Three groups... one church?

It seems to me that there are three distinct groups of people within the church [actually probably in the world in general].

• Group One: People who like to be told what to do and are happy doing it.
• Group Two: People who like to tell others what to do and are happy doing it.
• Group Three: People who don't believe it right to be told what to do by Group Two and who don't want to tell Group One what to do.

Group One people are generally happy. Group Two people are generally happy. Group Three people are generally unhappy!

So where am I going with this? Well in Larnaca in Cyprus I am regularly meeting people who appear to be group three people... people who are fed up with with the church leaders who all appear [to them] to be control freaks who dictate what goes on and what to believe to the others.

Over the past couple of years I have also met with at least one largish mission agency where some of the members were complaining the same thing about their leaders.

The question this actually raises is about the role of leadership and the way it is implemented in the church, as well as what we mean by the church.

Years ago I heard a quote 'Bad leaders lead from the back, good leaders lead from the front, but of truly great leaders they say we did it ourselves'. Martin Luther King, Jr. said something like this 'A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a moulder of consensus'. When we look at Jesus we see someone both leading from the front but more importantly motivating and encouraging his followers to 'do the stuff'.

Today I don't see this in the church. What I see is leaders dictating to others what to do. Frequently those of us in group three question whether the proclamation is from God, or indeed if the Lord has really appointed this person to be a leader. Blindly following people who you do not believe are appointed by the Lord creates stress. Yet this is what many seem to want from us.

Where do we go with this. Those of us in group three love the Lord. We believe in His leadership not man's. We believe in the priesthood of all believers. Yet more and more we are edged out of the Sunday performance by those we see as controllers we don't believe God appointed to the role they have assumed.

Some of those in group three are comfortable with this separation. They are confident with their own position and don't take any notice of the leaders anyway. Others, like me, long for leaders who mould consensus. We long for people in the pattern of Jesus whose desire is to see others 'doing my Father's will'.

For now I don't see that. For now I just see the pain caused by these controlling leaders.

The Sunday performance

I've just about had it up to here with the Sunday performance! Ever since my voice broke I have been unable to sing in tune. What's worse, I can hear that I am out of tune but cannot persuade my voice to co-operate. So I hate singing. I really hate singing. It's not a pleasant sound to me. What's more I can hear that other people cannot sing in tune. So, first off the singing at the Sunday performance is like a cacophonous noise to me. I like music. But this is not.

Then there is the Sunday oratory... even assuming that the person speaking is not wildly misquoting scripture its just so boring. When I was at school I hated lessons - listening to a teacher was about the worst way for me to learn and listening to the Sunday oratory is similarly unhelpful.

But those who run what we call churches seem to have this idea in their head that the Sunday performance is the key event of the week. For me it's not even really church. The early followers of Jesus met in each others homes, shared meals together, talked and learnt from each other. They shared their needs and prayed together. Sounds like a million miles from the Sunday performance.

And in that way leadership was different. You didn't need the mega-star leader who proclaimed from the front and was six feet above contradiction. Maybe occasionally there would be someone who had something valuable to say and would give a talk but on the whole it bore little resemblance to what we call church and so the leadership was truly servant leadership.

Now on a Friday evening a bunch of us followers of the Way meet together for a meal. We pray together and then study the Scriptures. All except for me go to one specific Sunday performance. One of the members of this group repeatedly tries to coerce me to come on a Sunday. Sometimes I go to a different Sunday performance, but increasingly I am tiring of the same platitudes and misquoted Scriptures.

So why not just abandon the Sunday meeting and church together on a Friday? Well, actually I could go further... since I work with a group of other followers of the Way during the week, we church together every weekday. My weekdays are worship and glorifying our Lord. Saturday is the day I enjoy Him - normally we sail together. I love the sea that He created. There are more references to Him spending time on boats in the Gospels that teaching in Synagogues!

So why not just abandon the Sunday meeting and church together on a Friday? Well, I feel guilty if I miss the drudgery of a Sunday performance. Somewhere deep in my psyche I am programmed that the Sunday performance is a must. Even though it makes me feel further from God... even though I come back feeling angry with the world... even though more and more I meet loyal followers of the Way who have abandoned this in favour of churching together at other times. Still I feel I should go. And hate it.

The other problem is that those people who do get a buzz out of the Sunday performance continually make it sound like that is the main thing. Last Friday evening during the time we were sharing almost everyone was buzzing about their church... and then turned to me about the place I do sometimes go to on a Sunday. No, I didn't even begin to feel the same way they expressed. And then I felt guilty I should feel the same as they do. I feel isolated from them. Alienated.

I'm tired of this... I long for a gathering of followers of the Way who cannot stand the Sunday performance. I long for people who love the Lord and don't try to persuade you to attend a meeting which phenomenologically looks like a theatre show or sing-a-long concert. Then I would feel at home in family.

I recently saw a website entitled Church 2.0. A church without leaders. A church that sounded quite a lot like I have been feeling. Searching for Church 2.0 in Google I see a lot of people thinking about a reinventing of the church. Theologians call this 'repristinization' - making the gathering new for each generation. Why, oh why, is there nothing like that here? Are we totally away from the moving of the Holy Spirit in Cyprus?