Reviewing the Exile Part 2: Exposing the Pyramid Scheme

When I left the institutional church I was overtaken by an unexpected feeling of freedom and well-being.  Puzzled at first, I finally decided that it could have risen from the fact that I was no longer under the authority of some self-appointed hierarchy of religious pretenders.  I recognized their fake world of ordinations, appointments, and degrees for what it was, a fabricated framework of in-authentic pontifications contrived from a few unholy and exegetic extrapolations.  It was an un-sanctified pyramid scheme built from the top down on anti-humility and anti-servanthood, by anti-Christ-like power lords, a sort of decree issued from ivory towers by self-inflated scholars, bishops, chancellors and presidents.

Why do we not get the picture? Jesus clearly banned religious hierarchy the night that he washed the disciples' feet.   "You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people.  But among you it will be different.  Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant.... "(Matt 20:25-26)

This is ridiculous!

When one exits the system, he removes himself from the pseudo-authority that parades itself with some sort of self-proclaimed "God-ordained" but imaginary anointing.

To the outsider, we are all priests - to one another and to the Lord; all the parts of the Body are answerable directly to the Head which is Christ. (Eph 4:15)  No believer has authority over another.  We are all stones being built up into a spiritual house. (I Pet 2:5)

The foundation of real spiritual authority forever continues to be humble servanthood like that of Christ, and it is bestowed first upon God's favorite humans, the poor, the weak, and the least of these.  It is demonstrated by random acts of love and kindness and mercy every day, and it starts as a grassroots thing, originating in the ditches of everyday humanity and growing upward from there.  Hear me: real spiritual authority never starts at the top and works its way down by means of some corporate chain-of-command.  That would be exactly what Jesus said should not happen. (Matt 20:25-26)  Again, the church has turned Jesus on his head, becoming everything that he decried in the pharisees who paraded around in fancy attire so others could bow to them.

I am loving the living in a world of outsiders, unpowerful folks who do not tell others what to do or how to live.  None of us is infallible, none perfect, none lording it over others.  It's the world that Jesus was hoping for.  It's redemptive, it's pure, it's counter-religious.  Jesus would love it here; it's the kingdom of God on earth that he prayed for. (Matt 6:10)

It is authentic, and it is right, and I love it here.

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Now a reminder to pastors and leaders who are still in the institution:

 Your spiritual authority is not bestowed upon you by some council or bishop who presides from the next level above you, and it never flows from your submission to the powers-that-be in your denomination or church.  It springs from the bottom up as you submit yourself to the Lord and serve the people in humility, never lording it over another human being from a position of man-made power.  Your church authorities are appointed or elected by other human beings and their power is not God-ordained at all.  Don't confuse spiritual authority with institutional authority.  It is a mistake to assume that you are suddenly and automatically endowed with spiritual authority when you are appointed to a position in the church.  That is just unholy crap!
Mind you, an organization needs to be organized, and a top-down, pyramidal system is fine for that.  It works well in the world of the corporation, the military, the schools, and even in religious institutions, but it is not sacred, holy, or ordained by God.  To spiritualized it, building a submission-to-authority doctrine out of it by proof-texting scripture is heresy and is anti-Christ.  Let me say it again:
  The doctrine of a scriptural, God-ordained, top-down, pyramid-shaped hierarchy in the church is heresy and should be de-bunked. 

The clergy-laity split is one more divisive boundary that needs to be erased (see my previous post: Erasing the Boundaries).

The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. (Matt 19:30)  Keep that in mind for a great career in service to the masses.  And have fun!

(This is part 2 of my 5-year review of my life since being exiled from the church in 2009.  To read part 1, scroll down to the next post or click here.)

The Church is a "Com-Bus"

  It's been four years since my church blew up and I was unceremoniously dismissed from the place I had served for forty years as youth director, worship leader, trustee, and missions director, among other things.  I had most recently served on the board of directors by virtue of my position as Elder of Missions and Evangelism when the new pastor told me, "Maybe it would be better if you didn't come at all; you're seen as a divisive person here." (yes, I'm actually quoting him).  I've got to hand it to him; it takes balls to actually ask a life-long leader in your church to quit coming.  He and the other leaders - right up to the district superintendent - had become fed-up with my constant challenges of the status quo.  I guess I should be happy - at least I didn't suffer the same fate as John the Baptist (actually, I am happy; I might still be there if I hadn't been asked to leave).

