Recovering from a Battered Ecclesiology Part 3

Maybe, like me, you have faced ministries that slowly grind away at your view of Church. In my previous posts I addressed this slow grind in a Recovery from a Battered Ecclesiology and Recovering From a Battered Ecclesiology Part 2 please take a moment and read those posts to catch up with where I am in the discussion.

7.  Most youth pastors are young when entering ministry and have an underdeveloped Ecclesiology. This is my admission of poor theology (when I was younger), and if most veteran youth pastors are honest they also have entered youth ministry at a young age, and they also had a lackluster view of the church. We were just having fun, and hanging out with students and pointing them to Jesus. Since then I have grown in maturity (hopefully) and in my high view of the church. In the meantime in ministry I did not view the Ekklesia of Jesus with as high esteem as I do now. This hurt me in my early years because I let fun and reaching teenagers overshadow my desire to disciple teenagers into the life of Christ which is His body life. So part of my recovery was to grow in my high view of the importance, and heart for the body of Christ. Now mind you, I didn't grow in my view of the institutional church, the hierarchy, or the programs of the church, but I grew in the view that Christ's redemption reached out to people whom he called to Himself. I grew in understanding of the redeemed and His glorious work in making them the Church, making them priests, and kings forever. So my view of the people, the Ekklesia of God that He redeemed from every tribe and nation grew, and yours can too. Let Him recover that in you. Let Jesus speak to your heart how much more His Church means to His heart than just the programs, structures, buildings, and bylaws that you maneuver in daily in your local Church life and ministry. It is His Bride! We are His Bride. The Bride that he died to marry!

8. Christ (not a person in leadership) is the head, cornerstone, and leader of the Church! It is so hard not to confuse this consistently. We don't see Jesus standing up in the pulpit every week. That would be cool for sure to see Jesus preaching every week, but we don't. We have flawed, fallible, sinful men standing up in pulpits around the world every week, and we have deeply flawed pastors on Church staff, and elders and deacons who also continually need the Grace of the Lord Jesus. Our leaders are totally screwed up! This just displays the great grace and kindness of Christ that he is the Cornerstone of the church, but places men in his stead who must hold on tight to the grace of the Lord just to make it daily in this work to lead God's people, pointing to the that Chief Cornerstone. This is where I have royally screwed up in leadership. When I fix my eyes on a man rather than the Chief Cornerstone, I have lost sight of the true nature of the Church. Hebrews 12:2 says "let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." When I have definitely let my Ecclesiology be battered is when I have let a man or a group of men take the place of the Chief Cornerstone in my mind. Let us return our gaze to the "Author and Finisher!" Only then will we recover a truer Ecclesiology.

9. Most youth pastors have the "fun" personality and so the Entertainment/Attractional church model lends to youth pastor burn out because they carry much of the burden for programming. I can remember when I realized this, that I was the fun bringer, the announcement clown, the one that everyone liked to laugh at. I was in ministry for quite some time when I signed up for a men's retreat. The leader asked me if I would do the games for the retreat? I had done them the previous several years. I had to say, "no". I hated doing it, but I had to not be the game guy, the clown, the entertainer. I wanted to be taken seriously and I am sure you have felt that way too. You have asked yourself, "When will they take me seriously?" I have a few suggestions. Learn to say "no" when the things that you are being asked to do do not fit into your ministry priorities, or into your job description. You can quickly be taxed and burned out with all the "fun" things that you are asked to do. It could also hurt your view of the church when all you are asked to do are the funny video announcements, church picnic games, concert nights, halloween alternative programs, or being the dunk tank guy every year at the Church Carnival! you can find yourself asking, "is this it?" "Is this what Jesus died for? That I am the dunk tank guy at the Church Carnival again this year?" As a youth PASTOR you are more valuable than being the entertainment door mat at your Church. So let yourself be respected and heard as a PASTOR in your congregation. Now do not get me wrong, do fun stuff, but be careful to balance it out so that you do not get burnt out, and so that your people respect, and hear you as a legitimate PASTOR/ELDER of your Church. And Church, what I am asking you to do is, that if a Youth PASTOR is hired as a PASTOR in your Church treat him like one, and make him an elder! If he is qualified to be a PASTOR in your church then he is also qualified to be an ELDER. And if he is not Biblically qualified to be an ELDER than he is not qualified to be a PASTOR! and don't hire him! So set him up for success by giving him the position that he is qualified for PASTOR/ELDER when you hire him!

These are just a few suggestions to recover a biblically Christ honoring Ecclesiology when it seems to become battered by years in ministry. Ultimately we need Christ to recover a truly honoring Ecclesiology. If you feel that fade toward a, "Is this all?" type of question, then do whatever it takes to "fix your eyes on Jesus." This might help...

