The Two Churches
1/10/2023
I can't speak to the direction of the Christian church in the world, but in America, if you haven't turned a blind eye, the Christian church is splitting in two right before our eyes. Some are mistakenly calling it politics - with the GOP getting half, and the Dems getting the other half, but I challenge that concept. It is not the politics affecting the churches, but the church model used determines the political landscape.
Huh? Like which denomination?? Not precisely.
Some denominations do tend to lean left or right by nature, due to the doctrines emphasized by the denomination in question.
But is that a function of denomination? Or is it a result of the church structure created in each denomination's "creed." For those of you new to this discussion, a creed is an operating set of core beliefs of a religion or a denomination. The modern parlance would be a "mission statement" of what they believe. What they believe is the basis for both the creed, and speaks to which model of church they adhere to.
Church model? WTH? There are models of churches? Well, yes.
Think about it - some churches have a formal structure and hierarchy - This includes all of the "catholic" churches, and some Protestant ones as well. They all report to a designated person/committee, which decides theology, methodology, and moral imperatives for all the members of that denomination. Then there are the "congregational" types. There is a loose denominational structure with very basic tenets that the member churches adhere to, and all day-to-day decisions are made at the local level inside each individual church. Then there are the "independent" churches that craft their own theology and methodology and only act in loose affiliation with other churches when the individual church agrees to it.
We can look at that, and still see church denominations on both sides of every issue.
There is a more basic split though, which is the core-centering focus on what the emphasis of the Christian walk of a member should look like. In this, there are two models - Service, and Salvation.
Jesus, when he was walking among us, teaching us about God and God's desires for us, stressed the love of others and serving those who were less fortunate. He spoke of a loving God, who wants the best for us and wants us to care for each other as the primary way to honor God. Jesus' emphasis was on bringing heaven down to earth by acting in defense of the weak or outcast. He spoke of the afterlife rarely, and reassuringly - stressing that by caring for each other we are doing God's will, and we have nothing to fear from God. When he spoke of sin, it was always presented as harming another individual, not offending God.
Jesus' walk was one of love and forgiveness. He spoke against both the harshness and difficulty of Mosaic law, and against the religious leaders of his time who used the threat of divine judgment to establish themselves as a ruling class over the great unwashed masses. In the stories related to him in the bible, he was always quick to defend the person "caught in sin", he always met people where they were, and encouraged them to be generous with others, both in practical and spiritual terms.
This was the model for the original church. Meeting as a family, caring for each other, and making sure that whomever was suffering was given whatever relief could be given. Jesus summed this up in the mantra that we use in New Ecclesiastes:
This went along swimmingly well for the time Jesus was alive and for 20-30 years after his death. After Jesus' execution, his brother James took over the operation of the Jerusalem/Judean church, which was the center of "The Way" - what Jesus' movement was called at the time. The first few chapters of Acts give witness to this as the continuation of Jesus' work. It was, in effect, putting the "Sermon on the Mount" into action.
This understated approach was very effective for the membership, but it wasn't very flashy. The followers of Jesus drew some curiosity for their "odd" behavior, but with Jesus now gone, there wasn't a huge draw for crowds anymore, so the church grew at a very steady, but very slow rate. No one seemed to mind much, except the designated bad guys - the Jewish religious establishment.
Speaking of the Jewish religious establishment - They had an up-and-comer - a highly educated man well versed in both Jewish and Roman law, as well as fluent in several languages. He was born and raised in Tarsus (a city in what is now modern Turkey) and set off to Jerusalem to serve as a Pharisee, but he was not accepted in Jerusalem. This is our buddy Saul (who would later become Paul). Saul, in an effort to impress the religious power structure, went on the first-ever "Christian Persecution Tour" and spent his time rounding up Christians for execution.
Most of us are familiar with his conversion story, now renamed Paul, he wanted to set the Gentiles on fire for Jesus spiritually instead of physically. The "Christian Persecution Tour" was re-branded as "Paul's First Missionary Journey" and the rest is bible history.
I have mused on Paul here a lot. Paul, for whatever reason, started making converts to Christianity. He started with the Jerusalem method of service, but he soon became aware that he was a gifted speaker who could make very persuasive arguments publicly and became the first traveling preacher.
I've spent a lot of years preaching myself. It is awkward for many people to get up in front of a crowd and speak, at length, about anything. There is an interaction between the speaker and the crowd that affects both, for better or worse. I know that a receptive audience is much easier to speak with than a non-receptive one, so it is a habit to look for a hook or to engage your audience and get them to actually listen.
