On Institutionalization
Institutionalization neutralizes the effect of the Gospel, it's
predictable.
It’s interesting to watch church government develop.
If someone doesn’t intervene, the government will be fashioned
according to the pattern of
this world. Institutions are obsessed with the maintenance of their own
future. Being an extension of our old nature, it's a reflection of
how we naturally look out for ourselves, but in this case the organization
is looking out for itself.
Logistics, facility and security all influence the plans and programs.
As bells and whistles are added year by year, there's no going back.
Oh sure, there can be modifications attempting to down-size, depending
upon the economic weather, but these changes are still made for the survival
of the system. What we
thought was once
a tool for an orderly partnership together now becomes an end in its self, soon
reaching the point where we no longer direct it, but it directs us.
Institutionalism is as old as the tower of Babel.
The day that Adam and Eve walked out of the Garden our old nature
was born and many things like it went into effect.
One of the most potent is the
pattern of this world, a
dynamic that we are commanded to avoid.
The problem is that the world’s system is so in-grained
that we can’t see the forest for the trees.
It’s not readily apparent, or as the Scriptures says, the enemy
has blinded the eyes of the unbeliever.
Thankfully, those who have come to repentance have the Holy
Spirit’s work that exposes such things.
Even then one has to pursue honesty and set aside old agendas.
The work of the Holy Spirit brings the repentant to a place of
incarnate ministry, but institutionalization diverts to non-incarnate
activities. The world’s
system gets people all tied up in busy work that has little to nothing
to do with the Gospel. It
can be justified (this is where honesty comes in) but when examined
under the lens of the Spirit, organizational maintenance takes more than
it gives. On top of that, many are encouraged to feel their gift is to
maintain the institution, encouraged by leaders who have inherited the dilemma.
These leaders may have good intensions, but the power of the
institution is significant, creating political factions and lobbys, all
while draining the life blood and energy of everyone involved.
About 10 years ago here at VFC we were starting a couple of
ministries that took significant staffing and financial investment.
The question arose how we were going to structure the
accountability of these ministries.
After much discussion, prayer and soul searching we came to the
understanding that there were basically two ways to approach it.
The first was to make the staff of these new ministries 'check-in'
with the
leadership team at VFC and the church in general at consistent intervals
so that decisions could be monitored.
The second was to allow the ministries to run themselves, the
idea being that those who worked the ministries should be
calling the shots and managing their own logistics.
We decided on the second, making VFC simply a place of counsel,
prayer and the incubation of new ministries, turning the logistics over
to those who have a sense of the daily nuance.
Emotion rose at this point.
There were liabilities involved, the risk of financial loss
demanded to be considered and of course the ever present concern over
the possibility of error in doctrine or practice, if we didn’t keep an eye on things.
We decided that if VFC were to be the final authority, then VFC
would also have to recruit and financially support all the details of
the projects, thus putting another layer of bureaucracy into the mix.
This move toward institutionalization didn’t set well with us.
Liability was also a concern.
Any time we work with people, inside or outside the church, there
are legal risks. Without an accountability system to the greater
organization we might all be affected by someone’s poor choice.
Yes, but what if we did lose everything through a law suit?
Had not God given us everything, was he not the one who is running interference for us?
Aren't we in his hands when we seek
what he wants?
At this point we could clearly see the danger of allowing VFC to
become institutional, to take the route of self-protection.
We chose to be willing to let it all go, including the risk to
our personal loss as well, so the ministry of the Gospel might continue.
You can’t have your cake and eat
it too. You can’t relinquish
control and protect yourself at the same time.
It must be left in God’s hands.
This train of thought has been a good choice.
One of the two ministries ended after a few years, seeming to
lose a great deal of money, and the other has continued.
But neither has felt like a failure.
If we are doing what he wants, if we're trying, we must let him
decide when and how a ministry should begin or end (or even an
organization). The ministry of the Gospel
has enormous financial expenditure and risk, but didn’t he pay a great price to
get us back? The Gospel
doesn’t seem efficient in the eyes of our old nature, similar to the price the
father paid in the parable of the prodigal son.
Many would call us fools for risking so much for such a small
return, but who is to say what a few lives are worth, who is to say what
affect our influence has had?
If we follow thru on where he seems to be leading, we are
successful. But institutions
won’t risk their existence, they won’t push into loss, they won’t look
foolish in their expenditures, they must carry out business
efficiently.
Something else about institutions; they feed the old nature of
those who find comfort in them.
That’s how the institution makes sure that it will survive. A parasitic relationship
is developed in the end, where the institution exploits the people, and
the people exploit the institution. It's an enabling cycle.
The intitution must develop a popular
environment, something attractive to the masses.
These things don’t happen overnight, but slowly, step by step the
leadership is forced into a pragmatic approach which appeals to our old
nature. In this way
good stewardship is promoted
above brokenness before God, thus becoming idolatry.
Then as the popular dominates, instead of challenging, convicting
and inspiring, the people are given everything they need to
cultivate a self-absorbed lifestyle.
The leadership then scratch their heads wondering why they can’t
get the people to self-sacrificially give themselves fully to the work of
the ministry, they wonder why the Gospel has been neutralized.
Are any of us safe from the institution?
Have any of us eradicated the possibility of it taking over? Nope.
The best we can do is ask our Father for the ability to be aware
of what it’s trying to do right now and learn how to make it powerless.
In the end we find that institutionalization is not an isolated
system, but something that survives because our old nature wants it, with
all its heart. We need to come to the
place where we hold loosely to the organization and it's frills, because
we may be called upon to let it go so that someone might come to
Life. And that's a good trade. In the end, we
don’t want to be in the place where the Lord Jesus is outside the local church,
knocking on the door wanting to come in, so that he can interact with us.
May God protect us from ourselves.