So well researched and well-worded. It's always been an uphill battle to get 'the church' to rethink and reevaluate who they are, what they are doing, and whether or not it is still working. This reminds me of Jesus' words about the need to put new wine in new wineskins lest the old wineskins burst. We might be seeing some bursting happening. Great article. Thank you.
I think the gravity of the complex makes it way too hard to think about starting over. It's a thread we've been told may end the whole sweater if we start pulling on it. Property, salaries, benevolence and missions support, book deals, and did I mention salaries? Thanks for reading Dave!
I am slow in reading your most recent posts. I hope to catch up during this holiday season. Thank you for weaving together this story exposing the failure of evangelical leaders of creating and holding on to a destructive system which has resulted in such great heartache.
Super interesting article with good food for thought on several levels, as well as great metaphors: “orthodoxy up front and all sectarian mullet in the back” (LOL) and “But we’ve had so many damn bad apples over the last decade that we really should be suspicious that the whole orchard is poison.” Re: the latter, I don’t think it is limited to the here and now, because the history of the church is littered with bad apples, going all the way back to the “super apostles” in 2 Corinthians and Simon the Sorcerer from Acts 8. Same for poisonous orchards; for example, the level of organizational corruption that helped fuel the Reformation. Given that different eras of the world have spawned bad apples and poisonous orchards rooted in contemporary culture of the time (which for us today has led to the Evangelical Industrial Complex that you discussed), then a deeper question is perhaps: what universal/acultural forces cause good apples and orchards to go bad, and/or attract bad apples who plant poisonous orchards? And how can said forces be effectively resisted, in a manner that enables the church to survive not just today, but far into the future as well, in the face of future cultural shifts?
Yes indeed. I think a conversation about Power is a crucial aspect of this topic and how the Church has cycled through "bad apples and bad orchards" through our history.
Brian, you do well to describe the ecosystem that we are in with respect to church.
What is always clear is that every system and approach and embodiment of culture has unexpected consequences.
The challenge we face is that like biblical interpretation that simply cannot exist without bias, no expression of church can fully escape the cultural context.
What must happen is that we need to understand who we actually are in our own context what our biases are And then endeavor to allow Christ to shape how that culture is reflected in our context.
If your intent is to present a problem to solve, it’s actually a problem that’s far beyond simply how we do church, but it impacts all aspects of our work and all aspects of how we we are shaped in our society and how we in turn influence those around us.
I don’t think there’s a simple solution or recipe or formula because things are so dynamic and complex.
However, there are processes we can adopt so that we can become better… Process improvement practice if you will.
In other words, we must always change. We must always move forward and forward needs to be one of our goals.
That said, I am very interested in conversation about how these things these church things can be improved and possibly replaced.
So well researched and well-worded. It's always been an uphill battle to get 'the church' to rethink and reevaluate who they are, what they are doing, and whether or not it is still working. This reminds me of Jesus' words about the need to put new wine in new wineskins lest the old wineskins burst. We might be seeing some bursting happening. Great article. Thank you.
I think the gravity of the complex makes it way too hard to think about starting over. It's a thread we've been told may end the whole sweater if we start pulling on it. Property, salaries, benevolence and missions support, book deals, and did I mention salaries? Thanks for reading Dave!
I am slow in reading your most recent posts. I hope to catch up during this holiday season. Thank you for weaving together this story exposing the failure of evangelical leaders of creating and holding on to a destructive system which has resulted in such great heartache.
Excellent Brian!
Super interesting article with good food for thought on several levels, as well as great metaphors: “orthodoxy up front and all sectarian mullet in the back” (LOL) and “But we’ve had so many damn bad apples over the last decade that we really should be suspicious that the whole orchard is poison.” Re: the latter, I don’t think it is limited to the here and now, because the history of the church is littered with bad apples, going all the way back to the “super apostles” in 2 Corinthians and Simon the Sorcerer from Acts 8. Same for poisonous orchards; for example, the level of organizational corruption that helped fuel the Reformation. Given that different eras of the world have spawned bad apples and poisonous orchards rooted in contemporary culture of the time (which for us today has led to the Evangelical Industrial Complex that you discussed), then a deeper question is perhaps: what universal/acultural forces cause good apples and orchards to go bad, and/or attract bad apples who plant poisonous orchards? And how can said forces be effectively resisted, in a manner that enables the church to survive not just today, but far into the future as well, in the face of future cultural shifts?
Yes indeed. I think a conversation about Power is a crucial aspect of this topic and how the Church has cycled through "bad apples and bad orchards" through our history.
Brian, you do well to describe the ecosystem that we are in with respect to church.
What is always clear is that every system and approach and embodiment of culture has unexpected consequences.
The challenge we face is that like biblical interpretation that simply cannot exist without bias, no expression of church can fully escape the cultural context.
What must happen is that we need to understand who we actually are in our own context what our biases are And then endeavor to allow Christ to shape how that culture is reflected in our context.
If your intent is to present a problem to solve, it’s actually a problem that’s far beyond simply how we do church, but it impacts all aspects of our work and all aspects of how we we are shaped in our society and how we in turn influence those around us.
I don’t think there’s a simple solution or recipe or formula because things are so dynamic and complex.
However, there are processes we can adopt so that we can become better… Process improvement practice if you will.
In other words, we must always change. We must always move forward and forward needs to be one of our goals.
That said, I am very interested in conversation about how these things these church things can be improved and possibly replaced.
Yes! You are anticipating the next part. Thanks for these reflections, very helpful insights!