discern for a while. Each community has its own phrases of religious power and the struggle to discern a sense of truth.

            What usually ends up happening is deference is given to the individual because we all want to be nice; power is given to the individual over the community. In many Baptist traditions a call was confirmed by the community, yet today if someone were to claim that he or she was called to the ministry most likely the church would affirm the individual with an emphatic “ok” because we want to be nice and because we don’t really know how to discern a spiritual truth as a community.

I wonder if we know what it really means to be called or to be moved by the Holy Spirit. Or perhaps better stated, we may not know what it looks like when someone is called or moved by the Holy Spirit. We may look for clues or indications, but when it comes down to it we aren’t sure how to discern and critique claims of religious power.

           

            There is a balance of power that needs to be struck between the community and the individual, but that balance seems to have fallen to the individual.

            I don’t have an answer (yet) but becoming aware of religious language of power and the way it is often misused to control and gain one’s desires is a start. To be honest, everything would be better if everyone just realized that I am always right and that the Holy Spirit is always speaking directly to me.