The Bible is Authoritative (not Authoritarian)

We call the Bible authoritative for the Christian life but we are seem to forget what it means for something to have authority but not being authoritarian. Knowing if the Bible is authoritative or authoritarian may be thought of in terms of where the Bible is located in our lives. Namely, does the Bible have the first or last word?

Major court cases in the United States ask a number of questions to make a judgement. Among the first questions asked is "what does the Constitution say?" The Constitution for the Untied States is authoritative for the rule of law. The Constitution did not say much about Native people living in the early days of the Untied States. When Chief Standing Bear sued for a writ of habeas corpus the government took the Constitution as an authority and saw the Constitution did not even consider Natives as human. By the end of the case, the judge ruled that an Indian is a person". When the judge gave the Constitution the first word on the matter, he did so because there is deep respect and reverence for the Constitution. The Constitution is authoritative, not Authoritarian.

When something is Authoritarian, we do not give it the first word, we give it the last word. When the bumper sticker says, "The Bible says it, I believe it" the last statement is "that settles it!" This gives the impression that the Bible is no longer authoritative but more Authoritarian in that person's life. Authoritarian systems cannot and do not tolerate questions or deviations. There is not room for interpretation or grey. Kings of old would make a decree and then say "thus says the King!" If you had any questions, the King had the last word and that was that. The King was the Authoritarian ruler and others were to fall in line. Those who did not were not out of the King's punishment.

The Bible is authoritative for me. I have great respect and reverence for the Bible. It has the first word in my life because it is authoritative. I have too much respect for the Bible (and God has too much love for me) to make the Bible Authoritarian for Christians. 

The "Three Sisters" Focus of Church

Allow me to recap the previous post:

• When growing a church is a chief priority, then we are incentivized to work with favorable populations.
• Working with favorable populations may grow a church, but it often leads to monoculture.
• Monoculture in farming is efficient but it has serious unintended consequences.

Monoculture farming is efficient and therefore, attractive. The USA places efficiency as a great virtue - so much so there is an entire cottage industry of "lifehacks" designed to make your life more efficient. There is something elegant about getting things done in the most efficient way (bricklaying, minecrafting, holding a coffee mug).

Many of us love the idea of being efficient with our time and, again, there is nothing wrong with it. Many people around the world are fed because of corn or soybean farms. The point is not about church growth but about valuing a type of church growth over another. Church work is anything but efficient. This is because Church work is work of the heart and shaping people's hearts is a long, long, long process that sometimes does not "work."

One of the early ways people avoided monoculture gardens was with the "three sisters." This is the practice of growing corn, beans and squash together. The beans grew on the corn while the squash provides shade and cover from weeds. It is true that you could get more of each vegetable if you just planted that vegetable, but then you are right back at monoculture farming. 

What do the "three sisters" have to do with Church? I wonder if the widow, orphan, and sojourner are something we might consider as a sort of "three sisters." If a Church spends time working with the widow, orphan, and sojourner then that church may not grow as many disciples as they might if the church focused on families. However, a church that focuses on these "three sisters" of people may find a sustainability that otherwise may not come from catering to middle class families. As Jesus said, the poor will always be with us - there are always new widows, orphans and sojourners. If we focus on the "least of these" we may very well find a more sustainable church growth. 

I say all this knowing full and well that I have failed to focus on the widow, orphan and sojourner. We all are trying to find the way to "be the Church" in this new day. I admit that I too am struggling with how to do/be the Church in a time and place where institutions are not trusted, authority is met with suspicion, efficiency is the currency of our time and the difficult work of being in the Church today is evident every week. I offer the idea of a re-focus on the widow, orphan and sojourner as part of my own personal reflection and growth, understanding that while I may not be called to monoculture church others are called in other ways. 

