We know more than our pastors

Tim Bednar wrote an interesting and provoking paper titled 'We Know More Than Our Pastors: Why Bloggers Are the Vanguard of the Participatory Church'. He explores how Christians are using blogging for spiritual formation and how they are redefining the scope of Martin Luther's 'the priesthood of the believer'. Bednar states: "As a network, we know more than our pastors. Thousands of bloggers circumvent established hierarchies and relate unmediated with one another. We are part of a participatory phenomenon that is impacting mass media, technology, education, entertainment, politics, journalism, business - and the church."

Bloggers take an active role in their personal spiritual formation, and they expect to co-create the church, very much like an open-source operating system. When they blog and interact with other believers on the internet, they experience community. Blogging has become a spiritual practice that uniquely combines writing, learning, conversation, community and prayer with an abiding incarnational mission. Like blogger Jordon Cooper says: "There is a reason we flock online. There is people, interaction, and community here that in many ways is more real (authentic) than in the offline world."

In the cyberchurch there is no authority that determines what is 'in' and what is 'out'. Truth is discovered as we live, link and blog in community. Like Steve Collins explains: "Closed set churches and believers have a 'territorial' concept of God's kingdom, enclosed within a boundary. Membership comes through crossing the boundary in an act of conversion. Once inside Kingdom territory, care must be taken not to cross the boundary again. An open set on the other hand has no 'territorial' boundary, but is defined by relationship with a centre (Jesus): all that is moving towards the centre, seeking relationship, belongs; all that is moving away, abandoning relationship, does not."

Blogging is not (yet) Heaven. In his paper, Bednar also dedicates a chapter to warnings, pitfalls and hype related to blogging, like vanity and groupthink. And he addresses some of the issues pastors would be concerned about, like discord and orthodoxy.

What does the blogging phenomenon mean for the church? The key is Bednar's observation that the culture is shifting from passive consumerism to participative producerism. "44% of internet users have created content for the online world through building or posting to websites, creating blogs, and sharing files. Whether the existing church likes it or not, we are giving birth to a generation of people who view themselves as participants." Some of the consequences are:

- The traditional church conceives of itself as an exclusive community and determines who is 'saved' and 'unsaved'. It believes that it owns these definitions. This is no longer true. Christianity is an open conversation by those following Christ. Those involved in the conversation define the terms, not the church-as-we-know-it.

- Christians no longer pursue spiritual formation within the bounds of a single tradition, church, pastor or denomination. We are having hyperlinked conversations that subvert traditional hierarchies.

- Every Christian is a creator. We no longer have to wait for church authorization to think or act or speak in the name of Christ.

- Christians belong to multiple congregations.

- Pastors emerge by building a reputation from within the congregation based on consistency and transparency. Pastors add value to congregations as they add connectedness. Successful pastors and churches of the future will enter into co-creative covenants that help/enable Christians to embrace emergence and foster learning. They do not see themselves as gatekeepers or arbiters of membership in the church.

- Pastors are not primarily preachers. Sermons are no longer teachings, but learning experiences. The goal of preaching is to learn, not teach.

- Relational authenticity and longevity (not attendance) equals success in the participatory church.

- Congregations are their own watchdogs because they are the real stakeholders. Churches and pastors no longer need to screen their congregations for orthodoxy, arbitrate membership or filter their conversation. Orthodoxy will emerge. It is not determined by a single source, but is distributed throughout the congregation. Neil Cole, a leader in the organic church movement observes, "The best solution to heresy in the church is not to have better-trained leaders in 'the pulpits', but better-trained people in 'the pews'."

Will blogging and other forms of internet participation change the church? Feel free to comment on this posting.

Comments

[Abe]

You're right that this is the future of Protestantism. The various denominational leaders have no legitimate authority, and so have no right to maintain their boundaries or even their doctrines. Indeed, this is the logical result of Luther's understanding of the "priesthood of all believers", as opposed to the biblical "holy priesthood", build of "living stones" (1Pt. 2:5) not standing independently, but "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone" (Eph 2:20) If a church is not built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, it's not Biblical! When Paul & Barnabus spread the Gospel, then didn't tell the people, OK, we're leaving, now just continue on a multithreaded conversation forming multiple congregations... no, they "appointed elders" for them (Acts 14:23). Even Paul & Barnabus waited for church authorization to speak in the name of Christ (Acts 15:2). They appointed Titus, who then carried on the succession (Titus 1:5). The difference is that back then the church was legitimate... the apostles had been appointed by Christ himself. As you know instinctiely, modern Protestant pastors are not legitimate, they have broken from Christ's original organization. How can they live up to the role Christ gave the church in Matthew 18:17-18? There must be someone today who can, or Christ's words are useless. If there is no one who is able to determine membership then how can wwe follow the instructions of 1 Corinthians 5:1-2?? After all, the Bible does say that the church is the pillar and foundation of truth. (1 Tim 3:15) Just not the denominations you've had experience with.

[Linda Miles]

This is just an example of what the Bible warns as an era when each man does whatever seems right in his own eyes. Roads that lead nowhere

[Ron Z.]

Marc asks: "Will blogging and other forms of internet participation change the church?"

Ron answers: "No." It will help the church, but not change it, unfortunately. It's going to take a LOT more than just blogging to change the church!

There is only one agent of change that has been able to change the church throughout the centuries, and that agent of change is a Holy Spirit filled leader who is able to cast a vision for the kingdom of God. A leader who is filled with the passion of God is the most powerful force in the world, and without one, no amount of information, programs, or other aids will do much good.

For a long time I've been following the ministry of Heidi and Rolland Bakker as they shepherd a revival in Mozambique. No blogging. No programs. They don't have anything we think is "essential" for doing church. Their church "model" is just old-fashioned pentecostalism, with pastors, buildings, lively music, and all that. And yet, it works--and it works supremely well. Why? Because they have learned to be dependent on the Holy Spirit and his leadings, and teach their pastors to do the same. They rely on the miracle working power of God. And most importantly, they have learned how to be in the presence of God through prayer and worship. They also effectively teach others how to be in God's presence.

Understand, I love reading the blogs of fellow Christians around the world, and I'm comforted hearing how so many are struggling and wrestling with the same issues I face. But ultimately, Christianity needs a personal touch, and blogging simply does not allow for that.

Another problem is that of filtering blogs. We all know that there's a lot of garbage people throw out on the web in the name of Jesus, and one must actively filter everything that comes your way. This gets to be tiring, especially when 80 to 90% of the teachings, prophecies, etc., aren't all that useful, and some are even misleading.

However, there does need to be more emphasis on what I call a participatory church, one where the people are allowed to do more than just work in the nursurey or with the children's Sunday school. Most of the spiritually mature Christians I know are tired of warming pews on Sundays, and not being able to do anyhting in terms of ministry. The successful church of the future is going to train up their people for minstry, and encourage them to minster. There are a few chruches that are already doing this, but not nearly enough.

True leaders lead others into the presence of God. They lead others into ministry. They lead others into greater maturity and spiritual authority. Sadly, there are very few leaders who are doing this sort of thing. Through blogging I realize that this lack of leadership seems to be a worldwide phenomena, especially amongst the charismatics. Blogging won't fix this problem, but perhaps it will help us to unite in spirit and pray and intercede for a new move of God to sweep the earth. Actually, it's already here--in places--but these small fires need to spread.

[Tim Bednar]

Thanks for your feedback.