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10
reasons why your church sucks:
#10,
politics
by
john o'keefe
“Tenth,
your church is all politics and infighting.
Things only get done if you can
muster enough political support form others
to get your point to be heard, press your
issues and lobby for approval.
You have to wheel and deal to get
anything done”
Recently
I had the pleasure of running into an old
pastor friend who I had not spoken to in
years; we just fell out of contact, you know
how it is – no excuse as to why, we just
lost touch with each other.
He and another friend were having
lunch at a local Quiznos when I walked in
– it was very cool to see him.
We sat and talked for an hour just
catching up on old friends, family and some
other stuff in our lives.
As we were talking the conversation
worked its way to careers.
I asked how he was doing at the
church he was at?
I knew he was having a hard time with
some people at the church so I was wondering
how it all worked out.
Well, that is when it came out – he
quit – you could have knocked me over with
a feather – I never saw that coming.
He was, and is, one of the most
loving, caring, open, honest, welcoming
people I know.
His heart for people is the stuff
stories are made of.
I personally knew him to open his
home to lost and lonely people – and even
get out of bed at three in the morning
because a friend had a flat tire and did not
have a tire iron (I purchased a tire iron
the next day).
I was shocked, to say the least, so I
asked why?
All he could say was “church
politics.”
Well, in reality that is all he had
to say, because I knew what that meant.
Let’s
be honest, when a person says “church
politics” it congers up visions of people
backstabbing, manipulating, game-playing and
double speaking there was to leadership in
the church; it brings visions of “the
click” to mind – the one no one is
allowed into unless you are “of the
chosen” (the “frozen chosen” I
believe) – be it the deacons, the elders,
the choir, Sunday school teachers, small
group leaders, sound board people, tech
people, pastoral staff – it does not
matter what it is it is a click if only a
select few are in, and you have to “do”
something or “be” someone to belong.
The idea of church politics is so
universal that you don’t even have to
define it, it is simply known – it is
known at a core, at our inner being.
We know what “church politics” is
and what it will do to a church, and more
importantly what it will do to the people
that are the church.
The
eddies that form the “church politic”
are pure killers.
Over time, they will eat away the
inner peace of a church and destroy the
threads of friendship in a church community.
I have seen this first hand, and know
that it can be as destructive as explosives
in the back yard of a match company – it
is destructions waiting to happen. The more I talk with people about church, the more this one
area keeps popping its ugly head – church
politics; or as it is called in most
churches “the click.”
More and more people leave the church
because they feel the church is too “clickish.”
I remember speaking with a church
leader who explained that he could not
figure out why the church he served was not
growing.
He told me that he interviewed the
people in the church and every time he did
the same results came to light – the
church was friendly, loving and cared for
the people – and at some point it was true
– they were very loving, caring and
friendly – but only with themselves and
seldom allowed others into the community.
When I interviewed people who had
visited the church over the past year
another picture came to light; one based on
clicks and feeling “left out” of the
picture.
One thing many churches forget is
that it is not how those who are in the
church feel about the church, they are part
of the church – it is how those who left.
The
“Diotrephes Connection”
In
John’s third letter (3 John 9-10) he talks
about a “leader” who tries to control
all there is in the church, his name?
Diotrephes.
Diotrephes wanted to be the big
cheese, he wanted to be first and he wanted
nothing to do with other church leaders.
He refused to welcome those who he
did not like, and he also required that
others do the same – he formed the first
church clicks.
Clicks are destructive at their core.
It is not biblical at any level to
form clicks.
Clicks form because of human needs
and human desires, but as Christians we are
called to be above our human limitations; we
are called to walk in the light of Christ.
The
solution:
The
problem is real and the solution is truly
easy. I
believe that the solution to church politics
can be found in a few simply realities,
redefining church leadership, know it is
relationships over religion, stop the
“kissing-up” factor and deconstruct the
current systems in the church.
