Some thoughts I had on the way home from Hard Times on Sunday

One of the reasons that the church is necessary is that individually we are too weak, foolish, afraid, or broken to embody Christ alone. This is also, incidentally, the reason that it isn’t wise for clergy to be placed upon a pedestal. Not only are they insufficient of themselves to embody Christ, it is commonly the case that the only reason they differ from the rest of us is not that their list of vices is shorter–it is that they add “arrogant” or “cocky” to their list.

The problem is that churches often become bands of people whose brokeness, foolishness, and fears become institutionalized. They become the very sorts of “power” that Paul tells us we must battle. Often, a group of people left to their own can become a “power,” but they are certainly more powerful under effective, yet arrogant, leadership. These days we don’t value saints as much as we ought. And we value effective, yet morally adequate leaders, too much. Even so, we expect too much from both the saintly leaders and the effective leaders–and even more so of the rare combination of both.

for further reading . . .

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