August 03, 2007
On the Same Page
The early New Testament churches each had different problems, issues and personality. However today’s churches and denominations are beginning to look alike because they’re all on the same page and reading the same how-to-books. I suspect there’s not a church bookshelf (pastor’s office, library, etc.) in America that doesn’t have at least one copy of the Purpose Driven Church. By embracing and subscribing to the techniques of others our churches have lost their claim of independence. I think we’d feel a lot less cloned if leaders followed Paul’s example to avoid building on another’s foundation (Ro 15:20).
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Gail;
-----I have always interrelated the Tower of Babel experience, the re-emergence of Babylon in Revelation, Paul’s command in I Corinthians not to follow men, the inability for empires to achieve true world dominance in history or last beyond a few centuries, and Paul’s discussion of gifts at Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12. What do all of these have in common? Man’s natural tendency to seek as much control (or align with those having the most control) over as much realm as possible, the whole realm being the ultimate goal.
-----Paul’s discussions of gifts in Romans and I Corinthians recognize the true nature of the individual within the group. Although inspiration involves multiples of people, true brilliance can happen in any mind regarding any particular topic or thought. We are all familiar with the old tale of the truck that was only an inch or two too high to cross under an overpass when a child suggested letting a little air out of the tires. This is why America has achieved such a great level of human success. In recognition of Jesus Christ, America recognized the freedom of the individual to direct his own life and gave him opportunity to put forth his own expressions. In turn, individual brilliance is being generated within an inspiration of a free, lesser controlled culture.
-----I have always been convinced that the intensity of emotional exuberance and the impression of greater security happens within the less personalized, larger groups under greater control, while the richness of emotion and thought and the reality of spiritual security happens within the smaller group being under minimal human control. God works from within the individual to generate outward expression, which He needs emerging from all His gifted body parts. I am reminded of your blog “Let’s Hear Those Opinions” of October 25, 2006.
-----Yet, as you have pointed out, people today are flocking in mass to the ideology that sparkles the brightest like chickens to a chrome button. The more heinous result of this pop-spirituality is that through the cloning of the followers from the ideologies of the leader (big time now: Rick Warren) errors of the leader are duplicated and become inclusions into the structure of the holy temple. Review church history. This is not a new phenomenon.
-----What God needs in His church is the personalized brilliance of the individual mind to have the ability to rise to the surface of its group interactions where it will cause some effect, but not all effect. Take for example the experience of your church over the last several years. Amidst the stampeding after pop-leaders of Warrenish pop-spirituality, how many different individual minds tried to express the true principles of the Word of God about acknowledging all brothers and sisters according to who they really are, rather than the pop-leader according to who he wants to be? Many people approached the preachers and elders with that message embedded in many different terms. They all were intimidated, humiliated, and set aside where their brilliance could be hidden under a basket. The congregation was even directed by the pop-leaders to shun a couple, about whom the leaders had lied. Unchecked human control always seeks the wrong side of the guard-rail.
-----I honestly believe this is why the Tower of Babel was such a problem that God had to confuse the speech of mankind and separate the peoples into different nations. I believe the mindless stumbling after one pop-leader at the end of our era is one message behind the rise of Babylon in Revelation. I believe this is why we should be very wary of the excesses of Federalism, the misunderstandings of socialism, and any government ambition for involvement into more and more aspects of your individual genius. I believe this is why the family is the human heart and strength of both the church and the nation, and why Paul spoke of an attitude that accepts only the minimal of human control in the church while elevating the importance of individual gifts. We should be more than just cautious about pop-spirituality, pop-leaders, and their pop-mega-churches. If we stand beside these, it should only be at the dumpster prepared to give the big heave at the first sight of cloned error.
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