William Willimon is a great preacher. And somewhere along the way he decided to give up a cushy job as the Dean of the Chapel at Duke and become the presiding bishop of North Alabama Conference in the UMC. That is roughly like giving up a job that has no accountability where people praise you all day and you get plenty of time to fly around, give a talk and hear more people praise you to take a job where you get all the responsibility with little power and have to deal with all the crap that an institutional church throws up the ladder and hear people complain about stuff all day. In short, this guy is putting his life where his words have been at.
Every now and then he throws up a blog post here (roughly weekly, but with some longer stretches). This particular post seems important. Dr. Willimon is in the midst of making a argument that the church of the very near future (i.e. the day after tomorrow) better be fundamentally one concerned about Theology. In building or re-building churches there are a lot of techniques and a bunch of ways to talk about them. There is even an entire “movement” dedicated to these techniques called appropriately “the church growth movement”. Most of what is in that movement is nothing more than applying to the church the best practices of institutions in the world. Now the church is supposed to be different – it is not only an institution of this world – but can you really complain about things that boil down to “if its important measure it, track it and hold people responsible”?
The problem is that a church reduced to what it measures and tracks is a church without the gospel. It is also one without disciples. You can be a member of such a group. That place might claim to sell all kinds of things with that membership. [Joel Osteen promises you - your best you now!] But that mentality of buying and selling or of being a member is really anathema to the message of the church. The church has a message – Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The church is not selling that message – it is proclaiming it – this is real, believe it, come and see, follow me! Members get charged at the door. The church gives away its proclamation. It does not have any secret wisdom that it is hiding for those who buy the premium package. But what the church wants is tougher. It wants disciples. It wants people who will change their lives in accordance with what Jesus taught. Members receive fair product in this world for their dues. Disciples are guaranteed nothing in this world, but are formed for the next. In a membership metality, the disciple looks like an idiot. The Church is in that sense to be that gathering of fools for Christ.
The big question is how do we as a church that is re-building make disciples and not settle for members? How do we remain true to the vision points shared earlier for St. Mark – teaching the apostolic faith, encouraging growth and depth in the faith? Are we currently memebers or disciples?
