Slow Church                                                                                                             Book Review

(I use capital C on Church to designate Church Universal)

The primary work of the Slow Church is not attracting people to our church buildings but rather cultivating together the resurrection life of Christ, by deeply and selflessly loving our brothers and sisters, our neighbors and even our enemies.  Quote from book,

In an age of impermanence, in the land of programs & packaging, how does the Church of Jesus Christ express it’s calling & commission? Well…we build buildings, contract research teams, re-brand our corporate design strategy & put on a concert. This of course is a bit exaggerated but all within the realm of possibility.

We do Church in the US like companies expand their presence in a region…we franchise. Slow Church, a book written by C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison offers up a profoundly different vision for what the Church is & does to be true to its original calling.

Both astute observers of history & sociology, Slow Church is resonate with historic landmarks & turning points for ways of living we often don’t even recognize today. Without being Luddites, the authors reveal the good & the bad of industrialism & the power of the machine.  One of the book’s strengths is its ability to go from lofty historical observations & their sociological implications to the daily mundaneness needed for substantive change. That is indeed what the slow movement is about. How do I live out my values in my marriage, my home, & most often missed in Evangelicalism’s view on Church, my neighborhood?

I first met Chris Smith at a Missional Learning Commons gathering outside Chicago where he was speaking on another work of his entitled the “Virtue of Dialogue.” As someone deeply concerned with “how we talk with one another” his writing quickly won me over as a fan of his take on spirituality, faith & the church. I was quickly drawn to the warmth & welcoming demeanor of Chris as he spoke but more than that the obvious weightiness of his observations & challenges he put forth. I had no idea he had written a book just about to come out. I soon discovered his leadership in the Englewood Review of Books (http://erb.kingdomnow.org/  I highly recommend it as a source for good books & commentary on culture & faith.

There are people much more scholarly & astute who can parse the theology or accuracy of Slow Church but I am going to go another direction. I found the book troubling. How? It is too true to follow. I mean this in a good way. I am overwhelmed with the books implications for my personal life. Over the years many of us have planted churches, served on the staff, committed our lives to what ostensibly we thought was the Great Commission only to find later it was our own hubris & the same in our fellow leaders who took us there. For that I am humbled & sad.  Listening to Chris that day & then later reading Slow Church I found myself deeply convicted about what I am doing to root myself in a deeply authentic and honest community of believers. I admit it. I go to a large mega-church & do so for many good reasons. But Slow Church shared its theological take on the state of the Church with an honesty that is so lacking in many books of this ilk. I have found most books on how to do Church find it is easy to critique & much harder to do & be the answer we seek.

Both authors would consistently talk about their struggle to reconcile the their own brokenness & that of the people in their communities to the Cross of Christ. Both offered up what Eugene H. Peterson called “long obedience in the same direction.” I so appreciated this posture as I am one who often feels overwhelmed & overly idealistic. But it was this admission of how much of me this shift would take that allows for the book Slow Church to make any sense. I always want the quick & flow chart schematic with a 12 week course I can offer my leaders. I want a clear-cut delineation as to how I was doing it wrong & how quickly I could get my staff, team or cohorts to doing it right. The book will convict those attitudes of the heart. It will only befuddle your desires for pragmatic tactics.

To establish fidelity in a community is to plant the entirety of your life in that place. Clearly informed by the writing of Wendell Berry, both authors point time and time again to the need to “commit” to a place, a neighborhood, a people by living with them. This missional perspective is taking place across the church today & I for one am sorely in lack of its tutelage. Slow Church is a treatise of sorts on the missional character one needs not just to plant a church or “do” church but to be human & a reconciled follower of Christ in that setting. In that sense, it is about a slow spirituality. Both authors affirm that there is a real observable praxis to see the fruit of the Slow Church movement.

