Church porn that I won't be reading...

   

Maybe its cos its raining and I want to go for a run or just a build up of too many hormones but I'm in a cantankerous mood today. 

My mood did not get any better with the notification in my in-box that I can get hold of Frank Viola's new book "Re-imaging church." 

Not because I've got anything against Frank, or his books.  I've never read them and I'm more than happy to link to him here in case you want to go and find out more.  They might be absolute un-missable reads (heh if you have read them then give me the heads up please :).

And not cos of Fernando's skinny revealing the remarkable manipulative power of the the little word "Re-"

Voyeur guilty pleasure...

I guess I'm just tired of the flood of book, blogs, podcasts, commentators who with voyeur like pleasure lift up the skirts to show me how wrong church is.  How broken church is.  How institutional church is. How hypocritical church is.  How abusive, myopic, out of touch, conservative, liberal, self serving, fragmented, divisive church is.  How really it is not what Jesus ever intended to be and quite frankly why he if he showed up he wouldn't be darkening the door of those kinda places. Why we're far better to be out of the church altogether until the church that we're all waiting and longing for finally shows up and then if it can prove itself to be real nice to us, we'll maybe come on back.

I get it!  I know! I understand! It sucks! It's crap with a side order of crap and some delicious crap with icing sugar for desert!

Seriously, I don't need books to tell me what's wrong with church.  I go to church.  I'm what's wrong with church.  Well for someone (or a whole bunch of someones) I am the problem.

Over promising

As much as I wish to believe that I need to be re-imagined, or reformed, or more organic less processed, more emerged, more in tune, more able to sing, better able to realize global social aesthetic trends...

As much as I may crave to be less institutional, more community based, more spirit filled and less controlling... 

If only i could inhabit a time machine to get back to how it should have been or to FFWD to how it should be as the author would have me believe. Or better yet do a complete body swap with St Paul or A N other christian of the day... 

As careful as the research is, or as convincing as the scriptural references are, or as ringing as the endorsements of the back cover  from as many big name top christians are....

As dearly as I love to believe that the one true church as it is always was intended to be, or should be or will be is only 300 pages and £10.99 away from me discovering.

I find myself experiencing doubts that these books will deliver me to church nirvana.

Porned out...

In fact these books don't make me happy any more.  They are a bit like porn, easy on the eye, great for fantasy but ultimately deeply unsatisfying in helping me in the unairbrushed lumpy reality of real sexual life.

These books just make me feel righteously pissed off and confirm what I have suspected for quite some time... that it's someone elses fault that church is crap and if only they listen to me we can all have a much better time!

Now I just need a snappy title...

Comments

[Rupert Ward]

You maybe in a cantankerous mood, but you are making a lot of sense too! I totally agree and it bothers me intensely that people can give up on church. I know that churches are imperfect, and there is a lot of rubbish that goes on, and that we sometimes need to engage differently (etc. etc), but it seems often people are making some very fine critiques of a game of football happening on the pitch below, while munching their pork pies in the stands. I have much more time for people's comments, if they making a contribution on the pitch...

Maybe Viola is doing that (not read it) but why do we always thing our church (real or imagined!) is the best kind of church? Surely there are lots of different kinds of people, at different stages of life and faith, in different cultures and contexts, and therefore lots of different kinds (styles) of churches are needed?

[Paul]

Thanks Rupert, I agree, surely the great thing is that there are all sorts of churches for all sorts of folks - all of them flawed in their own special way :)

[Lainie Petersen]

This is beautiful, Paul. Inspires me to more contemplation of the issue.

[Josh]

I think a lot of these books surrounding the 'Emerging Church' movement are really just trying to spark people to consider their faith differently. I think it's working too. There is not one church that's better than another, and while I haven't read any of Viola, I think his role in the house church movement will eventually blend with those of the emerging church movement. I think we've all found ourselves disenchanted with our current state and these authors are trying to wake people up.

But what do I know? :-)

Like your blog!

[Jason Clark]

You said:
"I'm what's wrong with church. Well for someone (or a whole bunch of someones) I am the problem."

I beg to differ, I'm what's wrong with church ;-)

[Dean Whisnant]

I gotta tell you that I'm right with you. The sad part is I'm just completing a required course entitled Developing a Missional Church. The final project, which I just turnitin.com'd, was to develop a plan to take my broken church and make it nirvana. Ok, maybe it wasn't that tiresome, actually with everything I've read and expereinced I could have written it in my sleep. Though I would probably still have been just as wrong.

I've been much lower profile over the last year from the blogosphere because I've been more concerned with trying to actually live it. Not saying that I'm all better now, like everyone else I've still got a long ways to go. But I'm tired of debating what's wrong with church and what's not wrong with the emerging conversation. It was fun, it did change my life to a point, but now it is time to move foreward.

Peace!

[fernando]

The first things that came to mind at the suggestion "voyeuristic ecclesiology" was gastro-porn. So many cookbooks (and cooking programs) are so clearly aimed at a segment of the market that have only a marginal interest in cooking - or should we say real cooking, the kind of "from basic ingredients" stuff that our grandparents would have recognised as cookbooks.

In fact, the cookbooks from my grandmother's age are a real eye-opener. They assume a whole lot of knowledge about cooking techniques and food handling. Makes you wonder what ecclesiology that assumed we knew the basics are were not going over the obvious criticisms might look like...

