Non-violent, in completely non-condemning love, of course. "I'm not trying to be a nuisance, I just think we can do better than this." This is following off of Don's thoughts here:
http://donmilleris.com/2011/04/05/unlike-todays-church-leaders-none-of-the-early-disciples-were-professional-educators
I saw a similar model in action at Norman Community Church, to what Don's talking about. A church led by musicians. :P If church is about meeting God, ministering to one another in community, and living the kingdom, why do we sit and listen most of the time? Norman Community is the only church I've been in where relationship was more important than the service, where service and living the Kingdom was more important than intellectual theology. Where training was about learning to live out our faith and making people do it. Honestly, for all my 'ministry,' I felt completely inadequate at Norm Comm, because I was so afraid that the church might ask something of me. And I want that so much, to be challenged and told I'm wrong and asked where my heart is at.
I've been in churches that have their heart all in the right place, where I had great relationships with almost the whole congregation, but our service and our expectations of the service didn't leave us the space to really ask how one another was doing, or to pray over people. Since we don't Sabbath on Sundays anyway, I think our liturgy needs to go and I think house churches are the way to go. Most healthy churches actually do "church" in small groups, but I think this sends the wrong message to the world...how is attending seminars the first step in following Jesus? Jesus did dinner with people.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in the church. I need to worship, I need Church. I believe in preaching, I get something almost every week. I believe in having people study the scriptures, and having well-thought out, Biblically-based theologies. But if I'm just at church to hear a sermon and sing, I might as well watch it on TV. And I think that's the opposite direction of where the church should be going.
I think this is at the core of why many Men have given up on the church. We don't value things like barn-raising and tentmaking or cooking as possible forms of ministry leadership. It's an intellectual/emotional game, and let's be honest, if it's not backed up by actions, it is a game. Or it's a social club where you have to mind your Ps and Qs all the time, and boy that's exhausting. Faith without works is dead.
I'm gonna take it one step further and say the same thing that is wrong with our churches is also wrong with our schools. Kids hate school because the stuff they're doing is pointless...because it is! Sixth-graders have the intellectual capacity to change the world, do research, lead community projects. It happens all the time!!! But our expectations of kids is to "practice" learn for 16 years before they ever do anything, and it's incredibly patronizing and a shame that our romantic idea of "childhood" and "teenage freedom" keeps kids from becoming engaged citizens and real adults until around 23-28. What if instead of paying an economics teacher we loaned kids $50 and told them to invest it for a semester, grade will be based on your rate of return. The Kingdom of Heaven is like that. ;) That's the real world. (well, in the real world most kids would get 50c and a couple would get a couple hundred thousand, but...)
Why don't we change? It costs more of us. We suck at sharing life and being vulnerable. A Sunday school lesson and games are easier for me to plan than a night of outreach or a night of waiting on God. And what if my youth freak out? What if they get robbed? What if demons show up? I know that youth like games and music. And those are valid things to do together. But as a pastor, (I sincerely believe in the priesthood of all believers) I want my fellow sheepies to be ministry-leaders and pastors themselves in their circles, not church attendees.
I have faith that if I try to do something and fail, it's okay. But walking with God is messy, and I'm afraid if I'm honest about that, the church will reject me. Also I'm poor, I don't know how to ask other people to do missions with me, because missions with me might end up getting you stuck in a foreign country if you miss a bus or lose a wallet or something (strictly theoretically-speaking, of course, it's only happened to me once). I know how to let myself down, but I don't know how to let others down. I almost only talk to strangers when I'm alone because most of my friends get annoyed or nervous. (Greg Wilson, you are an amazing exception to this.) Wow...I'm insecure and I need to change, because I'm becoming the things I don't want to be.