It is amazing that a book of this length (not too short not to long) so holistically shares a vision for the Church and community. Caring for God’s creation takes on an ethical outworking as how we treat the very land upon which our homes and business reside reflects on how we view the created order & its ultimate Progenitor. Both Chris & John consistently offer up a “sanctifying” engagement that always brings me back to the query, “what am I about today?”

It is clearly evident that this treaties has been born from the flesh & blood of obediently walking it out. The consistent attitude of hospitality nearly becomes a “theological centering act” as the table of God & the table of humankind become the same. Is the nourishment of my own life, family or business at the expense of others? Who are those “others” and do they live within proximity of me so I can welcome them in?

There is a way of “being” the Church. That is what Chris and John point to chapter after chapter. That is why this work is oddly enough on some level more of a practical “how to” book that I would have originally perceived (given its exceptional breadth of references & astute read on the times). In a writing style that reveals many more books to come, both authors don’t talk down but to. They don’t offer easy answers but do offer up balanced & honest limitations as truth as well. They have created a near self-contained treatise on how to do church in your neighborhood. I know I will e-read this over & over again & keep it front & center in my library on how “Life meets the Church. For many the read could be a road upon which to come back home.   

https://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=4114

The Social Phenomena of the Uber Pastor or How Godzilla Started a Church Franchise

I am not sure how much my Western democratic, technological, capitalistic, experience of life, and God impact the following rant. Surely the ability to gain a following, write a book, have my opinions published daily on line, my name placed in lights at conferences, and my moniker plastered all over the known world via Twitter and Facebook have to affect my inner life. And it is the inner life I want to eventually land on in terms of direction in this post.

It has come out in the press that one more Evangelical leader has possibly misused his authority by creating an environment of intimidation and control over a mega church and its campuses. As Gomer Pile used to say, “Surprise.. surprise!" How do we miss the road signs of these train wrecks as they gain speed and tumble down the track? We miss them because on some level we are in collusion. Yes, we want efficiency. We want clarity of vision. We want consistency of product and packaging. We want an experience that is meaningful, well researched, done with excellence, and offered up by men (mostly men by the way) who could work anywhere in the world if they wanted to but choose the church. In other words, we want the most talented, skilled, and charismatic leaders in the most visible positions and we want the most technical leaders in the technical positions and the most logistical and management oriented leaders “running” the church. Why?

We don’t understand that question.

Of course we want things to “run” well. We want life to have a degree of order and accessibility with clear cut answers to current and looming problems. We want to solve any foreseeable challenges with our families and spouses. We want to manage our money effectively and of course we want to stay healthy and active. We also want to get in and out of church within 10 minutes, tithe online, get our pastors’ sermons via podcast, and attend our weekend retreats at a vacation spa if possible while we do the inner work in a chilled out much needed environment.

And leaders, oh do we have some real demands we place upon them. In the age of sound bites, we need a pastor who speaks his mind. If he is an expert on some topic, we want that expertise brought to bear in his teaching. We want leaders who keep up with the latest trends but hold on to our deep biblical traditions as well. You know, keep a real good balance. We want leaders who can make the hard choices. Guys who in the trenches don’t wimp out but step up to the plate and knock it out of the park. We want leaders who are not girly men. No effeminate guys who can’t garner the respect of the manly guys in the congregation. Let’s be clear. We want our leaders to act like leaders. What does a leader act like?

We don’t understand that question.

So when it comes to anyone desiring leadership roles or status, we have a tall order for anyone promising meaning and truth to us. They better step up and deliver. Well it just so happens there are a ton of people unconsciously driven with enough naïveté about their own limits to buy into that concept of leadership and promise those things whether they can actually deliver them or not.

Of course, they believe they are not only willing but quite capable of delivering. That is why they must pick their team. And it is a team much like a marketing team or sports team. There is an energy of power and direction to this team. Just being in their presence you can sense they are going somewhere and they are going despite the obstacles. They are in a sense “hired” to come in and get things done much like a consultant. It is their job & specifically within their purview & skill set to get this thing called the church running smoothly.

