A Response to Mr. Bohlender

Reading Randys blog caused a response


As a part of the body reading your blog (Would you mind indulging me in a rant or 2?).....

"Around the world, in what would appear to be the most difficult places, the church flourishes. In the former Soviet block, government camp grounds are being used as revival centers. China’s believers are evangelizing and teaching new believers to live out their faith in persecution while American believers attend services that are patterned after their favorite tv shows because nothing else can hold their attention for an hour.
Why the drastic difference? Are the souls of China more resilient than American souls? Does God’s plan allow for the success of those with the difficult portion while those who are given much find very little required of them? Or are we being lulled to sleep by our own freedoms and successes? Surely we are made of the same stuff as believers worldwide – at least at the core. So how do we explain for our apparent ineptitude? I believe the answer lies in the idea of being underchurched."

I know that I have quite a bias against what I have heard called "institutional church". I really do. And this statement begins to hit closer and closer as to why. What is the main difference in testimonies of people who have been in those situations in China, Russia, under persecution etc... and America? Because it isn’t really America, it is almost really a "Western" quality.
I really believe it lies in the underpinnings of WHY the believers gather, and then secondarily "How".

In China, there is no cult of personality church. The government sponsored church is a sham. Those under persecution want Jesus. They don’t follow people or teachings or dogma. I have never heard the Watchman Nees et al claim who, or what they were involved in. They simply don’t care. They have been reduced down to their deep need of the Holy Spirit, and His ability to feed the church through whoever is available, whenever they are in need, wherever they are located.

I sound equally dogmatic. By believing we are actually "leading" other people, instead of God leading others through us, we perpetuate a systematic dependence on US and systems and experiences, and environments. We encourage people to believe and think and understand "Church" as this type of interaction, with mixed motives (usually tied to some advancement of a ministry or idea or teaching). And as they grow and develop, they pass on what they know. I have done this, I have seen it, and I hear about it almost all the time from almost every believer I know.

And the cool ones complain we are missing something. They see WHAT we are doing isn’t what they want or dream of, or what they got into this in the first place for. They claim the rug just isn’t what it should be, look like, etc... but they also don’t tend to stop and look under the rug. They aren’t willing to throw out the rug and sit on the hard floor and disinvest themselves. So they write books, make speeches, and start new ministries.

I read your blog. I love the way you write and say stuff. It is so eloquent. If I could write and speak like that, I would be so much more effective in so many ways (especially in business). But the thing that really keeps me back, retarded, and slouching around in my self indulgence isn’t how I communicate, but why and what. If I could write better, be more intense, more pointed like you, and if my motives and my thoughts and my payoff was misaligned, I would be an even more eloquent narcissist than I already am.

I think the church is constantly striving to be an eloquent narcissist. In fact the language and imagery God has used explaining it to me is so graphic I have only shared it with a few people. Lets just say most of what WE engage is primarily using HIM for self satisfaction. It is a pornographic form of spirituality that engages a false sense of intimacy that is so hyper stimulating and self indulgent that we are being slowly euthanized by the very thing we are trying to promote.

We Westerners somehow believe that once we can state the problem well, and talk it out, break it down into little pieces etc.. we will have addressed the issue. I say it is WHAT we believe the Church is, WHY the Church exisits (gathered and separate), and then eventually HOW we express it that is the real crux.

You are scratching the surface here. You see the problem. You are also one of the braver people that I know. I am curious where this is headed. I want to hear what you find out when you really look at it, and what God is telling you to do about it.

So far what He has told me is to "Learn to BE the Church before you GO to it". I have spent years detoxing. I am halfway through a painful process which I am not engaging very willfully at all of dying (started my last visit to KC) to a bunch of remnants of things that are keeping me from actually being a part of the solution. I believe I see part of the problem, but in my immense immaturity I cannot be part of the solution either. That has caused me great frustration and alienation. My own issues and baggage cloud my ability to Love as He loves, and encourage HER as HE wants to. I am stuck, and need to trudge forward. I am dry, and I think it is on purpose.