“In fact, he (Bono of U2) predicts that churches, of various denominations, ‘could be filled instead of emptied. But it depends on how they’re used. We have to hope that people will live their faith, rather than just preach it. We have to preach it. If you’re a preacher, preach it. But if you can’t live it, stop.’” – Bono, Christianity Today

Could it be that they are called “Pews” because it stinks to just sit around an observe Christianity rather than participate actively? If I am all-in as a believer in Christ, why is my main activity in church sitting around letting others do the work for me?

All my life I have searched my heart to see if it is following Christ and Christ alone. It is not an easy search. Our hearts, as so aptly penned by Jeremiah (17:9), are deceitful above all things and beyond cure. And our minds are wanting every excuse, so true reflection is at best a “dim mirror.”

Being human has extreme limitations. We are under the curse, surrounded by the curse and see the curse lived out in the people all around us every day. But we have a hard time looking at ourselves and seeing the effects of the curse in how we live and think.

Money and Power. Those seem to be the two big draws for leaders these days. I had thought that I was outside that box, freed from their temptations. Then our church offered us money to do the work that we love of leading the music. We wrestled with this and finally after much prayer, agreed to the position. It was not a large amount of money, so we had thought to put it directly in savings, so our monthly budget would not depend on it.

That lasted exactly zero months into being hired! Extra bills came up, prices increased and we just slipped into using that money to help make ends meet.

Then leadership in the church changed from one which considered Christ the head and all of us parts of the body serving Him, to one of authority driven leadership where the head was the pastor. Suddenly instead of encouragement to serve, I had a person ordering me to do his wishes, sing his songs, follow his lead. Put up or shut up.

I had to choose. I had no Power, so did I try to take his power? Buck against the system now in place and correct his understanding of power? And if I didn’t accept his definition of my role in the church as his servant, not Christ’s, then I would also lose Money. Money I shouldn’t have been relying on, but did.

So I have to draw a line here, connecting some dots – if a few hundred a month causes me pause in choosing what is right over the loss of income – then how much more does the employment factor enter into how churches “are run” rather than experienced as a living breathing organism under Christ. Do church leaders change policies, stack supporting committees and staff, and work to eliminate people from the congregation who might call them on such actions?

I have seen pastors deliberately choose people out of the congregation and demonize them to the point that they have to leave. I have seen them lie bold faced to mess with staff to make them leave. I have seen elders doing nothing as a new pastor comes in and runs roughshod over the leaders in ministry that have been giving their all to serve their congregations. And I am quite sure that I have not seen it all. From the responses that I get as I share a sliver of our experiences, I am quite sure that large parts of church populations have experiences with this as well.

So do I have the fix ready to share with you? A path to follow to reduce these pitfalls?

Sadly, I do not.

There are home churches, which I have not yet explored. But I strongly suspect that our go-to move is to make someone our leader and follow him whether he is sharing personal opinions, or true spiritual insight. We just want someone to do the hard work for us, which makes it easy for leaders to take authority as their right, rather than continually walk with humility, considering others within the body as better than themselves.

Conversely, I have seen a pastor embrace the understanding of Christ as the head and receive flack for expecting the congregation to do the work. The sheep just want someone to give them all the answers, rather than press those precious little brain cells to do the work on their own.

So do we just get the leader we deserve? Or can we find the leadership that truly reflects scripture and honors Christ as the head? Can we pull our butts off those pews, reflecting Christ in our worship as well as our lives? It truly is a narrow road and I’m not sure many of us want to walk it.

Do you?