In fact, their real service (not servant hood but service) is to create a streamlined experience that is offered Sunday after Sunday without having to deal with any of the messy “unworkable” issues prevalent in your life. In other words, continue to drink the Kool-Aid until you are hooked on sugar.

This critique (if that is what this is) of the aforementioned reflection on a type of leader is not specifically about mega churches. Not anymore. This is a strategy of many church plants in the church growth movement who have taken the “franchise model” and the web and commoditzed the whole proclamation of truth down to information and data that they don’t even need for the pastor to be real anymore. Well, real in terms of being on site, actually praying with you, laying hands on you in real time, offering up discernment because they actually live with you from day to day. No, they can mail that to you (or send you to the church's counseling division) and if you choose to buy deeper into the program (there is a small inner circle but that is not privy to but a few) you can get the perks of being well liked, respected and occasionally offered positions within the middle management division of the church that tell others, “I am a guy, we are a couple, here is a family” who has worked the program and see how great and efficacious it is. Yes, you too can become not only advertisers; but actual Hair Club Members. We have tried the products, committed ourselves to the authorities and experts suggested regimen routines and found the programs life changing.

Lest I sound to cynical let me qualify the above by some parsing. God is able to do miracles with the most stupidly human attempts at helping one another. So I am not placing on most of the leaders of such a model as offered above any purposeful malevolence or egomania. There are countless churches that operate out of a modern business model and they do so because that has been offered up in their experience as an effective way of “doing church.” I get that and have pursued and participated in a few myself. So I stand condemned if that is what this post is about. (cynicism I mean) But it is not.

What this post is about is the “uber churches” & their leaders who are fostering a type of "boss meets prophet teacher" who is taking over the voice and heart of the evangelical movement. It is the abrupt pretentious, animated, & overly authoritative leaders who see themselves as God appointed spokespersons of this new movement be it neo reformed, charismatic, holiness, emergent or whatever. Pick you flavor.

What I am addressing here is the blindness many of us have to the kind of person these types of business models demand, produce and allow. Business and the bottom line decisions that have to be made every day surely involve issues of bankable skills, predictable results and consistent performance reviews (of all but the big honcho by the way). This is another post on the potential of work to be redeemed so I am aware that these above assumptions and perceptions as to the meaning and purpose of work severely shrink the dignity of humankind and the real possibilities of a work world redeemed and infused with faith. But alas, that is another post. Here, once again, I am pointing to the types of leaders a business like church model produces. I am sure megalomania and pride have always touched the Church as it is full of fallen human beings. But we now have a type of leader taking over a large portion of what I deem to be my family and I am sorely worried about the next few generations of leaders following in our footsteps if they see the arrogance, narcissistic tendencies of these men and mistakenly count them as actual Godly traits.

Jesus is our model is He not? In Matthew 20 He clearly points to a posture of leadership missing in many of the leaders who have cult followings.

Much like a brand or image driven machine, these leaders use the church and its technologies to foster their own notoriety. Their sermons, books, podcasts, and blogs are disseminated and given a high priority in the functioning of the truth & the Gospel proclaimed as they have become one of the main reasons a people attend the church. It’s a branding issue you know. So it is justified in the minds of those who allow this serving energy to be trained backwards. In other words, the Church is there to hold up the pastor’s mantel and image. You want to serve God…serve the vision of one man.

We (well I do) live in a suburb outside a major metropolitan city. This means I have a mortgage, two cars and insurance to pay for, some college bills coming down the pike one way or another and insurance payments up the yin yang. It is expensive to be this comfortable. Point??? I need cash. One sign something is array is when the leaders of a church are living way beyond the means of most of their flock. That money comes from somewhere. And it does. The pockets of the body. This new brand of leader generally lives pretty large. It may be understated pretension and hidden from view but upon a deeper look, the money from books, speaking engagements, and royalties all add up and this leader is now a celebrity of sorts living a life way beyond the means or ability of his flock. But, that is what happens when you are blessed of God right? Well, if our checks came directly from God’s bank yes…but the truth is they come from the backs and the sweat of the labors of those in the pews. When money and time is abused, so are the men and women coming to church every Sunday.

