The Elephant Tied To A Rope Pt 3

Where is the priesthood of believers?

Photo by Christian Alemu: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ethiopian-religious-procession-with-umbrellas-28664273/

“The fatal mistake has been made of teaching the converts to rely upon the wrong source of strength. Instead of seeking it in the working of the Holy Spirit in themselves, they seek it in the missionary. They put him in the place of Christ, they depend upon him” - Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St Paul’s or Ours

We have been talking about how the church is like an elephant tied to a rope. The goal is to point out not only why but also how it can get unstuck. There’s a lot of potential being wasted, and a world that is dying without the mobilization of the church to be all it was created to be.

This is because of the environment of the typical church gathering as well as the focus. These two things contribute to the erosion of the lived-out doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. I say lived out for a reason. Most orthodox protestant churches would agree with this doctrine. Not everyone lives it. This is the difference between a mature, multiplying church and an immature, barren church.

Maturity is the key. I would feel weird if my sixteen-year-old relied on me to put his food in his mouth. It would be strange if I had to move his jaws up and down for him to eat. In fact, I’d be disappointed. This doesn’t square with what I know as the natural development of maturity in humans.

This seems strange to us in the natural world, but when it comes to our spiritual life, it’s given a free pass. It’s the air we breathe. It’s as normal as the sun coming up in the morning and going down in the evening. The church is overly dependent on pastors for spiritual maturity and vitality.

In some extreme cases, people puff their chest out to name-drop their pastor. It’s a badge of honor. I’m a member of “fill in the blank with local celebrity pastor’s” church. When you probe most people who boast like this, they have the discernment of a raccoon in a garbage dump.

This is where we, as leaders, have failed the people we serve. Instead of raising them to maturity, we are helicopter parents. Hovering is second nature. When someone has a question, we go into the telephone booth and come out as Bible answer man to the rescue.

The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers challenges this hovering. The New Testament makes it plain. Every disciple has access to God. Every disciple has a spiritual gift to contribute to the common good.

Instead of a gathering where people are equipped to grow in following Jesus and making disciples, we have a precise, airbrushed show designed to keep people tamed and caged. Here’s what Cynthia Anderson says about the majority of our services:

“The prominent model of church growth in the USA in recent years has been the megachurch or multiple-campus model. In this way of doing church, a highly skilled professional delivers a finely tuned, entertaining, and insightful message from a stage in an auditorium. Often, it is also broadcast to various campuses online. The attendee’s participation is limited. They sit, often in the dark, absorbing what is done from the front. A professional-sounding worship band sings and entertains while a handful of members who are the most active raise their hands or clap along. There is little accountability to apply what is being communicated, and no way of knowing what has been understood by the hearers. Is this what it means to train and equip the “royal priesthood?” The question must be asked.” (Anderson)

So why does the main event put on every Sunday center on one person’s contribution in the absence of equipping the entire body? It’s much easier to control. Control kills the kind of growth we need to reach the nations.

When you let your kids grow, things get messy. They make mistakes. They stumble and fall when they try to walk. The opportunity to use a fork becomes a night of cleaning spaghetti noodles and tomato sauce off the floor. It’s a mess, but it’s worth it when your child can do these things by themselves.

In our current church system, we love polish too much to allow for the mess of discipleship. So instead of equipping to make disciples, we tell them to invite their friends and family to watch us do the heavy lifting. This drives us to mobilize church members to merely “invite people to attend an event or service. This falls far short of what they, as the royal priesthood, are capable of” (Anderson).

It breeds dependence, and dependence kills maturity. And maturity is not just for maturity’s sake. What’s even more frustrating is this: Maturity enables multiplication.

When folks are immature and dependent on the pastor, they never rise up as the priesthood. It’s the priesthood of believers that reproduces itself. It’s the priesthood of believers that expands the pool of who can make disciples.

The church is limited when the congregation lacks this understanding. Instead of making disciples themselves, they respond just like converts overseas who “throw the responsibility upon the licensed evangelist and ‘the mission’. They do not feel any responsibility themselves to evangelize the world. Their mouths are closed” (Allen).

This is not a bash on pastors. This is a critique of our unhealthy dependence on them. This unhealthy dependence creates an atmosphere of immaturity. In the natural world, when an organism is immature, they are unable to reproduce.

We cannot reach the world with the majority of our workforce sitting on their hands. There is no other option. As the population of the world rapidly expands, we cannot “rapidly expand the church because we cannot produce enough “qualified” leaders to meet the expansion needs” (Watson et al).

This is exactly what happens when “evangelism, disciple-making, training others, and even baptizing are exclusively the role and the responsibility of trained clergy” (Anderson). The average person is stifled. Learned helplessness becomes the reality. There goes that elephant again.

Stay tuned next week for how to get the elephant (the church) untied and the amazing things that happen when we let her loose.

References:

Allen, Roland. Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s Or Ours? Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962.

Anderson, Cynthia. The Multiplier’s Mindset: Thinking Differently about Discipleship - Southeast Asia Version. 2023.

Watson, David, et al. Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discover. 2014.