Pastor WALL-E

The movie WALL-E came out a few years ago and was kind of a surprise hit. The movie featured as its main character a little robot that didn't talk for the most part. It reminded me in that way of Castaway with Tom Hanks where his co-star was a volleyball. It was kind of eco-preachy but it was a cute movie. Anyhoo....What got me thinking about WALL-E was a comment on a prior post and how WALL-E and the humans in the movie reminded me of pastors and laity in the traditional church.

Humans in WALL-E were depicted as fat and lazy, distracted by entertainment and unable to even stand on their feet because they were so used to machines doing the work for them. Robots like WALL-E cleaned up, made food, took care of children, everything. Human beings did nothing more than sit in floating chaise lounges and eventually after generations of this their muscles atrophied to the point of being unable to even support their prodigious weight. If one fell out of his hover chair, he rolled around helplessly until a robot picked them back up and put them back in their floating chair.

Near the end of the movie, the humans realize what has happened to them and start to stand up. Once they do, they remembered that they were capable of doing more than sitting around being served. It is harder and sometimes messier, but infinitely more rewarding. They are scared at first and it is a little chaotic, but it turns out to be a happy ending as the humans start to clean up the mess left behind after years of neglect left to a handful of overworked robots.

You might be wondering: Nice little summary of the movie. So what does that have to do with the church?

The laity in the church is not expected nor welcome to do much more than shuffle in, sit down, stand when told, sing when told, sit back down and then shuffle out after an obligatory handshake. Year after year this is what happens, generation after generation, and like the humans in WALL-E, the spiritual muscles have atrophied, the brains have turned to mush and many of us are at the point where we are not only not willing but not able to do much else but fill space in a pew and fill lines out on a check. Most of the church doesn't know that they can and should do more because the idea of "church" is so entrenched in the culture and tradition that any other model seems scary, inconvenient and weird. Meanwhile more and more of the burden falls on Pastor WALL-E.

My purpose in poking a stick in the institutional church hornets nest is simple. I am trying to tip some of the floating chaise lounges over. I am confident that if someone gets knocked out of their comfy chair, it may bruise them a bit, hurt their pride and they might be unsteady on their feet for a while but eventually their spiritual muscles will strengthen and they will be able and excited to contribute without embarrassing themselves.

WALL-E was the last robot of his kind. The rest broke down from the sheer magnitude of the work they were expected to take on. What happens to the body of Christ when the Pastor WALL-E breaks down? Your pastor is a lot like WALL-E. He is a hardworking little fella, but years of carrying the burden all by himself have taken its toll. Instead of spraying him with a little WD-40, patting him on the head and sending him back out to work, why don't you tell him you will shoulder some of the work. He might have to spend some time showing you how but that is OK. After all, that is why Christ gave us WALL-E, er, pastors: to equip the entire Body for the work of ministry, not to do ministry for us while we watch.

(I was going to make an analogy between the autopilot "Auto" and some in ministry who insist on keeping control, but I thought that was taking the analogy a little too far)