Tuesday
Mar072006
The danger of the institutional church
Tuesday, March 7, 2006 at 1:53PM This post is from the defunct blog "Dying Church"
From Next-Wave Ezine > church & culture:
Dave Kahle addresses the devastating impact of our current model upon believers, when he says, "The institutional church, with its reliance on paid pastors, church buildings, teaching and worship services, has created a passive, spectator form of Christianity that bleeds the power out of its adherents and siphons resources away from the building of God's kingdom."
Reader Comments (5)
Interesting, I just quoted Frank Viola on my blog with a very similar phrase. I believe this is one of the bigger problems of the church today. People become so passive that they not only don't participate in service, but they also stop questioning stuff.
I think that quote is overstating the problem. My congregation, and every church I've served as pastor has many committed, faithful, disciples of Jesus who definitely were not mere spectators. kgp
In my experience, there are lots of committed christians in the institutional church, but that's not the majority.
I struggle with this everyday. We've planted a new church and are renovating a building for ministry use. While our focus is biblical teaching and corporate worship we struggle daily to empower people to live our their own spiritual journey. We see the building and staff (of 2) as tools and resources for our people. At the same time we've refused to start ministries that foster dependence on the paid staff. Our hope is that the building will be a community center, truley used for the benefit of those outside our ministry. Sometimes I feel it's a feeble attempt to blend professional ministry with a simple / housechurch mindset. I am I merely creating another meaningless machine?
I think a lot of committed Christians are also committed to structures and programs that may bear little relevance in todays world. Was such a financial reliance on inhouse programs and salaries the intention of Paul or Christ?