  One of my challenges to the system surrounded the inability or unwillingness of the church to get down and get dirty with the lost in our neighborhood and around the world.  We existed only to perpetuate our own comfort and our traditions.  We were all about protecting our way of life inside the four walls of the church and our denomination.

  I had seen a vision of what we were, and it was a rather unsettling picture.  I had actually awakened one morning and, still half asleep, an image was brightly projected on the screen of my mind, along with a knowledge of what it meant.  The picture I saw was what I later named the Com-Bus.  It was a large machine moving slowly through a wheat field, and the main chassis of the beast was a large combine, a harvester with a huge cutting head at the front, but there were two things unique about this machine.

  First of all, the cutting bars and the rakes were not moving; they were either shut off or disconnected so that, though the machine was moving over the ground, there was nothing being harvested.  The grain was just being flattened by the large wheels of the monster.

  The second odd thing about this harvesting machine was that the grain hopper behind the cab had been replaced with a bus body so that there were actually seats for several dozen riders.  Not only that, but as I looked closer, I could see that in fact the bus was full of people, but they were not just riding, they were worshipping.  There was a worship leader standing at the front and singing, and the whole crowd were singing along with hands raised and so entranced by the worship that none of them even glanced out the windows.

  If they had looked, they might have seen what I could see as a bystander: The rear emergency door was open and some of their participants - mostly high school graduates, I think - were carefully jumping from that exit and wandering away across the field, never to return to the vehicle again, so the crowd on the bus was slowly shrinking.

  This is where my vision ended and my troubles at church began.  Well, not really; I had been in trouble before for being the annoying elbow in the ribs that tries to awaken others to unpleasant hypocrisies of the system (We come from a long line that includes Martin Luther and a few other dissenters who are mostly all dead now).

  Now the most surprising thing that happened to me in the year following my vision, was that my wife and I, along with 150 other travelers, were also evacuated from the rear emergency door of that colossal machine.  And it wasn't a drill.

  So in the last five years since seeing this vision, I have changed locations and become an outsider, and my view of the realities is from a different perspective.  Mind you, nothing has changed about the church since I've left, nor is there any deviation in the obvious analogies about the huge harvesting machine that has transformed into a self-contained worshipping machine that was actually crushing the ripening grain onto the ground as it lumbered ahead.  And like most graduating seniors, I'm glad I'm on the outside now and do not intend to return.

  I am standing in the field with the other outsiders - both believers and nonbelievers - and have discovered that we really look very much like each other.  Like wheat and tares, I guess, and that's how the Lord said it will be until the end.  I have lately hung out with Mormons, former Catholics and Episcopalians, gays, atheists and "nones"* and have been able to spread the love of God in a less oppositional way than I ever did while functioning within the religious system.  It's a slow process, but more personal and authentic than before.  And more effective.

  I don't know how much longer the institutional Com-Bus will keep rumbling along.  The slow decline of organized religion in America is well documented, but I'm sure it will be around for a long time and still serves a valid purpose to insiders, I guess.  Gene Edwards, in his book Beyond Radical, says the decline started at the Reformation almost 500 years ago and that it will not be complete for another 300 years.  Sorry, I couldn't wait that long.

  The Great Commission has two parts: 1) Reach the Lost, and 2) Teach the Found.  The American church believes in both parts and preaches both parts, but only carries out Part Two.  This is partially because Part One can't be done from inside the walls like it could sixty years ago, and the church, for the most part, will not venture outside the walls.  In a gesture of wishful thinking - or delusion, every church marquee reads, "Everybody Welcome" to a world that passes by every day but will not come inside.

  And there's the rub:  The world will not come inside, and the church will not go outside.

  I guess it's up to outsiders to do the job.  For one thing, we are uninhibited by restrictive policies and denominational doctrines and hellish hierarchies and negative stigmas .  People aren't afraid of you when your only agenda is love.  Lots more could be written on that.  Later.

  Have a great day.  And be real.  And don't be afraid to challenge the status quo; it's not like you'll lose your head over it, although you could lose your comfortable religious world as you now know it.

* "Nones" are those mostly younger Americans who, when polled about religious affiliations, will check the box for "none".  They now make up 20% of the population.  The church will not/cannot reach them.