It Doesn't Have to Be That Way ... Yet It Is

I suggested in my last blog that the problem underlying the decline of the institutional church is a spiritual problem. Let me be more specific.

The institutional structure of a church is a tool to foster the spiritual life and development of the community. The spiritual community is primary; the structure is secondary (as I said in my previous blog - yes, I know I am repeating myself!). When the structure, i.e., the institutional expression of the church (organization, committees, groups, programs, traditions, beliefs), becomes primary, the spiritual life begins to suffer and diminish. Without a vibrant spiritual life, the church becomes nothing more than another human institution/organization, albeit a religious one.

The institutional church does not require an spiritual life in order to function. (Read that sentence again and think about it.) In fact, the institutional church appeals to the human ego. It offers places to belong, positions to hold, roles to play, power to wield. Our identity and sense of value can become tied up in our involvement in the institutional life. Beliefs allow us to perceive ourselves as "right" and, thereby, superior to those who believe differently. Functioning out of ego makes us comfortable and complacent ... as well as angry and defensive when something disrupts the comfort and familiarity of our status quo. (BTW, have you ever noticed how disruptive God can be?!)

When the ego gets involved, spiritual life is displaced. We revert to functioning out of our human nature, not out of the ways of the Kingdom. We use power the way the world uses power - to dominate and control, i.e., to protect our position-place-role-power-identity-value-beliefs. We think in terms of us-them. A critical, judgmental spirit displaces the spirit of love; seriousness and inflexibility block the spirit of freedom and joy. Decisions made in the parking lot by a few take the place of open, honest communication that seeks to discern the Spirit's guidance. The servant spirit of Jesus, rather than permeating all that is done, becomes the exception because the human ego is in control.

This ego-driven, human-oriented way of functioning is possible because of flawed thinking theologically.

• Salvation is viewed as going to heaven when we die, not as the transformation of my life as I grow into the likeness of Jesus.  
• Sin is viewed as doing things wrong - the violation of a religious, moral standard - rather than as an attitude and way of life that opposes the ways of God.
• Jesus is viewed as a Savior who gets us into heaven rather than as Lord whose ways we follow. 
• Jesus' death is seen as the price required to gain God's forgiveness rather than the predictable result of our resistance to God and the ways of God. This perspective reduces salvation to a transaction between God and me: in exchange for believing in Jesus, God forgives my sins and grants me access into heaven. 
• Salvation is based upon belief - believing certain facts about Jesus and his death - rather than upon opening my life to God and living in a daily, personal relationship with God. 
• The Christian life is reduced to church involvement, assenting to a core set of beliefs, conforming to a moral standard, and doing good things to help others. A life of love, patterned after the ways of the Kingdom that Jesus taught, drifts out of view. In short, church membership displaces discipleship. 
• The world gets divided into us-them - those who believe and those who don't, the righteous and the sinners, those like us and the "other."
• The Bible gets used as a rule book to validate what we believe.

This kind of thinking creates a man-centered Christianity that opens the door to an ego-driven religious life devoid of vibrant spirituality. Vibrant spiritual health is the work of the Spirit, not the product of human effort or human ways.

Without a healthy, vibrant spiritual life, the institutional church will decline and die ... just as everything human declines and dies. It doesn't have to be that way, yet it is because the human ego gets involved.