Redefining
Church Leadership:
The
idea that any human is a leader in the
church is so not biblical. Jesus never called anyone to be a leader; in fact Jesus calls
people to be servant – not
“servant/leaders.”
The guidelines Jesus gave for those
who wanted to be leaders was to be a
servant.
Did you know that the word
“leader” appears only 15 times in the
New Testement (mostly in connection with
civil authority and “law givers”) while
the word “servant” appears over 150
times?
When the word “servant” appears,
it never appears in connection with the word
“leader.”
We are called by Jesus to serve each
other and not lead – Jesus is the leader,
the head and all we can do is follow and to
think anything different puts personalities
in the forefront and calls politics into
play. We
need to keep Mark 9:33-35 in our hearts:
“They came to Capernaum.
When he was safe at home, he asked them,
"What were you discussing on the
road?"
The silence was deafening--they had
been arguing with one another over who among
them was greatest.
He sat down and summoned the Twelve.
"So you want first place? Then take the
last place. Be the servant of all."”
Relationship
over religion:
This
is basic, but it is so much a core to church
politics.
When we focus on a religion we focus
on who is and who is not “doing it
right.”
As such, we lose site of the fact
that none of us do it right.
Our “clicks” become “we are
better then them” clicks. In our walk we need to remember that Jesus never called us to
be in a religion – he did call us to be in
relationships.
There is nothing in religion that
will save us, but a relationship with God
and others will make us whole, alive and
growing.
It seems silly to think that people
find religion a comfort, when it is a
relationship that brings peace.
Kiss-ups
We
all know them, we all can point them out –
and they are alive and well and living in
the church.
When we have a distorted idea of
leadership we have people who “kiss-up”
to those leaders.
This is so not what we are to be
about.
We need top love these people out of
this.
These
people are striving so hard to be accepted
that they in turn cause others to be
rejected.
They are the “yes-men” of the
church.
These people are not the
“gossipers” of the church (that talked
about in a few weeks) but they do have an
“ear” of the “leaders.”
I once served a church where the
people in the church strived to get my wife
to talk me into certain things – they
would strive to bring my wife into a close
relationship with them so they could get
their agenda moved to the front of the
church ministry list.
This group of ladies was
“kissing-up” to my wife thinking that
she would in turn tell me what to do.
It
is hard to know when a group truly desires
to be a friend, or to be a kiss-up.
The best way to know is to strive to
keep the servants in the right frame of mind
and strive to keep all serving and not
leading.
Deconstruction:
I
am a big believer that the current
leadership system we have in the church
today is not biblical.
It is based on a political, military
model and not a scriptural model.
All current churches have
“by-laws” and “constitutions”
because they are incorporated in different
states that require they do so to be an
incorporated business.
But because we have such a structure
we have made it clicks possible.
The model we must have is one of
community, one of relationships, one where
people are first and not building,
insurance, equipment or anything else we
fancy at the moment.
The current structure of elected
officers, congregational votes and corporate
structure makes the perfect breading ground
for church politics.
As long as we are following a
cultural (American) system and not a
scriptural one, we are opening our hearts to
church politics.
Closing:
We
need to be above politics.
We are called to not be of this
world.
If we are truly living transformed
lives in Christ, we need to open all we have
to that transformation – we need to live
beyond our petty, limited human nature and
walk in the light and path of Christ.
Over the past few years I have heard
more people tell me that church politics
will never go away because we are humans –
if that is the case, we have lost the idea
that we are to be changed in Christ – we
are to live above our human limits.
the
other "10
reasons why your church sucks"
articles
1.
It does not understand the community at large
2.
It has poor leadership
3.
It has no solid vision
4.
It is graying, quickly
5.
It’s inbred
6.
It’s concerned with look and not action
7.
It’s comfortable in its misery, and is looking for
company
8.
It’s out of touch
9.
It’s all about money
10.
It’s all politics
we,
are in the process of developing a bible study based on the 10 reasons -
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