The Problem With Becoming a 'Professional' Christian
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When we look at church history, as well as the modern
church, it seems to me that many of the problems have grown out of believers
receiving a salary from other believers. The concept of being paid to be a
believer, a 'professional believer' of sorts, has historically resulted in
church leaders not only failing to understand the gospel, but, instead, subtly
or overtly enforcing a mixed gospel (one that causes no conflict to either the
congregation's religious comfort nor the preacher's job security) upon the very
people who are paying them.
It is a problematic circle. For if
the 'paid believer' is to grow in his understanding of the gospel, it will
result in his theology evolving and changing, sometimes quite dramatically, and
this will inevitably challenge those who he shares it with, and in doing so
they will most likely remove their financial support, for fear they are
financially supporting a heretic (for everything people can not immediately
understand is considered heresy).
More than this, the notion of
'full-time paid ministers' creates the illusion that these people must know
more than the average believer because they have more time to study. But,
again, what does history show us? It shows us that the only preachers who even
came close to the truth of the gospel were persecuted and, in many cases,
violently murdered by the paid church leaders. Those who spent all their days
studying the Scriptures could not see the gospel even if it was right in front
of their face. More than that, they aggressively persecuted those who could see
it, those who dared to share it with the greater body of Christ.
We are all the same when it comes
to protecting our jobs and income streams. We all need to look after our
families. We all need to make sure the money is there to pay the rent and feed
the family. But, in my opinion, when your income is connected directly to your
faith a serious problem arises, for the protection instinct we all have within
us, regardless of how we make a financial living, directly interferes with and
overpowers the journey to come into the full freedom of the gospel.
Personally, I don't think it is
possible to enter into the full freedom Christ gave us while within a religious
system; the reason being, that your freedom will challenge the very structure
itself. While the people within may very well welcome the change, those being
paid to administer/manage the system will not (and they are the ones setting
the tone for the whole community), for they will be out of a job, and also out
of a position of authority and respect.
I think that Jesus came to break us
free from this very concept of relating to God and one another via an
institution. Jesus made the way to come directly to both God and others without
the need for an external mediator, without clergymen and pulpits. Jesus made a
way for us to have faith in God without the structure of religion hedging us
in.
It sometimes makes me wonder if
following Jesus didn't turn into a profitable empire -- where entrepreneurial
types could so easily make a healthy living out of controlling pockets of the
empire and receiving endless donations to build the Jesus-empire in the name of
their chosen ministry -- I wonder how the average Christian would live like in
society today. I wonder if the whole world would be a healthier place. More
than that, I wonder how much freer Christians would be?
It seems that, as a
Christ-follower, after we get out of organized religion, we spend years, maybe
our whole lives even, trying to get that religion out of us. Physically
stepping out of the walls of the institutional-Christian-empire is relatively
easy compared to emotionally uprooting those walls and getting them out of our
own hearts and minds.
But what if there were no walls to
begin with? Would we have entered into Christ and have been free from the
start, and have stayed free? For the past 2,000 years, would we have made a
greater impact in the world by not trying to rule it and obsess over
empire-building, but rather by truly living it with the fullness of love God
has deposited within us? Would we have let love be our guiding light instead of
another man's religious vision for institutional construction of one religious
building after the next?
Article by Mick Mooney. You
can connect with Mick on his facebook
page.
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