The institutional church

I just read a very interesting article on the institutional church. It describes some reasons church membership has dropped. The whole article is quite good, but the list of ways the church has moved away from the first century church is really quite amazing. It is mostly about how and where the church meets, but it also discusses church leadership. I hope they take the thinking further to “remember” how the ministry operated in the New Testament, too, but this is a great start. The article goes into a lot more detail, but here is the list:

1. All the churches in the Bible met in a home and functioned like a small spiritual family. The current institutional church, by contrast, spends a great deal of energy and money getting and maintaining a church building.
2. The churches in the Bible were simple. We describe “simple church” as a way of being/doing church where any believer could say, “I could do that!”. (“they were astonished that Peter and John were unschooled, ordinary men” (Acts 4:13).) The institutional church, by contrast, requires highly educated, highly school (seminary, etc.) highly creative people to be successful. (Think Rick Warren, for instance.)
3. In the New Testament (NT) churches, everyone used their gifts. In institutional church, only a few, highly gifted people (worship leaders, preachers, etc.) use their gifts.
4. In NT church, Jesus brought the agenda for the meetings. In institutional churches, a few, very smart people design the worship experiences.
5. In the NT, churches were started in a few hours or a few days. Institutional churches require a great deal of planning and resources and take months or years to start.

Betty Blonde #436 – 03/19/2010

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