Richard Rohr - Transformation talk - these women didn't take vows so that the Bishops would not have to control them... tens of thousands...
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MINISTRY AS EMPOWERMENT
“Tell me, and I will
forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”
(Confucius)
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It was 10 pm., and the
60-year-old patient would not last the night. She was still conscious so her
grieving daughter and I prepared for a bedside vigil. Then a thought: I preach
about the ministry of the whole church, so why was I there in the hospital?
I phoned the chairman of
elders, and asked him to arrange for a different person to come each hour. They
did, and he himself was there at 4 a.m. when the lady died. He committed the
departed and grieving ones to the Lord, and ‘went home on a high’, privileged
to have been involved in such a strategic pastoral opportunity!
When I saw him again - many
years later – he lit up again as he talked about it!
The saddest question
pastors ask is ‘How can the church learn to minister to itself – and to the
world?’ And the laity’s saddest question: ‘Why won’t pastors empower us for
ministry too?’ There’s a catch-22 here somewhere… ‘Ministry as empowerment’ is
in the category ‘What they didn’t teach you at theological seminary!’
Where two or three are
gathered together there is power. ‘Power is… an ever-present reality which one
must confront, use, enjoy, and struggle with a hundred times a day’ (Rollo May,
Power and Innocence, 1972:121). History is about power. So is psychology:
self-esteem derives from the ability to influence one’s destiny; to be
involuntarily powerless is to be without hope. All behaviour, says Adler, has
something to do with striving for power. However such striving is sick when
those at the apex of power pyramids bolster their images with larger offices,
special titles, distinctive clothing, deferential treatment, and
prominently-displayed certificates and honours. ‘Image-makers’ earn big bucks
giving advice about ‘power dressing’, ‘colour and flow analysis’, ‘impression
management’ (‘don’t grasp the lectern when speaking: look what happened to
Nixon!’), and even what glasses frames best make the wearer look more
sensitive/capable/authoritative, etc. There’s a story (apocryphal I hope) of a
pastor who advertised his degrees on his street letter-box plaque!
Brother Roger of Taize
refused to be called ‘prior’ in his community. ‘I am their brother… It is
impossible for those holding positions of responsibility in the church to add
honorific titles to their service of God’ (The Wonder of a Love, 1981:85).
Theology, too is about
power: ‘On every page of the New Testament one finds the terminology of power’
(Walter Wink, Naming the Powers, 1984:99). Some believe all power is evil –
Tony Campolo, in The Power Delusion says power is the opposite of love – others
(Machiavelli, Nietzche) that power is good (‘all weakness tends to corrupt, and
impotence corrupts absolutely’ – Rollo May, 1972:24).
Here we’ll assume power is
neutral, but is directed to good or evil ends. Essentially power is the ability
to get things done. Authority is power conferred by an institution. Leadership
is getting things done through others. Empowerment is giving away, rather than
accruing, power.
Power in the church
Where two or three gather
in churches there is power. Surveys tell us most clergy enjoy preaching more
than anything else. (Here, said one, ‘I’m not at the mercy of petty
bureaucrats!’).
Lay leaders may exercise
power: even becoming ‘permission-withholders’ (Lyle Schaller). I asked some
Anglican clergy about the most powerful group in their church (it was the
women’s guild: when they don’t like the vicar they withold their fete-moneys!).
Church renewal is the
process whereby church people, systems and structures receive new life, meaning
and power. Ministry renewal happens when pastors and leaders move from an
organizational/ maintenance mode of leadership to one of empowering the whole
church for ministry.
The church-as-institution may
resist such empowerment. Religious institutions tend over time to domesticate
(Freire, Pedagogy and the Oppressed, 1972) and routinize faith-traditions.
Marx may have had a point
when he suggested that institutional religion is the enemy of social
transformation because it sacralizes the forms and structures of society
(Gilkey, Reaping the Whirlwind, 1981:199). Christians bring a mix of altruism
and a ‘what’s in it for me’ agenda to church meetings. Roy Oswald (Power
Analysis of a Congregation) says every person in an organization has banked an
amount of ‘power currency’ through personal (knowledge, position, verbal skills
etc.) and corporate attributes (role, reputation, influence with group/s,
access to communication channels). The pastor-leader had better identify formal
and informal power-holders, groups and factions, and trace those communication
channels if he or she is to influence people. Then, says Oswald, the more I
empower others, the more powerful everyone in my system is, the more powerful I
become. In the words of a 1970 book by David Dunn Try Giving Yourself Away!
