Punchy and provactive piece by Ed Stetzer which translates to the Australian context:
Millions of Americans live in the shadow of churches that have become consumer Christian centers, but pastors are ruined and the mission of God is cheated when consumers enjoy goods and services from their local church. In their book, God is Back, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge described the state of the American church as the “Disneyfication of God” or “Christianity Lite – a bland and sanitized faith that is about as dramatic as the average shopping mall.”
Believers who think like customers contribute to the underachieving church in America. The damages move far beyond ineptness at engaging the mission of God. The incessant demands of a consumer congregation causes irreparable damage to those who lead such congregations. Some of the consumer demands are based on pastoral perception too. Pastors often experience chronic anxiety because they fear their flock.
Robin Swift is the Director of Health Programs for the Clergy Health Initiative at Duke Divinity School. She has been a part of extensive research by Duke to understand the challenge of being a pastor. In a recent NPR interview, Swift talked about realities faced by pastors: “Pastors, because of their calling, put everybody else first and have a difficult time naming their needs for self-care, and they also, like the Marines or emergency room staff, expect a level of high functioning from each other.”
As the article is aimed at leaders, and realises that culture change must be nurtured by leaders the application points confront practices by leaders which nurture this climate. It’s not a smackdown on church members to bolster fragile pastoral egos.
A codependent pastor needs a needy congregation. And we have too many of both. But relishing the applause that comes from being the local church superstar often results in performance anxiety and utter disappointment in an underachieving church. It is a vicious cycle where everyone ends up disappointed—including God, I think.
The pastor who insists on being the focus of local ministry trains the body of Christ to sin; believers who demand all ministry to be done by “professionals” lead the pastor to sin. So who started all of this dysfunction? Was it the needy, consumer-driven congregation? Or was it the pastor, hungry for significance? It’s hard to tell. But to break the cycle, the enablers must stop enabling. God cannot receive glory in the church when pastors are always up front receiving the credit and doing the things that their consumerist congregants should be doing.
We need to understand everyone’s role. When pastors do for people what God has called the people to do for themselves, everyone gets hurt and the mission of God is hindered. God designed the church to act as the body of Christ, and bodies have more than one part. Here is what it should look like: “Based on the gift they have received, everyone should use it to serve others” (1 Peter 4:10). “A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial” (1 Corinthians 12:7). The church is most alive when every believer serves in God’s mission where assigned by the Spirit.
Read the whole post here.
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