Growing the Monoculture of the Church

Behind all the clamoring of the decline of the UMC and mainline Protestantism in general there are conversations happening about the future of the UMC. Some feel that if we could just get back to some earlier form of Christianity then the church will recover numbers. Some feel that if we got our theology straight then we will see the pews swell. These conversations about what the #NextMethodisim will look like are interesting and worth considering. 

Photo by Jenny Hill on Unsplash

As interesting as these conversations are, I would like to offer up at least one way the UMC will grow if we continue doing what we are currently doing. The UMC will grow in our monoculture.

Monoculture is an agricultural term used to describe when one crop is grown in a field at a time. In Texas, many ranches are massive, but they are only raising cows. While there are clear benefits to the monoculture of raising cows, there are also so great drawbacks. Rampant disease in monoculture ranches forces cows to require a good amount of antibiotics in order to live and grow to a healthy weight. These ranches are efficient in some respects but also highly problematic in others. 

When we focus exclusively on growing our churches we will more than likely be interested in working with the populations that will give us good outcomes. A church has only so many resources that churches are incentivized to direct those resources to areas where there will be a "big bang for the buck" or a decent ROI (return on investment). We see this in the amount of time and resources churches direct toward children verses what is directed to prison ministries. One group is easier to work with than the other. It also happens that we can count children in worship and when they are baptized, but counting prisoners is much more difficult.

Efforts to grow a church are well and good, I am in favor of growing church! The point is not to turn a blind eye to growth but to say that eyeing growth as the paramount value leads to monoculture. And monocultures are not very sustainable.

So what does more sustainable growth look like? Maybe it looks like the "three sisters." Who are the three sisters? Answer coming soon....

If They are Fruits of the Spirit the Stop Looking for Veggies

In a lectio divina group Estee and I are a part of, the eight  participants reflected on a section of John 15. In this "divine reading" an insight came into focus about Jesus talking about bearing fruit. Beginning with the thought that Jesus does not say we are to bear vegetables but fruit. Which on the surface seems silly, then the conversation opened up the metaphor.

I am not a farmer and know very little about growing produce. What I know is that to grow, say corn, one would plow the soil, sow seeds,feed and water the seeds and when the harvest comes, you cut the corn down and then you begin the process over again the next year.

What is great about growing vegetables is that there is an almost immediate return on the work. You plant a seed then later that year you get corn or carrots or beans or squash. This is why kids are always introduced to gardening with growing vegetables - you do not have to wait too long for veggies.

This is not the case with most fruits. Peaches, apples, olives, cherries all take a number of years before food is produced. At the end of the process, being a farmer of fruit looks like being a farmer of vegetables. However, in the beginning fruit farmers do not get to 'eat' from their labors in a few weeks. They must wait years. However, fruit farmers also do not have to take time each year to till and plant - the vegetable farmer has to.

It is a simple thought but one that has larger ramifications for spiritual formation - are we like vegetable or fruit farmers?

Vegetable farmer spirituality might look like we are doing the same work work year after year. Vegetable farmer spirituality might look like we are always busy getting ready for the next season that we cannot abide in the presence of God. Vegetable farmer spirituality might look like we are being fed, but not patient enough to discover the sweetness of fruit. Vegetable farmer spirituality has some risk but only short term - because there is always a new season to try again. Vegetable farming spirituality looks like one who does not feel a need to trust very deeply, because in just a few weeks you just start again.

Fruit farmer spirituality might look like we are engaged in the hard work at the start then we must trust that fruit will come - never knowing if all the years of waiting will lead to any fruit. Fruit farmer spirituality might look like we are barren for a long time. Fruit farmer spirituality might look like we are not doing much as we wait but we are busy developing trust. Fruit farmer spirituality might look like silly because you may not eat for a while. Fruit farmer spirituality might look like one who, after a long time, cannot help but be deeply rooted and continue to grow fruit even if the farmer dies.

On a side note, fear seems to be a component of developing vegetable farmer spirituality. Friends, I can tell you there at this moment in the church and world, there is an abundance of vegetable farming going on.

Originally posted on May 14, 2012