So a renewed church will
take seriously the role of the laity in ministry. As the Whiteheads put it (J.D
and E.E, in Method in Ministry: Theological Reflection and Christian Ministry,
1983:5): ‘A contemporary shift in ecclesiology, our under- standing of the
nature and structure of the church, has significantly influenced the shape of theological
reflection in ministry. Previously we have been familiar with a church in which
an individual authority (whether Catholic pope, Episcopal bishop, or Methodist
pastor) reflected on and made decisions for the believing community. The
emphasis today moves toward understanding the community of faith as the locus
of theological and pastoral reflection. Pastoral insight and decis- ion are not
just received in the community but are generated there as well… This shift
requires new pastoral skills – group reflection, conflict resolution, and
decision making - for the community and for its ministers.’
Although the church
comprises human beings, it is not a human institution. The church’s ministry is
Christ’s (John 20:21), carrying out in the world his ministry both extensively
and intensively. Its mandate coincides with Jesus’ own definition of his
calling (Luke 4:18-19). The style of Christ’s ‘headship’ was exemplified in
washing his friends’ feet. His badge of office was not a sceptre, but a towel.
He models ‘servant leadership’, an authority to be found not in titles or
status but in empowering others (cf. Mark 10:42-44). That is to be our model
too.
The ministry belongs to the
whole church, not just trained clergy (Ephesians 4:11-12,25). So we will have to
abolish the ‘clergy’ – or the ‘laity’. Every Christian is a minister; the whole
church are the laos, the people of God. Our terminology should catch up with
our theology at this point: let us drop the term ‘minister’, singular.
‘Why is it’ asks George Goyder
(The People’s Church, 1977:33) ‘that the church today will not trust its
members? Why does the church so often decline to recognize and to accept the
activity of the Spirit among unregulated groups of Christians?
Why is all initiative in
the church expected and presumed to derive from the clergy? It is because we
have substituted for the biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit as ruler in the
church a doctrine of our own, unknown to scripture, the authority of
professionalism’ (1977:33).
Ethology
Ethology is the study of
the comparison between human and animal behaviour. An important concept in
ethology is the notion of territoriality: the practice of marking a piece of
ground and defending it against intruders. Animals as diverse as fish, worms,
gazelles, and lizards stake out particular areas and put up fierce resistance
when intruders encroach on their area. Many species use odorous secretions to
mark the boundaries of their territory. For example the wolf marks its domain
by urinating around the perimeter.
Some scholars argue that
people are territorial animals: humans’ genetic endowment drives them to gain
and defend territory, much as the animals do. ‘The dog barking at you from
behind his master’s fence acts for a motive indistinguishable from that of his
master when the fence was built’ (Ardrey, The Territorial Imperative, 1966:5).
The list of territorial behaviours is endless: in a library you protect your
space with a book, coat, or note-book; you ‘save a place’ in the theatre or at
the beach – reserving a spot that is ‘mine’ or ‘ours’; juvenile gangs fight to
protect their turf (remember David Wilkerson’s vivid descriptions of New York
youth gangs in The Cross and the Switchblade?); neighbours of similar ethnic
backgrounds join forces to keep other groups out; nations war over contested
territory; pastors accuse others of ‘sheep-stealing’ (Schaller, Effective
Church Planting, 1979:65ff.).
‘Turfism’ is rife in
churches. The roster lady quits because someone didn’t consult her about
flowers left from the Saturday wedding; the organist won’t play anything
composed after the 1900s; the women’s fellowship won’t give the pastor – or
anyone else – the key to their new room; the board chairman is angry
because they met when he was away; an elder complains that the youth director took some kids to a Christian rock concert; the cleaner resigns because young people left chairs in disarray; the pastor is miffed when a Bible study group starts up without his knowledge.
because they met when he was away; an elder complains that the youth director took some kids to a Christian rock concert; the cleaner resigns because young people left chairs in disarray; the pastor is miffed when a Bible study group starts up without his knowledge.
As a result of our
fallenness, this planet and its inhabitants have substituted ‘territoriality’
(‘my space – keep out’) for ‘hospitality’ (‘my space – you’re welcome!’). The
Bible has many stories and injunctions about reversing this effect of the Fall.
Now pastors and leaders in
the church are invited to be ‘hospitable’ rather than ‘territorial’, and it’s
something they generally do very poorly. The biblical models are clear. Moses
was told by his father-in-law: ‘You’re killing yourself!’ (Exodus 18:18). His
advice: Pray for the people, teach them God’s laws, and appoint co-leaders.
When Jesus was recruiting disciples to lead his church he had the same three
priorities: prayer, teaching (by modelling and instruction), and training for
ministry. It’s amazing how much Jesus delegated, very early, to his disciples.
Then when these apostles messed up the early Church’s social welfare system,
they had an ‘aha’ experience: ‘Oh, we should have remembered; our task is to
give our full time to prayer and teaching the Word, so let’s delegate other
ministries to people full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom’ (Acts 6:1-4). It would
be wonderful if more pastors had this kind of ‘aha’ experience.
Now why don’t they? Fasten
your seat-belts: this paragraph will contain some turbulence. The Devil could
not get Jesus to accrue power to himself (Matthew 4:1-11; 16:21-28) so he has
tried the same temptations on the shepherds of Jesus’ church.
