“Our church needs more members so that they can help pay the bills.” Have you ever heard somebody say this at a church meeting?
Dear Jesus, have mercy.
I am struck by the commodification of our friendships, our spiritual communities, and – frankly – God. It looks like this:
- What can this friend do for me?
- What can this church do for me?
- What can God do for me?
I cannot speak to this better than Scot McKnight did in his own blog yesterday, referring to Andrew Root’s new book:
“Root explores a proposed history of ministry:
In the hunter-gatherer framework the minister is the cosmic storyteller.
In the agricultural framework the minister is the manager and mediator of divine things.
In the steam and coal transition — industrial revolution — the minister perpetuated and protected a way of life. The pastor is a moral exemplar.
In the electric and managed oil transition — the second industrial revolution — the minister is involved in programmed intervention. The pastor becomes an entrepreneurial, entertaining, and a self-help therapeutician. The model of ministry here is influence.
Are we in a new day? Are we entering into a new day of relational ministries? He proposes the new pastor will be the “convener of empathic encounter of personhood” (44)
Yes, this is a lazy post today. But I can’t say it better than Andrew Root.
A Church for Starving Artists 