The subtitle to this article would be: "How Churches Destroy Good People". It is my belief that organized religion while contributing many beneficial things to society, has single-handedly wreaked havoc upon the psyche and morale of those who truly wish to live according to simple Biblical truths. Having worked at large corporations all of my career, looking at the church today, I am amazed at the similarities between it and most business corporations. I have even been a member of a church where the church leadership was purposefully fashioned after a Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM) hierarchy. We have come to the conclusion, that if it works within the business world then it will work within the church. We have built the church government around the same methodologies used to create corporate bureaucracies. It is my belief that the Body of Christ was never intended to be a bureaucracy, in which the privilege to serve God's people does not proceed from spiritual qualifications found in Scripture, but from a title which is conferred by a group of men, who will only grant such authority to those whose primary loyalties are maintaining the same bureaucratic machine. Just as in business, it is widely practiced in churches that those "promoted" can be counted on to support and defend those already in power, while the more qualified man is sometimes passed over because he refuses to play deaf, dumb and blind to the problems of the system. The "three monkeys" are sometimes our official logo. Even if that person is known to be gifted, useful, dependable, and hard-working, if it is perceived that he can not be trusted to go along with "the program", he will quickly be considered "disloyal" or "untrustworthy", negating the qualifications that made him a candidate in the first place. Such a man is not likely to be nominated and at times he may be thought to be a threat in which case some pretense may be invented to remove him from consideration in the future. In business, not being a "team player" is tantamount to corporate suicide. However, those who do make the cut and are welcomed in at the bottom of the ladder are usually required to close their eyes to error and injustice until such time as they learn the "system". Moral and ethical considerations are simply annoyances that can be dealt with as time allows. By the time a man has reached the proper level in this type of bureaucracy, he has already excused his own complicity so many times, that his integrity is in shreds. His conscience has slowly been put to death and he now demands the same servile complicity he once struggled under, from those seeking to now move up the ladder. Thus, by this process of attrition, the sins of those already established become for all practical purposes, equal to official company policy. Adopting the corporate model, within the church, the credentials put forth by Scripture, have now been replaced by each church's official "unspoken" policy on government. In my years, I have seen all the flavors of church leadership including:
Strict Dictatorship - the Pastor is in complete control
"Secret" Dictatorship - an "advisory" Board exists but the Pastor is still in complete control
Board of "elders" - this is where the church elders are indeed the oldest guys in the church. They are appointed due to their years of longevity, having "paid their dues".
Of the people - the church leadership is appointed via "popular vote"
Of the money - the church leadership consists of those whose tithe checks are the largest. It is important to place these people in leadership positions so that they don't take their money elsewhere.
Of the family - this is where relatives of certain long standing or influential families are elected for posterity's sake. "There has always been a Smith on this church board since it began".
None of these systems seem to fit the Biblical model for appointing our church leaders, called "elders" in Scripture. Whatever the Church is, I know it was not intended to be structured like a corporation, run like an earthly government or treated as a personal possession. It should not recognize as authorities those who have made their way through the ranks by pleasing the right men, having the correct letters behind their names or buying their way there. A church should not be a closed society that is dominated by a few influential people and their families, around whom most of the church activity centers and whose spoken or tacit approval is required for all decisions related to the church. God forbid - you manage to offend any one of these key people, and you are "on the outs" for good. After that, any appeal to the others or even the Pastor will not result in changes, as it is important to keep these people pacified and cooperative. Even if you can gain concurrence from the Pastor, he is usually surrounded by the "Board of Directors" whose main qualifications for office has been either seniority, family ties, capacity to give or withhold money, and their readiness to close ranks to keep the system free from all intruders. The Pastor is generally adverse to taking the risk of alienating one of the "chosen" in order to support an unwelcome opinion. After all, he has been hired by the system to fight their battles, and has limited liberty to follow his conscience or denounce errors in fear of losing his position. I have been hard here, but 2000 years is long enough to learn the same lessons.
It is rare to see a church that truly enforces the Biblical standards upon its leadership. This is for a variety of reasons, least of which is the limited pool of candidates, should all qualifications for eldership have to be adhered to. I Timothy 3 says:" Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap". Paul writes here that elders "must" have the stated qualifications. It is not a multiple choice list, a Chinese menu, or a case where if you have any quality from List A, it's enough. We are so afraid of offending people by excluding them from church offices that we have made the office itself of little value. Because one is not qualified for eldership does not make them unfit for the Kingdom of God, only from this particular office. If you will notice, all of the qualifications are things that can be observed by outsiders. They are not inward qualities, such as "having a heart for the Lord", but are traits visible to those within and without the local church body. Elders are to indeed be role models and teachers to those within the church, and "without reproach" to those outside the walls. It is a shame that most churches do not want to do what is necessary to ensure that its leadership is in line with the Biblical model.
It's a wonder why most people would rather sleep in on Sunday mornings. A lot of churches sometimes exist as nothing more than glorified country clubs where people who do come want to spend their Sunday mornings unfettered by application of conscience. The local church assembly, like any society, is populated by many different types of people. There are those who are born into the church and attend out of habit or obligation. There are those who get drawn into the church by their good friends and continue to hang around as long as the friendship is intact and the related religious activities can supply some semblance of social life for them. There are those who, after abandoning the church during their "wild oats" days, return when they get older, praying that the "moral influence" of the church will keep their young children from doing those very things they did. And of course there are those who participate because they feel that "religion" is important for it's own sake, a component that makes up a healthy lifestyle. There is also one other group, who having failed to achieve preeminence in the secular society, offer their services and talents to the church. They feel that among these less sophisticated and inferior people they will finally get the recognition that they so richly deserve. This is especially true of "Worship" musicians who now have an opportunity to "shine" for Jesus.
Don't get me wrong, there are a good amount of Godly, committed people serving in our churches today. It is just that the current system is not set up to ensure that "the last shall be first". A lot of times, good people spend years laboring in churches, putting in their time and money (without thought of reward), only to be faced with the realization that it is not always easy to stay true to their convictions. There comes a day in which they are compelled by conscience to question something, and suddenly they are dismissed with contempt. After all; "Why get yourself in such a stir over church? It's not like it is important. You only spend one day a week here. You should spend more time concentrating on your career! Leave the church decisions to those who know" There are, they are told other churches around that may be able to better appreciate their opinions but this is not the place for rocking the boat. They are free to leave if they wish but they leave behind the time, energy and emotional investment. In recourse, they may try to remind the leadership that they have the Word and the witness of a clear conscience on their side, or they may try and remind them of the years of faithful service to the church. They may even think they deserve a forum for debate, understanding and a sincere, honest answer. But that would sort of defeat the purpose and mess everything up, wouldn't it?
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