...as for me; what's kept me from writing about ecclesiology (apart from no publishers being interested and no one asking me to) is the fear that would just be another big whingefest. Maybe the humility to say, hey I don't really have the answer (or a clever word or catch-phrase that looks like answer) is the pitiful starting point?

[Toni]

There are WAY too many books out there now - the likening by Fern of this to cookbooks/programs is apt.

Now how can we become the solution instead of the problem? Probably by stopping the analysis and getting out to live as Jesus among His people. I'm part of a church I know as family, who I love dearly and are loved right back. It's not a *perfect* church, but we're working on our failings as God talks to us about them. I have no wish to deconstruct or beat my breast over this. We are on the verge of a major change as a couple, but my full expectation is that wherever we go, we shall bring the smell and taste of Jesus - and we'll find more family to love. I don't (and can't?) love the church abstract, but I love the parts I know.

Now I certainly see issues in some parts of the church which are as clear, obvious and self-inflicted as if we read hard-core porn in public. But wherever I experience that personally I hope to bring that same character of Jesus to bear, rather than handle it 'by the book'.

[Ferg]

GREAT post Paul. You nailed it on the head.
Although I'm exempt cause I'm definitely not what's wrong with church. I'm awesome and all my ideas are spirit inspired so no one can argue with me. That's the attitude I should have isn't it?? Oh wait...

[Jeff Gill]

Hi, my name is Jeff...

_Hi, Jeff_

...and I'm addicted to American prophetic revival porn. Well, maybe not addicted; I can quit looking at those websites any time I want.

Or something.

Brilliant post Paul!

This week I experienced three beautiful non-church-porn kingdom of God things, which I shall now share.

1. We had a what's-going-on meeting at our church this week, and I heard some wonderful stories of how the people in my church are being the body of Christ.

2. I'm reading Tom Wright's Surprised by Hope, and it is causing me to love the church and her mission so much more.

3. Dean Whisnant, who I've never heard of before I read the comments above, wrote this: '...because I've been more concerned with trying to actually live it.' Thank you, Dean.

[Paul]

Thanks Lainie, loved your own confession :)

[Paul]

thanks Josh, I know you are right these books are often well intentioned, designed to spark ideas and hopes and I applaud that. I just wish it was more packaged, "heh this worked for me, maybe it will help you..."

[Paul]

Lol, thanks Jase. Ok yes it is you ;)

[Paul]

Thanks Dean, yes I think you are right, at some point we need to get concrete on our boots...

[Paul]

it might be a pitiful starting point F, but maybe its the honest one?

[Paul]

Thanks Toni, i think that tangible engagement and reflection at the same time is a positive way forward

[Paul]

Thanks Ferg, well there is an exception to every rule ;)

[Paul]

Jeff... that is just so wrong, lol :)

[Jill]

Seriously, guys, is it good scholarship to review and discount a book that you haven't even read? :)

I've read the book, and found it to be quite compelling. Far from being just another diatribe against the church, it sets forth a beautiful vision of the church based on the eternal purposes of God. It seeks to woo us back from our institutional wanderings to the very heart of our God.

I would certainly recommend reading the book before jumping to conclusions about the author’s intent. I believe he addresses such things as church unity, leadership, buildings, etc. in a biblical and compelling way. Viola is not out to dismantle the institution, but to call us that higher vision-one based upon the eternal purpose of God Himself. Has God not used fallible men in times past to help make course corrections when His people lose sight of Him? For truly this goes beyond form and function to the right and ability of the Head to direct His Body as pleases Him.

Viola makes it clear in the preface of "Reimagining" that he is not criticizing the church, which is the people of God. He desires to see the Body of Christ express itself as God intended from the beginning (p.12). He states, “the church, therefore, should not be confused with an organization, a denomination, a movement, or a leadership structure….Therefore, it’s the present practices of the church that I’m seeking to reimagine, not the church itself” (p.13).

God loves the Church, but He is certainly not married to its nonbiblical practices and rituals.

Many Christians (myself included) have walked away, not from God and His beautiful church, but from a system that hinders the expression of that church as God intended and, I believe, reveals to us in scripture. That of a fully functioning priesthood of believers operating as family under the headship of Christ. A church free to operate without the constraints that a corporate mindset places on her. My family has been experiencing this type of community for several years, and I have to say it has ruined me to anything else.

I would encourage you to read the book for yourself before labeling it "church porn". :)

[fernando]

Hey, if the truth is pitiful, then that's where we have to start...

[brad]

Hi Paul, linked here from one of your comments on Bro. Maynard's blog, I think. Anyway, you're on to something ... definitely. (I posted something two months ago with a subtitle of "Power Addiction is Like Porn." Some similar sentiments.)

I like to think that the real work of "churching" is found in this: We should not enter or exit relationships lightly. Transformation has never been "Snap, Zap, the End of the Crap." (I oughta start a bumper-sticker company maybe?)

I've seen deep change happen more in the long-run - when we have people who know each other well enough and who choose to keep traveling that road a long ways together. It's the ordinary, day-to-day incremental changes that add up in the long haul, though wouldn't it be delightful if it were instantaneous? But then, a sincere desire to change without the wisdom to wait is perhaps part of what fuels us buying and buying into church-help gurus and celebs. The "perfect" model for church plus push-for-instantaneous change Christians equals the same-old stuff.

Okay, enough words. Back to the action ...

Thanks for your post.

[rodney neill]

Passionate and challenging post!