Paul found his hook - the argument for salvation. Preaching "service" is a tough job. Service to others, while admirable, is not a flashy thing to sell. It requires commitment and hard work. There's no "what's in it for me?", which is the prime motivator for most humans. Salvation sells the reward, not the religion.
I am not going to argue about it working - it worked. Paul probably made more Christians than the entire movement up to that point. Paul planted some churches that are still in operation today. Without Paul, Christianity would have remained an obscure sect of Judaism. Paul set it on the road to become one of the largest religions ever. But at what cost?
We are learning the cost today.
The American church has 2 models to follow. The first is based on Jesus' teaching that the best way to honor God is to show others love and respect. That is showing others the love God has for us, we can bring heaven down here. You are welcomed as you are, and as your new commitment to help others takes root, a lot of the parts of ourselves that were not of a loving nature will fall away, as a matter of your spiritual self developing. By committing to this lifestyle, you allow God to work within you to improve yourself and make life better for all around you, including yourself.
There are no demands on you as you walk through the door. You, as a follower of Jesus will develop over time, and will never be perfect, but will mature into a better version of yourself as a matter of course. It is entirely a work between God and yourself, but you will have the community for support because you chose to be family.
The second model is Paul's version - the ultimate retirement plan - just say the magic words in a public setting and all the benefits of Jesus are yours, forever. Just say the words. Publicly. And do the public baptism. God will manifest in you and you get into heaven.
"Public" is a sales tool. If you are in front of a crowd, you feel important. The crowd cheering you on draws other people to watch the spectacle, so they feel important. The onlookers have questions sparked in their own minds and may ask those questions creating new potential converts. When described like this, it sounds like your typical multi-level marketing strategy. With similar results. Plenty of people sign on, but few ever make it work.
How many MLMs have a setup where the people at the top get all of the benefits while the people on the bottom struggle with disappointment over not getting what they expected? The people on the bottom provide the resources for the people on the top to benefit from. And why is it a disappointment?
Because you were sold a blank check, but you have no idea how to cash it, except to die. You were promised a result without being given the knowledge of what is required to achieve it. Many people get fired up at the moment, do Paul's magic words, and go back to their lives and nothing changes because the words mean nothing. All the words do is signify a commitment to follow Jesus. You need to actually follow Jesus. Which is doing what Jesus taught - honor God by showing others love and respect. That is what the words signify. If you do not follow through in action by receiving others in love, the words mean nothing. James stresses this:
Let's use Paul's Churches as an example. Paul is important to us now because he papered the ancient world with instructions and corrections. Most of his letters were to individual churches filled with members who said the magic words but were still acting, even among themselves, as if they never had heard of Jesus. As you read the letters, his congregations sounded like some very American churches today - infighting, backbiting, cliquishness, becoming the morality police, placing requirements of purity on members, creating sins out of whole cloth to throw at people, thinking themselves holier than the masses. And we can't forget the gatekeeping. You know those guys - you've got to stop doing such and such before we will even talk to you. The opposite of what Jesus did.
All in all the problems that Paul had in his churches, which did not appear in the Jerusalem church, can all be traced to the shift in emphasis from service to salvation. And we are bearing the brunt of this today in staggering numbers. Which is what happens when you play a numbers game.
The current situation in the American church bears out this witness. The two opposing camps have been living in stasis for a long time, but the reaction to this 21st-century craziness is a living Venn diagram of two circles that barely touch. On the one side is the Paulists publicly proclaiming their superiority in the Christian Nationalist movement, gatekeeping the borders, and society in general, and making a spectacle of themselves. On the other side, those doing it as Jesus intended to try to continue to minister and care for others without drawing unneeded attention to themselves. Unfortunately, in being humble and quiet, many people just assume that the Christian Nationalists speak for all Christians. In reality, they speak for no Christians, because to proclaim Jesus in such a manner is about the most anti-Christian act you could do. Being a Christian in name only is not being a Christian at all.
We can not blame those sitting in the pews for this. It is what they have been left with as God-approved by their pastors and teachers. Their pastors and teachers learned their doctrine from their denomination, and their denomination's first choice in forming was a doctrinal difference from their parent church model. In the end, it is the model of the church that is responsible for things going haywire, and all that lies at the feet of those whose model they follow.
No wonder there is a mess. It doesn't need to be this way.
In Peace, Faith and Love,
Ecc. RL Brandner, New Ecclesiastes Ministries