Incontinence

I'll explain in a minute. Before the Reformation there weren't a whole lot of choices when it came to church. The monolithic Holy Roman Catholic Church held control over much of the world. The church decided that Brazil would speak Portugese. (It's true, ask and I'll tell you.) As for God's word, it was in Latin and, if a local church even had a copy it was chained to a table and inaccessible to the common man. This gave the church leaders incredible control over the people. They spoke for God and kept his word a mystery only they could interpret.

All at the same time along comes Luther, Calvin, the Wesleys and Gutenberg. Four guys with access to the Bible and one guy who figured out a way to mass produce copies. Luther did the unthinkable. He translated scripture into the language of the people and declared that they should read it and think for themselves. He encouraged fathers to teach their children and families to gather around the word. He talked about a "Priesthood of all believers" and the Holy Roman Catholic Church lost control, literally and figuratively. They hunted Luther down and tried to have him killed. They didn't succeed, but even if they had the damage was done. The people had access to the Word of God without having to go through the church to get it. An explosive movement of faith followed. Along with it came all sorts of misunderstanding, heresy and false teaching. The church lost control of the body and some messes were made.

That's what incontinence is. When you lose control of your body and it makes messes that embarrass you. Today there are churches all over the place that are trying to keep people from embarrassing the Body of Christ. In so doing they work to exert control over what people think and do in regard to their faith. Much like the Holy Roman Catholic Church before the Reformers, major Christian denominations work hard to manage Biblical understanding. Many mainline Christian denominations have a process one must go through before being qualified, certified or ordained to lead people in the church. Most of this training has to do with being steeped in that denominations doctrine, dogma and theology.

Please don't get me wrong. I have nothing against people learning or the development of systems for preparing people to lead within your organization. I'm not advocating for anarchy in the church where there is no order or control. That's not Biblical. However, it's time to point out to those who consider themselves leaders in the church that their sense of control is an illusion. Much like the printing press, technology, in ever increasing ways, is taking control out of the hands of a few and putting it in the hands of the many. Advancing from print into radio, then television, the masses have had access to any number of theological viewpoints. The understanding of an average person sitting in the seats on a Sunday morning is a compilation of what their church teaches, the Joel Osteen book they just read, the Focus on the Family radio program they heard on Wednesday, what Pat Robertson said on the 700 Club Friday afternoon and whatever devotional book they're currently reading during morning quiet time. Then along comes the internet!

Now any crackpot with an opinion about God can broadcast it to the world for free (like I'm doing right now). Well meaning Christians who are wrestling with who God is and what it means to follow Jesus can now wrestle publicly. Self-righteous fiery evangelists can go into chat rooms and rail against the heathen in God's name. The Body of Christ has nearly unlimited opportunities to make embarrassing messes in public and there is nothing church leaders can do about it. So are we finally at a point in human history where we must fully and completely rely on the Holy Spirit? In other words, since I can't possibly control the flow of information and conversation about God, faith and following Jesus, maybe it's time to acknowledge that I was never really in control of anything in the first place.

Once the church can get to that point perhaps the question, "What should we do now?" will be seriously asked. How do churches interact with Body of Christ in this post-modern age? How does the traditional church model function in this strange new world where I have the potential to reach more people with this one blog post than Billy Graham reached in his entire ministry career? Here's a hint. I don't think it's about becoming more competitive. I think it's about becoming more engaging. More later...