Meahl Memories

A Church Called Tov - Chapter 12: "Tov Churches Nurture Christlikeness", Part 1

In the final chapter, McKnight and Barringer contend that a new culture based on achievement and accomplishment rather than holiness and Christlikeness has taken root in the church. (p. 201) What exactly does that mean?

First, "achievement and accomplishment are two foundational pillars of a meritocracy, which refers to power (-cracy from the Greek kratos) based on merit--that is, based on value, worth, or what we deserve or earn." (p. 202) To explain the negative impact this has on the church, the authors turn again to David Brooks and his book The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life. Brooks explains that meritocracy has become so thoroughly ingrained in us that words have changed their meanings without us even noticing.  For example: " 'Character' is no longer a moral quality oriented around love, service, and care, but a set of workplace traits organized around grit, productivity, and self-discipline." "Community" becomes a "mass of talented individuals competing with one another."  Brooks contends that a meritocracy will swallow you whole if you don't have a different competing value system. (p. 202-203)

I am so tempted to just type the entire next paragraph because it strikes such a chord in my soul.  I've seen it happen time and time again.  I just didn't realize exactly what was happening.  "Churches today have been so greatly influenced by meritocracy," write the authors, "that they now define pastor with business-culture terms instead of biblical terms."  He's called a leader or entrepreneur or visionary which, according to the authors, means "they've already ceased to be pastors in any biblical sense...Moreover, 'pastor as leader' blurs the lines of headship in the church, and people begin to lose sight of the church's one true and only head, Jesus Christ." (p. 203)

McKnight says he noticed the following things when the church began to be influenced by the business world (p. 204):

1. Pastors become leaders, entrepreneurs, or visionaries--and wealthy ones at that, in some cases.
2. The pastor's preparation no longer required seminary, the foundation for most pastors for centuries.
3. The church was now referred to as an organization [organization] rather than an organism [living body of Christ].
4. The Bible became a source for finding leadership principles.
5. The church began producing a product, which naturally led to positioning, advertising, and promoting the product.
6. The church now needed a vision statement and a mission statement, both terms that came out of "best practices" in the business world.
7. Churches began to do customer satisfaction surveys.
8. The bottom line (another business term) was that the church now needed a bottom line, typically measured by butts in the pews, "giving units," or dollar contributed.

I have seen all of these things in churches we've belonged to in the past 25+ years. Some had all of them, wealthy pastors, branding, etc. Every single one had a mission statement.  I never thought about where that idea came from!  Interestingly, when Willow Creek Community Church began looking for a new senior pastor after the fallout from the Bill Hybel's scandal, the job description confirmed the above list of business-oriented qualifications. McKnight interpreted, "Jesus and the apostles need not apply. Of maybe we should rethink the pastor-as-CEO concept altogether." (p. 206)

Is there anyone of any reknown who is actually a pastor and not a CEO? McKnight mentions "the late Eugene Peterson, well-known translator of The Message and author of some of the finest books ever written for pastors [who] staunchly resisted the invasion of a business culture into the lifeblood of the church." (p. 207) 

McKnight made two words clouds, one out of the job description for Willow Creek's senior pastor and one out of verses in the Bible that talk about pastors. (p. 206-207) The difference could not be starker! McKnight writes, "Two pastors, one focused on leadership principles and the other focused on spiritual formation. Two cultures forming around two separate images. One will become tov (with all its attributes), and the other will become toxic (and it will not surprise anyone when people are treated abusively and with disrespect.)" (p. 208) And that is exactly what we found in our previous church.

McKnight, who is in his sixties, reminisces about his childhood, where no one "ever talked about surrendering their life to become a leader." (p. 208) In fact, he says, "Do you know how many times Jesus talked about people becoming leaders? Not once." (p. 209) Even Paul used the term leader only a handful of times. "It might be fair to say that what the church needs are not pastor-leaders but pastors who will shepherd under the Great Shepherd, Jesus." (p. 209) The only leadership pastors should be providing is "by leading toward spiritual formation." (p. 209)

This move to become a leader or influencer "connotes a self-centered emphasis on that person's role and identity" rather than on Christ. "Instead of focusing on 'leadership development,' we should be focusing on Christ and Christ alone as our model, and Christlikeness as the core identity of every Christian--yes, including Christian pastors. The role of the pastor, then, is to mentor people into Christlikeness." (p. 210) I assert that you cannot do that once a week from a stage.  You must get involved in people's lives!

This is already a long post, so I think I'll finish this final chapter in another post. Stay tuned!