September 05, 2014
Cliques
I hate hearing that some
churches are cliquish, but there is some validity to the charge. In high school
teens develop a group identity that excludes others, but that’s not the scenario
I see in the church. I sense that cliques in the church are the result of
people trying to shape and mold the church. For instance, if the leadership
determines the focus of the church is on families, those who are not a family
unit with children — empty-nesters, singles, childless or seniors —will naturally
gravitate to others of similar status. It’s not that they don’t care about
families, but building their niche fellowship results in the appearance of a
clique. Shaping a church is self-serving and I can’t help but wonder if the
focus will change when the leadership themselves become
empty-nesters, widows or seniors.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Cliques arise from human nature and then offer their utility to human depravity. Most people are not too comfortable around strangers. With the familiarity friendship circles provide comes subtle knowledge of boundaries and opportunities alike. In them one knows what topics groom the acceptance of the others and which topics are taboo, which activities are considerable and which are demonized. The possibility of stumbling within a friendship circle is greatly reduced, and there is a cohesiveness of sentiments acting like a safety net against the innocent slip. Conversely, there is corrective pressures for the willful foul. Amongst strangers there are none of these, and one’s own sense of decorum becomes questionable. Consequently, the average person seeks the safety of friendship circles rather than the adventure of turning strangers into acquaintances. But the decorum of friendship circles fluctuates some with the arrival and departures of individuals because the circle is an emergent thing. It’s when the gateways to the circle are hardened and deliberately guarded that friendship circles become cliques.
-----We live in a world which soils righteousness and celebrates iniquity. We wouldn’t be talking about cliques if this did not happen in church as well. Laissez-faire is soiled. But what do we read in the Word about the individual relationship with the Lord? Is yours built and shaped and colored by your neighbor? By your preacher? By your government? By your friendship circle? In a sense, yes, but substantially, no. The Bible teaches us to honor one another’s sentiments and convictions, but to be convinced in our own minds. So consideration shapes us some as we get to know each other in friendship circles. But each of us remains as much a neighbor as the other.
-----Yet collectivism is celebrated. I call it bullyhood, because it operates like a neighborhood without individual freedom grooming its decorum, but rather its decorum grooming its individuals at the threat of ostracism. We’ve wasted the word descriptive of the process, using it as a bully instrument itself, applying it to whomever disagrees with us, draining it of all its useful meaning - fascism. For fascism is nothing more than many acting as one upon agreed purposes and goals. Cliques actually “come to life” around purposes and goals. Their central elements are empowered to overrule their members’ individuality so all might move about in unison upon whatever objective might catch the next prey for its appetite. The individual relationship with the Lord is then run through the clique’s filter and owned by it. The person of the clique has been conquered.
-----The sad thing to note is that cliques are not merely problems of certain churches. It is that each church has become somewhat a clique within the entire body of the Lord. Each church’s movers and shakers inspire its decorum; its leaders define its doctrines; its directors choreograph its worship activity; and if you don’t conform you shut up or leave. The last time I counted, the Church at Montrose was composed of some forty-five to fifty cliques.
-----Poor Jesus. He needed us to be one by our new nature so the world would believe the Father sent Him (John 17:21.) No wonder the world disbelieves. Rather than becoming one in submission to the Spirit, little groups of believers submit to the aspirations of a church’s leaders, becoming one around the beliefs they empower.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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