the-hurting.jpgThis morning (Sunday) the pastor of a large church where my family and I attend two or three times a month resigned after confessing an adulterous relationship with a fellow staff member. It was an enormous blow to everyone. If there was one pastor among the group of churches where I work (as a Church Planting Strategist) that I thought “had it all together” it was this pastor. In every area of ministry he seemed to always do the right thing. Over the past 17 years he led the church from a group of 75 to a church with an attendance of over 5,000. The church is a full blown PDC model with six services including one on-site video venue and two regional campuses.

I struggled with all the typical questions of how the two of them could have let this happen; how were there not some kind of “protections” within church procedures; where were the spouses, co-workers and other fellow believers. But later I began to reflect on the way we “do” church.

This tragedy seems to be another illustration of how the “system” is flawed. I can’t help but think that the Christendom, consumerist mode of church that we follow plays a part. When we follow a model of ministry that focuses the majority of resources and importance on the corporate gathering rather than genuine discipleship do we not open ourselves up to the problems associated with style over substance? The consumer driven model creates stress and work-load levels that are unhealthy to the well being of church leaders and their families. Moreover, when a church experiences the kind of “success” that this church has I am afraid the success feeds the darkest parts of our human condition.

I know because I have been there. Although on a much smaller scale, I have experienced the reality that when the depth and strength of my own personal spiritual vitality came into conflict with creating and delivering an attention-grabbing, “relevant” message, the time and energy attributed to the message always won out. It wasn’t until I came to the realization that I was called to Christ, not the church that I found relief. It wasn’t until I realized that I was living a “church-centered” life rather than a Christ-centered one. Unfortunately, today it seems to me that the current “system” of doing church only perpetuates the problem.

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