And he has generally
succeeded. The church very early in its institutional history developed an
‘official’ ministry which separated ‘ordained’ Christians from others. These
‘priests’ alone had sacramental prerogatives. The Protestant Reformers rejected
Roman Catholic and Orthodox theology at this point – the whole church is
pastoral, priestly, prophetic – but may not have taken their reformation far
enough. Protestant pastors generally feel that they too, control certain
prerogatives in the life of the church (presiding at most sacramental
observances, preaching most of the sermons, chairing most of the meetings,
visiting most of the sick etc.), and are often reluctant to share these
ministries with others. They have perhaps forgotten that their key role is
equipping (Ephesians 4:12), empowering others for ministry, not doing it all
themselves as paid ‘professional employees’ of the Church.
Frankly, it’s nice having
these privileges: all the clergy surveys tell us they enjoy these public roles
in most cases. Taking power to ourselves is the devil’s primal trick however.
Justice is essentially
about power. When we deny others their empowering, that’s unjust. So
pastor-teachers ought to spend more time with fewer people, training them for
leadership and ministry on the job.
The main point we are
making here about ordination for ministry is that everyone’s in it! Every
Christian is ordained for ministry (at baptism). So if the Protestant
Reformation at least put the Bible into the hands of ordinary Christians, we
need another Reformation to put ministry there as well.
Today all branches of the
Church are facing this question with renewed urgency. The 1989 Lausanne II
conference of Evangelicals may be remembered most for its strident attack on
clericalism. The progressive Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx similarly
writes: ‘There is no mention in the New Testament of an essential distinction between
“laity” and “ministers”… the ministry is not a status, but a function. For the
New Testament, the essential apostolic structure of the community and therefore
of the ministry of its leaders has nothing to do with what is called the
“hierarchical” structure of the church. [The coming community of the church] is
a community in which the power structures which prevail in the world are
gradually broken down. All have responsibility, though there are functional
differences… ‘ (Ministry: a Case for Change, 1981:21,135).
When his The Church With a
Human Face was published five years later his thinking had moved even further:
‘The early eucharist was structured after the pattern of Jewish grace at meals…
at which just anyone could preside… The general conception is that anyone who
is competent to lead the community [emphasis mine] in one way or another is
ipso facto also president at the eucharist (and in this sense presiding at the
eucharist does not need any separate authorization). The New Testament does not
tell us any more than this [again, emphasis mine]‘ (1985:119-120).
So pastors are nurturers,
not primarily performing tasks but growing people. They nurture by example and
exhortation (in that order, 1 Peter 5:3; 1 Timothy 4:11,12; Titus 2:7). They
produce co-leaders, and once the community has recognized them such persons
ought to be commissioned for their ministries. This can be done at a special
service, by the ‘laying on of hands’ (hands belonging to representatives from
the congregation, not necessarily those of the ‘heavies’ present!). Let us
encourage the commissioning, from time to time, of everyone who has a
recognized ministry within the church body. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more
pastors aimed to do what Saul and Barnabas did in the church at Antioch:
reproduce themselves in other leaders within a year! How will they do that?
Essentially:
* Let us get our theology
of ordination and ministry straight: what we generally call ‘ordination’ is
really accreditation, a necessary step where a church-as- institution agrees
with God’s prior calling to a ministerial vocation. So all Christian men and
women are ordained already!
* We need to train a
generation of professional clergy who are not threatened by others with proven
skills in people management.
* Managers/pastors train
others best by modeling: it’s a master-apprentice relationship.
* A redemptive teaching
model involves reciprocal learning, rather than a powerful all-knowing teacher
pouring information into pupil’s heads.
* But this requires openness,
humility, ego-strength, and teachability on the part of the teacher.
* It also requires lots of
time – doing ministry with others, then analysing, praying, de-briefing and
encouraging the trainee.
In practice,
* 70% of the average
pastor’s visitation is non-confidential, another 20% may require the consent of
the counselee: the pastor ought to be accompanied by another on most of these
occasions.
* Allow those with the
requisite gifts to help lead worship, Bible studies, small groups etc. (but
public ministries should to be exercised only after training and proven
competence).
* Your church ought to be a
miniature theological seminary: run courses on everything to do with ministry,
and have lots of resources (books, audio- and video-tapes etc.) available.
* Pastors: share any and
every ministry except pastoral leadership. The buck ends with you: you cannot
evade that responsibility.
In an American basketball
stadium hangs a large banner: ‘IT CAN HAPPEN HERE!’
It can happen in your life,
in your church!
by Rowland Croucher (GRID,
Summer 1989)
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Miniemp - http://www.jmm.org.au/
Miniemp Antioch - http://www.jmm.org.au/
Miniemp Questionnaire... http://www.
Phar Ancient and modern - http://www.jmm.org.au/
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