Left this comment on a friend's blog site, http://jamescopple-the-seeker.com/, thought I would put it here as well.
I have been a parish pastor for 28 years and have been early retired, ie on disability, with Parkinson’s disease, for the past 5 years. I am beginning to realize how much I have lived within my own small spiritual ecosystem and not needed to interact with the institution from a different perspective. I am finding that it is alarmingly rare for Christians to have a relationship with the institutional church while sharing a corporate vision and having some sense of involvement in the nature and direction of that congregational vision.
Too long a sentence, but I think I see a great deal of defensiveness and even aggression against the congregational peons by leadership. To me, a servant leader procures most of his/her authority from a shared , God given vision on the congregational level. I’m not sure if I am seeing this because I’m getting old and crotchety or just seeing things more accurately now that I am in a different position.
I am SURE my friend Jim is right, however, the Church is hard to be around but the world would be lost without it.
So, what is an appropriate response to an institution or to leadership when it imposes it's own vision on the church regardless of the impact on the local parishioners? Maybe the corporate body needs to come together and restore the vision for the church. If the hands and feet of the church are working together to accomplish God's will the institution can't help but take notice.
ReplyDeleteI guess each of us can choose to be reactionary to those in authority or to work with fellow brothers and sisters to put actions to what we believe