Step Two: A Problem Protestant Clergy

The vows of ordination in all Christian traditions are similar in that there are promises to preach the word of God and to do it faithfully within a congregation. The problem is that both of these can’t be done – for long. Not in this materialistic society.

The old Jewish system that fostered ours had two recognized "holy" functionaries, the priests and the prophets. The former did the cultic and "people things, leading and directing at religious functions, burying, marrying, etc. and keeping the system running. The prophets set the people, rulers, rich folks and the system straight, reminding them of why they were there and reminding them all that God was indeed their parent; if they were God’s children they’d better start acting like it or they just might be treated like naughty children.

Two needed functions. Two opposites. In our ignorance we’ve put them together. They don’t mix well, not at all, really. The result is that the system and God’s WORD suffer.

How can a pastor challenge and call to task those who pay his/her salary? How can you criticize a way of life or situation when you yourself are required to be an integral part of it? Is it any surprise that God’s WORD is so seldom preached from pulpits in the wealthy world? It is true that no one can serve both God and mammon. Ministers are expected to be examples of the congregation’s self image, similar (or better) in dress, manners, housing and behaviour.

An immediate and visible result of this tension is the fact that very rarely is the call of faithfulness (a way of life that is based upon God’s will) heard from preachers. Faithfulness has been replaced by mere FAITH, belief that God is or that Jesus is. This change of emphasis and accepted since there seems to be so much more about faith in scriptures then faithfulness. But the truth is that over three fourths of the times when the print says FAITH, in the Greek, the original language of our gentile scriptures, FAITHFULNESS is clearly implied. Even though we now know better, we continue to follow the lead of the early reformers in the 1500’s who were big on the FAITH issue. Their reasons were real in their time for translating the Greek word as FAITH To be accurate and true to God’s WORD to us we need to correct this deadly error. Until then, faith replaces faithfulness clergy are caught and limited and few people grow in understanding for fewer are challenged by what they hear.

This making the clergy responsible for every aspect of Christianity, of service to people and the proclamation of God’s WORD is a hindrance to both and all. As a profession clergy have a higher rate of mental illness and family breakdown than any other group. Ordination is clearly not helpful in the long run. If the protestant clergy/church system is compared to other examples within Christianity we find that it is not successful either. It seems that mainly clergy are put on pedestals and then stoned if necessary.

Since they are the designated as spiritually zapped SUPER CHRISTIANS a congregation’s success is of course measured by the number of its staff. Pity the poor congregations that have to share a minister! What a day it is to celebrate when a growing congregation can afford two or more professionals! And what a sign of failure then, even after all that time at fund raising and budgeting you have to reduce the clergy staff!

They are the doers. The members of the congregation are the believers. The clergy are expected to live vicariously in faithfulness (as the parishioners interpret it) and those that sit in the pews have faith, do little but pay the bills. Lip service is given to the concept of the PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS but even that concept is doomed because it is not translated as the PRIESTHOOD OF THE FAITHFUL as is should be.

We are so tied to the clergy system! In my last church I tried in vain to be hired as half time, with the other half of my salary going to training members of the congregation. Just imagine, I implored the board, what difference it would make of teams of people could be trained and empowered in special areas and really DO in those areas! You won’t be able to stop the congregation! I would be the leader of the worship, visitation and outreach and be resource to all.

Of course they wouldn’t go for it. They were mainly afraid that others would think them a failure for not having a full time minister.

I should have resigned at that point. But no, I was too blind, cowardly and used to the clergy system myself to take a chance.

So many congregations are caught in this downward spiral that is in a large part caused by the very system that has made them. Their leaders simply can not be faithful to themselves or God unless they alienate those who keep the church together. The WORD of God is not proclaimed. Most of the energy of the members goes to pay the salaries of those who can’t do fulfill their calling so little effort goes to the real work of God in the world. So few outside of the church see anything within it to be curious about. Far fewer new people join than die or move away. Eventually the congregation joins another to form a larger dying congregation.

WHAT TO DO

It’s time to rely on RESURRECTION. The fact that the system is largely hindering rather than helping God’s WORD can be an exciting understanding. The acceptance of that as fact opens us to the realization that it is merely us that is the problem and not God. The age-old message that God is indeed with us in all our times can then be taken at face value and instill within us the courage and vulnerability that will enable us to face the changes that SPIRIT will bring. Be we the jailers/household or the slave woman (in the Paul & Silas story from Acts), our worlds will be turned upside down in our liberation.

Any church system that can not accept the fact that God’s WORD needs to be heard more clearly not only is doomed, it in fact should die now. The present role of clergy is too entrenched to be changed. But the figure of the biblical prophet can be recognized and given room. The church system need not fund it. In fact that would be contrary to the very validity and call of the prophet. But any congregation/church that indeed wants to grow into faithfulness simply must demand to hear a prophetic WORD by a non-supported source. As in the ancient Jewish faith, that message would not automatically be accepted as God’s WORD to them without debate, evaluation and prayer, but at least it would be out there. At least it would aliven those that heard it, awakening them to the fact that there was at least a possibility that there were other possibilities of faithfulness than theirs. Nothing would be risked accept complacency and spiritual stagnation.

There are plenty of religious critics. Are they prophets? They are only prophets to Christians if the Christians are looking for prophets, if they recognize the possibility that God can and does have something to say to them through outsiders. I hear prophetic words every day. It is just as rare for the speakers to think of themselves as prophets in the religious sense as it is for people within churches to recognize them and give them space or time. We have allowed the fundamentalists to change the definition of prophet for us, from one who proclaims God’s WORD into one who predicts the future. Mind you, there is always a future element. I am a prophet. If I am true or not is for others to say. My WORD is for today and now. But part of that is for tomorrow also. It is this : Most churches today are doomed to die. They should die now because they are not attempting to live a life of faithfulness. Christians are not being challenged to proclaim and DO as Jesus did. Churches are not feeding and being lamp, salt, food and WORD; God’s WORD is not being fleshed out. Much has to die. And it will die. If is dying.
Repent. Change. Be part of the resurrection. Be ready to be changed. Prepare for new birth. Prepare for death. Be ready to be unprepared but be confident that God will be with you in ways you have yet to dream of. Open your eyes to new things and use your God-given sense to close your eyes and minds to those things that are holding you back from becoming part of the new future.

In this season of ADVENT we await a new beginning. Look through all the garbage of the season and the watered down clichés that we hear from the pulpit, the cutsy sermons and oo-so-nice manger scenes, try to hear again the call to change that comes to us year after year at this time.

More later. Since it isn’t raining, snowing or blowing right now I’d better get some Christmas lights up on the boat or Jude will kill me. I can only write (share) this stuff for a little while at a time - I get so fired up – need to get outside and so something physical.

Step Three: December 3, 2007