What are the roles of theologian/businessman in the Church?
I want to highlight something Dan Morehead said in one of his comments from the last post:
I completely agree with this statement. But I have a feeling this isn't what most people experience in their church life. Most people I know do go to church to get information. Most people I know do believe that Christianity is a set of propositions to which one must assent. Maybe some reading this blog are in that group.
The lines of business and church have bled but in all of the wrong ways. Rather than approaching all that we do -- business, church, dinner with friends -- as worship, we treat church as yet another thing to consume. We shop for the best speaker/music/style and we place all of the responsibility of studying and teaching Scripture on the pastor.
What if in the church everyone was already assumed to be a "theologian?" Everyone of us is, in fact, a theologian whether we like it or not. We can ignore that calling in our lives and defer to a pastor or a theologian to do our thinking for us, but I would argue that that is unbiblical and just plain wrong. The priesthood of all believers, the communion of saints, the ekklesia (called out)...these are some descriptions of the church. To be more personal, I will use Wendell Berry as an example, and I'm sorry if it's getting old, but he is a farmer and a writer, a husband, father, grandfather, political activist, conservationist, and community voice of reason. None of those things are separate from the rest. I just read an article in which he says, when asked how his farming and writing are connected, (loosely quoting), "I write as a farmer, and I farm as a writer. I don't think there is any other way I could do it." I would say that is how we are to be both "theologians" and "businessmen." No one lives in a vacuum and no action is done independent of others. When I pass a homeless man on the street and fail to look him in the eye for fear of him asking me for money, I do that as a theologian and a student. When I rip off my customers by selling them things they don't need, I do that as a theologian and a businessman.
If we focus on pastors and their role in the community, I believe that lay empowerment is the key to a "good" church and a good pastor. A pastor must get into the nitty gritty parts of life and walk with people in it, helping them to be better theologians and businessmen at the same time. A good pastor doesn't sit in an ivory tower and dream of great sermons about the corporate life when he hasn't heard the cries of his flock. There is an obvious interdependency here: the church sustains the life of the pastor in order to create space for him to care for the flock in the best way he can. In many cases, I think pastors should be bi-vocational and have a job on top of pastoring, but this only seems to work in small churches where administrative and bureaucratic BS can stay at a minimum.
So what does all of this mean for those of us not going into pastoral ministry or full-time academic work? What do you go to church for? What do you see as your role, today, in leading the church? How can you be both a theologian and a businessman?
For those of us in or going into pastoral ministry, what might it look like to have a congregation who wasn't looking for information but rather to be shaped into the people of God? How do you encourage that?
I don't want church to be a place where you go to get information. Christianity isn't a set of propositions to which one must assent. Practices like baptism, Eucharist, and meeting the needs of those who may be marginalized, along with right preaching and worship, should form us to be the kind of people who can live faithfully as children of God.
I completely agree with this statement. But I have a feeling this isn't what most people experience in their church life. Most people I know do go to church to get information. Most people I know do believe that Christianity is a set of propositions to which one must assent. Maybe some reading this blog are in that group.
The lines of business and church have bled but in all of the wrong ways. Rather than approaching all that we do -- business, church, dinner with friends -- as worship, we treat church as yet another thing to consume. We shop for the best speaker/music/style and we place all of the responsibility of studying and teaching Scripture on the pastor.
What if in the church everyone was already assumed to be a "theologian?" Everyone of us is, in fact, a theologian whether we like it or not. We can ignore that calling in our lives and defer to a pastor or a theologian to do our thinking for us, but I would argue that that is unbiblical and just plain wrong. The priesthood of all believers, the communion of saints, the ekklesia (called out)...these are some descriptions of the church. To be more personal, I will use Wendell Berry as an example, and I'm sorry if it's getting old, but he is a farmer and a writer, a husband, father, grandfather, political activist, conservationist, and community voice of reason. None of those things are separate from the rest. I just read an article in which he says, when asked how his farming and writing are connected, (loosely quoting), "I write as a farmer, and I farm as a writer. I don't think there is any other way I could do it." I would say that is how we are to be both "theologians" and "businessmen." No one lives in a vacuum and no action is done independent of others. When I pass a homeless man on the street and fail to look him in the eye for fear of him asking me for money, I do that as a theologian and a student. When I rip off my customers by selling them things they don't need, I do that as a theologian and a businessman.
If we focus on pastors and their role in the community, I believe that lay empowerment is the key to a "good" church and a good pastor. A pastor must get into the nitty gritty parts of life and walk with people in it, helping them to be better theologians and businessmen at the same time. A good pastor doesn't sit in an ivory tower and dream of great sermons about the corporate life when he hasn't heard the cries of his flock. There is an obvious interdependency here: the church sustains the life of the pastor in order to create space for him to care for the flock in the best way he can. In many cases, I think pastors should be bi-vocational and have a job on top of pastoring, but this only seems to work in small churches where administrative and bureaucratic BS can stay at a minimum.
So what does all of this mean for those of us not going into pastoral ministry or full-time academic work? What do you go to church for? What do you see as your role, today, in leading the church? How can you be both a theologian and a businessman?
For those of us in or going into pastoral ministry, what might it look like to have a congregation who wasn't looking for information but rather to be shaped into the people of God? How do you encourage that?
posted by The Dude at 1:41 AM
2 Comments:
Enabling pastors to have other jobs in the "business world" could be a chicken and egg scenario, but, speaking as a businessman, I think it is our responsibility to make that possible. The stats on church giving are atrocious -- American Christians give about 2.3% of our income -- and stats on time invested are similar. Whether we believe it to be right or not, our actions say "I'm not going to give my time or money to the Church until my kids are out of the house and I have some discretionary time/income."
Roughly 3 of every 4 guys reading this are serious slackers in the giving department. The Bible calls us to be elders but I'd bet virtually none of us are taking intentional steps to prepare for that position. If we hope to be part of a fellowship that bleeds the lines between business and Church, I think businessmen need to get off their cans and do something -- give, lead, study, serve. If each one of us did, the collective result would be an abundance of resources and leadership enabling the spotlight to shift from the pastor to Jesus.
Interesting post. Our church in Austin is currently facing a very similar issue. Most of our congregation feeds from very well off neighborhoods that surround our church. We have a very high mentality of consumerism. We have problems with people stepping up to volunteer in our children’s ministry; and most of the ministries in our church. It seems like most of the people that do serve are the ones that we always ask to serve time and time again.
It appears that people are coming to our church simply to be taught rather than think for themselves. I feel like at times, when people do want to speak up about what they believe, it can get squashed from those that don’t want to raise issues or dissension within our congregation. I believe that we are all teachers and do-ers of God’s word. Although we don’t all have the title of Pastor, I’m believe that we all play a similar role in the church. Why should one man or group of people (the church staff) be the ones to carry the teaching? If we are truly called to be disciples, I believe that we all have to lead, to teach, to think for ourselves, and be the kind of people that Christ encouraged and taught his disciples to be.
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