Jer 33:3 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'
Thinking that becomes part and parcel of everyday life can be termed as 'institutional conditioning.' This is when something is unquestionably and routinely accepted by ourselves. Christians are good at taking on new concepts and mulling over information as that is part of our responsibility as God's children. However there are aspects of Christian life that are not questioned and therefore routinely accepted, not realising the dangers.
A fun example is 'who said Australia is 'down under?' I can accept that since it was discovered fairly recently by people from 'up top' it will be termed 'down under.' Given that there is no up or down in space the whole idea of direction is a man made suggestion. Australians consider themselves to be down under also, thus also buying into it all. It doesn't really affect anyone if we consider whose down or up in this world but there are some things readily accepted in life that do affect people. History has set things in motion based upon perspectives someone had long ago. These things become the fabric of our society and no-one questions them. An example that harms people is the class system. Sure, the terminology may have started with observing peoples socio-economical status in relation to others but then became a tool used for political ends. Some people are refused jobs because of postcode prejudice. Certain areas are labelled as socially challenged because of labels assigned many moons ago. This thinking is part of our society and while the evidence of the classification is in our towns and cities, has the branding of people set many up to fail? Labels become concepts and that's a short step from concepts speaking back into the situation and producing accepted paradigms.
In my life I have never been handed a book or seen a documentary on why our leaders govern the country the way they do. I've had to accept so much of 'the done thing' because...er.. its the done thing. Again, to answer why things are done a certain way we can point to history, decisions made by men and women to set in motion ideas that will govern people and systems to meet an end result. I sometimes feel pressured by the thought that I can't come up with a better idea so just accept the way it is done. This is a wrong way to think. Just because I may not suggest solutions doesn't mean that I cannot recognise the problems. Class systems, government and geographical anomaly may be impossible to change but we can and must address whether institutional conditioning affects church practise.
The Bible tells us to pray and not be angry about the way things are in the way this world is run. Too many Christians have the same kind of auto-acceptance about church. "It's just the way it is, God must have led the church here." But we all know how far off the mark Roman Catholicism is... did God lead that? Whilst staring at the man made religion of Roman Catholicism many Christians cannot cope with the thought that there still may be a way to go before we are rid of those elements still lingering in church structure and systems. Whilst preaching "God led us here" don't forget all the spectrum of denomination today came from the Great Reformation, a protest against Roman Catholicism. Whilst ironing out some of the Theological issues the emerging Protestants did not stop doing doing what the Roman Catholic priests did, preside OVER God's people.
Given our propensity to readily accept what we were born into, isn't it of the utmost importance to make sure 'church' is not subject to institutional conditioning? Moves have been made towards not doing the done thing where church is concerned. Leaders may have removed the garb, made the preaching relevant to today and produced user friendly environments. However, in our society anyone who steps up to the responsibility of leadership will be automatically in a hierarchical system. How so? Because western history, society, culture and what we readily accept in day to day life accepts hierarchy and rank as standard.
If you don't want church leadership to automatically equate to rank you will need to do three things:
1. You will need to tell people who you lead that they should not see you the same as the teacher, policeman, army officer, supervisor or parent, all of whom are in a ranked position in this society for all their lives.
2. You will need to get rid of all the things that reinforce the idea that you are in a higher ranked position. This means forsaking position, status, labels, privileges and all visual confirmation you are the superior officer ie. the platform, pulpit, front row, titles and church structures that rank the people who attend.
3. You will have to live as a brother who may or may not be a leader amongst your sisters and brothers. What you do will have to become secondary to who you are among others.
The primary reason the church has been hindered in effectiveness despite centuries of activity is because the progress made in what the church looks like and how she appears in society has not changed what she is. Christians are not institutional because we belong to the state or don't, we are institutional because we readily-accept-and-never-question the historical amendments made to what church should do. Leadership doesn't look the same as the Roman Catholic church but it sits in a society that will see church leaders as priest-types, set apart, more than brothers or sisters.
So what form does leadership take if not following the post-Catholic model? How will people who are institutionally conditioned be led if the leadership model is of another nature? The answer to these questions lie in the need to remove anything that promotes the priestly rank and other things that hinder the nature of Christians gathering together for ecclesia. When we do this we find much of what we do, and how we do it, is there to serve the priestly rank and all that means in practise. Scripture shows Paul and the other apostles in agreement to teach church as a smaller gathering in family environments around a meal. Each contributed, not just the few professionals. God in his wisdom wanted us to live under the exclusive leadership of Christ and all that would promote the priestly rank was avoided.
We were born into this world where invisible rules and practises worm their way into our consciousness. Our contentment with 'the done thing' should never be blind acceptance. Only God can open our eyes to the extent of how we have been shaped by the environment of this world. We are a product of church history but not subject to it so can you become free by taking the bold and courageous steps toward biblical church?
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