The recent posting of the Exodus Papers has brought back memories. I’m talking about ancient history, late 70s and early 80s of the last century! Looking through the 8 short pieces by Josh and his friends took me straight back to Cincinnati and my college days.
I was part of a discipleship oriented young adults fellowship called College and Careers or C&C for short. It was sort of parachurch but also closely linked to one of the large Presbyterian churches in town. Our mentors were John and Lois Pierce, and I know that though nominally a Christian before meeting these folks, I only really started to ‘know Jesus’ under their tutelage - really my parents in the Lord.
The church used to lend us some of their ‘youth ministers’, vibrant and committed young men and women, often finishing or just out of seminary.
Ecclesiastes hit the nail right on its head “there is nothing new under the sun”. Are all organisations essentially evil? Does anything change?
I really feel for these young believers. We saw the same sorts of burn-outs happening back then. I was too young to even begin to understand what was happening. Mentors, guys and gals that we looked up to as being ‘strong in the Lord’ and ministers of the Word would break down and leave, “drop out”.
Looking back, perhaps the one factor that kept coming round was ‘expectation’. There is a premise when one “has a call”, and opts for ministry, that this is what the church needs, and wants. There is an expectation that one will be personally nurtured, not just in matters of faith-knowledge but also as a person. There is an expectation that one is finally coming into one’s own in the body of Christ and as such that the Holy Spirit is the one who is calling the shots.
But, the church is an organisation. The church has its own agenda and its own opinions as to what it is going to gain from its full-time ministers. They will be paid minimally, they will work ridiculously long hours and will, in effect, still be ‘on-call’ when they do finally catch some sleep. The new appointees will get some scheduled time to pray and interact with the seniors, but often these sessions evolve into ‘business meetings’ with just a ‘spiritual’ shell. But all of that is tolerable, perhaps even necessary.
What happens when one sees something that just doesn’t fit with what the NT teaches about fellowship? What happens when the harsh realities of running a large organisation clash with the needs of individual believers? What happens when you realise that ‘business’ is more important than people? When compromise is demanded and not acceded to, it is the beginning of the end.
Suddenly one is no longer a part of the ‘inner circle’, decisions are taken affecting your areas of responsibility without your input. Condescension. Your seniors are suddenly very busy, “can we make it some other time?”. At first puzzling, then hurtful, unsolicited advice - but eventually one decides that it’s better to quietly leave; and leave they do - hurting and broken, sometimes never to fully recover their enthusiasm and faith in people.
It’s nothing new. And it’s just as horrible to see it happen now as it was 30 years ago.
Is this the body of Christ?
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