Bill Bryson tells of a neighbor who drove to a nearby gym which would be a 20 minute walk to use a treadmill. “I have a program.” She explained. The irony is she could walk twenty minutes to get exercise. But she like many Americans believes she must have some sort of program or method or the exercise does not matter. Hot yoga plays on the idea that a person is not exercising unless they are sweating. In the same way, church leaders believe church growth is a matter of following a method.
Follow The Program
“Consultants,” my father-in-law, a former consultant says, “Borrow your watch to tell you what time it is.” Something, though, makes people believe they need one. When some malaise comes over an organization, a technological culture looks for a repairman. We also believe an instruction manual is necessary.
A selling point for fundamentalists is that the Bible is just such a manual. Inerrancy, as a doctrine, undergirds this claim. It is the very reason many people walk away from the church when they no longer accept inerrancy. If we no longer trust the manual, they reason, then we need a different one.
The problem, of course, is the Bible is not a manual for personal fulfillment, happy marriages, a national political project, or even a guide to setting up churches.
The Problem of Worship
The other night I attended a worship time with contemporary music. I asked another participant who the speaker was going to be. The reply was, “We are just having worship.” I should have left. But I did not. A concert is considered worship by too many people. Contemporary worship requiring huge investments in technology changes worship into a show. I truly wonder if people who participate in such programming believe the disciples formed a band to lead the people in praising Jesus just before he gave the Sermon on the Mount.
Electric light shows, drums, and guitars are morally neutral devices. But, as Jacques Ellul points out, modern technology is an ideology. Instead of machines being built for people to use, people are trained for the machines. The problem of worship is that people involved must obey the program.
Leadership as Program
Obviously, of the making of leadership guides there is no end. Learning how leaders lead goes back into ancient times and primarily relies on biographies. People do not want to take the time to invest in this kind of reading. So, leadership programs are provided as 2, 4, 6, 8, 1o, or 12 steps, keys, practices, habits, or attitudes.
Corporate America designs such programs to increase sales, productivity, or efficiency. Church leaders with business backgrounds view the world this way. But what is forgotten is that the Church is not about sales, productivity, or efficiency. It is not a quarterly goal oriented institution. When leaders are put into this type of programming the church becomes a technologically oriented corporate body.
Spiritual Living
Spiritual living is disciplined, reflective, repetitive, and contemplative. When technology is used, it should be to enhance human thriving. Machines should not be masters. Nor should “programs” be how human beings live. Being a cog in the church machine is not the calling of church leaders. The Kingdom of God is not a program.
I once had a professor who told me she no longer went to church leader gatherings. She said that promising students turned into glad-handing preachers with no spiritual depth to them. The trend is now complete. We need to stop it.
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