Recovery from a battered Ecclesiology

I have known so many former youth ministers (myself included) who have worked for years in ministry and continually had their view of the Church pounded on by working in the modern Church. Let me explain the a few ways most youth pastors (and maybe even many currently in ministry) have their view of the church (Ecclesiology) battered over the years.

1. They live with the constant pressure to draw more students into their ministries. I met a children's minister/youth minister years ago who was responsible for 500 children in his ministry. He told me that his Sr. Pastor asked him every week about how many children they had that particular week. This led him to really question and always be skeptical of his own view of the Church. He said for a long time he only thought they could be a successful church if they were growing. Is this true? of course not, Jesus is Lord of His Church and He grows His church! He usually doesn't grow His Church by stealing the neighbors churches sheep. He grows His Church  usually through conversion growth. So how do we recover from this? First, I will acknowledge that throughout my years in ministry, I have felt the same pressure, and many others do too. Youth pastor, you are not alone, and you are not crazy that pressure truly exists. Secondly we need to call it wrong. It is a misplaced, hurtful and wrong view of Church that the church can only be successful if it is a huge "growing" church. It can be a healthy church if it is growing but not always. We have to be honest. Then we have to admit when we have fallen into that trap of numbers. I used to go to Youth Pastor meetings, seminars, and summits, etc and always 'fib' on my numbers to see the reaction from guys. I usually got a shrug off from guys from larger churches, and would have much in common from guys from smaller churches even though I was usually at larger churches, I had more Ecclesiological commonality with them than the mega-Youth Pastors. How can we recover a deeper more Christological Ecclesiology? By Seeing and savoring Christ. Focus on Christ the Author and perfecter of our faith, and not on numbers.

2. Most Churches are Attractional in Methodology. This seems to speak for itself. The Attractional model of youth ministry and overall Church ministry is failing. If churches can manage to keep the slick programs, and MTV service afloat for more than a few years they are doing good, but mostly they fold with the succession of new leadership. Needless to say we also create more consumer Christians than true disciples with this model. I have been in so many churches and church traditions, from Baptist, Presbyterian, Brethren, Methodist, Evangelical free, Charismatic, etc. and for the most part their ministries were built around the Sunday Morning services. This leads pastors and youth pastors to only value the meeting on Sunday and much of the other stuff, that really makes us church, falls by the wayside. I found that in my own life, I put so much into the Sunday morning activities, I usually had little time, resources, or energy left for anything else. Have you felt this way? If you have you might be a victim of the Attractional model. Admit it, Confess it, and ask for healing from the attraction of the attractional model of ministry. Dear Lord I am attracted to the allure of the attractional model of ministry, I confess this was not in your heart when you envisioned the Church, I ask that you reform my understanding of what your Church was, is, and is meant to be.

3. Most Churches and youth ministries build their methodology around the Preaching/Charisma of the senior pastor or youth pastor (i.e. attractional model). This has engulfed the Church over the past few decades. The Charisma of the lead pastor and the Church staff have kept many Churches afloat. From the inception of the Multi-site, and the superstar preachers of the evangelical world, most churches will not tolerate less than the best most entertaining, funny, and convincing preachers. Now don't get me wrong, I am for excellence in preaching, but there are average guys out there preaching the NOT SO average gospel in the NOT SO average power of the Holy Spirit. However there are many ABOVE average Communicators/Preachers preaching in the average power of the flesh. The superstar/Multi-site Church Ministry approach I believe is hurting the Church. This view that "Preaching makes us the Church" is wrong! We need to adhere to regular gospel centered preaching, but that does not make us the Church. Jesus makes us the Church. As Acts 20:28 says "The Church/Ekklesia which he purchased with his own blood" No preaching, music, small groups, AWANA, Midweek Youth programs, Men's Ministry, Women's Ministry, or any other thing we could "do" as the church makes us the Church. Jesus alone does that; He makes us the Church. The things we "do" as the church are only a response of worship to the faithful savior who has purchased us. In that great sacrificial act HE HAS MADE US the Ekklesia of God. If our view of Church is anything else we need to recover a biblical Ecclesiology.

I will cover these others aspects that batter our ecclesiology in part two of this series...

4. Many Youth pastors do not have "real" spiritual authority in the Church only responsibility

5. The hierarchical model of ministry dis-empowers the students that these youth pastors are pouring into to lead the Church.

6. Most Church Staff/Parishioners mistakenly believe that the building that they meet in is the Church.

7.  Most youth pastors are young when entering ministry and have an underdeveloped Ecclesiology.

8. Christ (not a person in leadership) is the head and leader of the Church