The Professional Christians

I recently had a good exchange with my pastor over a new on-line service that he is experimenting with.  In a nutshell, a church can subscribe to this website that makes popular teaching and teachers available to the congregation on video.  Need a how-to on evangelism?  Let Bill Hybels tell you how to do it, complete with handy illustrations that you can sketch on a napkin.  Need some help on your marriage?  The Family Life staff will be glad to give you more than you want.  Planning a VBS?  Why don't you invite Max Lucado into the room to tell your stories for you.  Feeling the need to follow Jesus more fervently?  Francis Chan has just what you need.  Ready to start small groups in your church?  Well there's two dozen people who will tell you the secret for success.

The core of my comments to the pastor had to do with the fact that we are starting to turn our churches over to the professionals, the experts, and even to the Christian celebrities.  Why listen to your pastor when you can listen to Chuck Swindoll or John MacArthur or Alistair Begg, or R.C. Sproul?  My concern with the professionals is that their materials, however sound and good they may be, are productions with everything just right, edits and final proofs buffed clean, and study notes appended at the end.  Somehow I just never get the warm and fuzzies when a video is speaking or preaching to me as I get when I hear a pastor who knows me for who I am preach a heart-felt sermon face to face and force me to confront the grace of God.  It may not be perfect, it may not always be dynamic, the church pews are certainly not as comfortable as my easy chair, but it is the order and method that Jesus ordained for His Church to be instructed in all godliness and holiness.  The church, above all, is local first.  It is a body, not a corporation.  It is in the local church that we see the face of God and handle the word of life.  And that fellowship cannot be packaged and marketed.

Two other quick thoughts on this.   The first is about the marketing that always accompanies such productions.  These materials are billed as just what you need to help you in your walk with Jesus.  But why can't Jesus help us in our walk with Him?  Why can't we take Him at His word and seek how it applies to our life situations?  Why can't the brothers and sisters that are on the same spiritual pilgrimage as us in our congregations help us in our walk with Him?  Sometimes I think we are just to quick to reach for the all inclusive package rather than put the sweat equity into developing something ourselves that may not be as slick but that does meets the exact needs of our church,  It's sort of the concept of not trying to buy the latest square peg no matter how well it's packaged and how much it promises to do, and then try and jam it forcefully into our round hole congregation.

The second thought is this.  Over dependence on the experts, the professionals, will ultimately cripple our ability to develop our congregational members in their giftings.  Why raise up dedicated, trained Christian educators who develop their own materials to grab the hearts of the next generation?  Just grab the latest eye-candy for kids and put it up on the screen.  We are too quick to avoid the struggle to bring forth our own materials that convey the truth of God for the particular people of God of which we are a part.  We use other materials because they are glossy, they are efficient, they are less work and more convenient.  But as I said earlier, one size does not fit all.

For the time being I reserve my final judgment for two reasons.  First, I have been known to be completely out in left field when everyone else is in the dugout, but second, and more important,  I trust my pastor's judgment in this time and I am content to see how this all plays out and whether it leaves our church stronger for its presence or just less-equipped to handle the word of God for ourselves.