In the business world decisions need to be made by those who can be decisive and have a track record for making the “right decisions.” This new leader in the church has now equated the elder board for a type of inner circle that placates the dreams of one or two and rubber stamps them as long as the church is growing and the bills are being paid. This pragmatic assessment (i.e. growth and fiscal soundness) is such a surface judgment of God’s activity in the midst of a congregation. But I have attended many a “report meeting” where numbers and metrics ruled the day. The deeper inner lives of the people, the impact of the church on the families involved and the real witness of the Church in the community and world were never addressed. These are just too difficult to asses is generally the excuse for relying on number driven assessments.

To make these numbers work you need a team and unity. Anyone asking too many questions or God forbid truly dissents and exposes a darker part of our heart (which we all know exists individually within us so why not corporately or at leadership level?)

As one who has grown up in the fine and performing arts world, I have had to weather and fight against the modernist “genius” mentality that was fostered in the 20th century. “Oh she’s genius you know.” That was the statement that allowed the person to justify nearly anything and everything. Well that genius status or savant role has now moved from the creatives over to the business world. That is why it is not only acceptable to engage the church with this arbitrary business ownership model of leadership but in some ways expect & demand it. We respect who we respect. We would not put these men in leadership if we did not respect their bravado, bullying and inability to accept others ideas and insights.

So what is up people? What is wrong with us? For me, I remember a time where many of us had the experience and therefore the ongoing fear of being involved in Evangelical and Fundamentalist enclaves where legalism reigned. Now, in a time of post denominationalism, legalism is not as much the issue as authoritarianism. In other words, there is a lot of openness on doctrinal issues but certain leaders have weighed into the discussion with a spirit of intimidation and in some case oppression. It is their way or the highway. The issues can of course be doctrinal but also spill over into how the church is run, how the staff is hired and fired, and who gets to speak into the day to day decision making processes. 
I began to ponder this whole social phenomenon after reading what is taking place up in Seattle at Mars Hill. As one who actually encountered Mark Driscoll n the early days, none of what appears to have happened of late surprises me. It is one thing to have a fairly “big” personality when speaking and performing & another to be full of self importance and conceit. I have worked with countless musical performers and even speakers who had the ability to take the stage and fill it. But most of them went back to being human when they hit the street. For some, the need to have that stage-like worshipping positioning in each and every life situation is their downfall. They just can't go back to being a normal human being. The grandiosity embraced at these heights of the glory go beyond being an experience to remember and become the very air one needs to breath. When thousands are watching it fills anything that is empty even if it is in hiding. They now demand that of all who would come into their presence assume the position.  Like the Will Farrell’s character Ron Burgandy in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy says to Veronica Corningstone (Christian Applegate) :,”Don’t you know who I am.” The hubris and extended stretching of the human ego beyond its ability to go back to its original shape will mean a tremendous fall from grace.

I get this social phenomena because it is a by product of our own desire for the Church to be an experience we purchase rather than one in which we live and participate in. The “big leader” allow us access to God without all the messy incursions of our own inner life. Let Mark Driscoll decide al these pithy theological issues regarding life love sex and marriage. Let the famous Christian author be the one who speaks into our lives with simple techniques and solutions to problems that are impacting our daily lives. The local church doesn’t usually offer, unfortunately, a powerfully human conversation full of love, respect, and real embodied listening to have something to balance out this twisted answer to getting “fixed & filled.”

So we go to church, sit “under” the uber leader, remark at how “timely” and “meaningful” his sermons are, get in our car and drive 20 miles back to our suburban cocoon and cry ourselves to sleep in private.
I am praying or you Mark.
For background http://www.organicchurchtoday.com/profiles/bl