The religious feudal system

I have a burr in my saddle about something and it led me to thinking about the feudal system. As you probably know, this was one of the primary modes of economics and government in the Middle Ages in Western Europe, a thousand year period between the 5th and 16th century (which coincidentally is about the same time between the rise of Roman Catholicism and the start of the Protestant Reformation). One of the keys was the idea of fiefdoms in a feudal society, where small, quasi-independent local lords ruled over a fiefdom. They had their own castle or stronghold and their assigned peasants. Those peasants, as I understand it, like the lord were loyal in some way to the king of the land but their real loyalty was to the local lord. After all, he was the one they knew and who provided them with protection and to whom they provided service.

Each “local church” in fact if not in theory operates like a fiefdom. There is a king, Jesus Christ, that we pay homage to but our real concern is on our local fiefdom called the “local church”. We recognize other fiefdoms as more or less legitimate, i.e. other local churches, but because they are THAT church and not OUR church, because they have a different worship style or affiliate with a different denomination we stay clear of them. Sure there are people hurting or in need in other areas but our focus is on the people in our fiefdom. Let the lord, er pastor, of that fiefdom, um local church, take care of his own people. We have problems enough of our own to deal with. Thus we become focused on the issues and problems of our own little fiefdom even as we claim to recognize the universality of the church. Essentially we live our lives on our own plot of land and isolate ourselves from the greater Body of Christ.

Even the economic system works in a similar fashion. The “members” of the local church work the land and pay a portion to the pastor. The pastor in return provides them with doctrinal protection and services that they don’t want to do themselves, like visiting the sick and the widows. A feudal lord was granted his position because of lineage and power, a pastor is granted his position by his education and ordination. The medieval lord had a sword, the pastor has his pulpit. Peasants weren’t allowed to have swords lest they rise up against the lord, church members stay clear of the pulpit lest they wonder why they pay someone to do what they could do themselves.

On the other hand, you can go too far the other direction and make the Roman mistake of overemphasizing the link between interconnectedness and centralization of power. Medieval Rome had a virtual monopoly on Christianity and maintained that grip by any means necessary, even if that meant putting malcontents to death. Neither the neo-feudalism of the traditional church or the stifling authoritarianism of Rome represents the Biblical church.

The proper and I believe Biblical road is to see the Body of Christ for what it is, all of the redeemed everywhere and for all time. That means that in truth and not merely theory that the Presbyterian down the road and the Christian in Tanzania are members of the same church as you. They are not relegated to distant relatives because they are in a different “local church”. One of the things that has been hard for me to get used to is that different speakers each week at church. I have to say I am coming to enjoy it. I like that we have guys from other assemblies come and speak to us. It shows an interconnectedness that is missing from the fiefdom church model we are so used to. It is almost unthinkable to have a someone other than the pastor teach. If he leaves for vacation, he arranges "pulpit supply" from outside of the congregation. Why not do as the Bible teaches and disciple men in the local gathering to maturity so that they can also be part of the gathering of the church in a meaningful way? I have my own theory about that.


It is not a good thing when you can see parallels between Monthy Python and the local church. I am just saying.

Which one is the Lord's Supper?

We were running really late this morning and arrived just in time for the passing of the loaf and the little cups of grape juice. I was kind of relieved that we made it for the Lord's Supper. Then after the morning gathering, we hung around as the church and had lunch, breaking bread together and being in joyous fellowship.

Which one was the Lord's Supper as we see it in the Bible?

Who is teaching your kids?

An incident came to light recently at a nearby school that I think is instructive.

Just good clean fun, blowing steam after a year of dealing with other people’s kids!

MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP — A police report that details an evening of troubling incidents among a group of Haslett Public Schools teachers involving drug use and “drunk shaming” is prompting questions about the teachers’ behavior and institutional accountability in this suburban community near East Lansing.

The police report addresses a number of incidents that took place at an end-of-year party hosted in 2007 by a Haslett teacher and attended by several other teachers from the district. The police report was provided to Michigan Messenger by one of those teachers, Veronica Piechotte, who says she was victimized by her colleagues that evening and that neither the Haslett school administration nor the legal system had acted on her complaints until Michigan Messenger began its inquiry.

According to the account Piechotte gave police the day after the incident, on the last day of school in 2007, Piechotte and five other Haslett school teachers, Lauri Etheridge, Timothy Beebe, Brian Town, Daniel McKinney and Heather Woodworth, joined their colleagues at an East Lansing bar to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation. As the party moved from the bar to McKinney’s house, things took a turn for the worse. The people involved dispute some of what happened during the evening, but each of them spoke with police at the time, providing a contemporaneous, first-hand account.

According to the police report, Etheridge, Town, Piechotte and Woodworth stopped at Town’s home on the way to McKinney’s house, which is a short distance from the school. There, according to the report, they decided to smoke marijuana and Town produced and provided the drug for the three women, who went to the garage to smoke it. The teachers then continued on to McKinney’s house.

Later that night, after more alcohol consumption by all involved, Piechotte crawled between a coffee table and a sofa in McKinney’s living room. There she passed out

According to the report, Town and Beebe decided it would be “funny” to draw on Piechotte’s unconscious body. …Much of the writing was sexual and crude. McKinney and his wife, as well as Etheridge and staff member Phil Rutkowski, watched the drawing. McKinney took pictures with his digital camera, and at least one person took pictures with a cell phone.

(Please note that the article cited contains a number of graphic depictions, so read the whole thing at your discretion.)

As you might expect, the school district sprang into action when they found out that they had pot smoking teachers engaged in this sort of activity. Or not…

While criminal charges were never filed in this case, Haslett school officials — according to police records, emails and other documents provided by Piechotte and an interview with Superintendent Mike Duda — were aware of the incident and took little if any action in response to it until Michigan Messenger started examining the case.

Sure it is off campus and outside of the school year and perhaps legally there is not much they could do about it. Nevertheless, this is another example among the many of the mixed bag of people you get in the public schools. That is true of every industry. There are bad people in banking, in veterinarians offices, in garbage companies. The difference is that you don’t turn your kids over to those people to raise for most of the day. You do turn them over to the public schools and I guess you are left with hoping your kid makes it through school without being taught by drug users and imbeciles.

You might raise your hand here and say, not in my school! We have a “good” school. Really?

According to Wikipedia (and I have no reason to doubt these stats), Haslett has a median family income of $69,806. Not exactly an impoverished area. Also from Wikipedia:

Haslett was named 42nd best place to raise your kids in America by BusinessWeek in 2007. It was rated this based on five factors: math and reading test scores; cost of living; recreational and cultural activities; number of schools; and risk of crime.

In other words, this is a “good” school. Kids aren’t getting shot. Lots of kids go to college. You could do far worse than to send your kids here. Haslett is a very nice community with excellent schools. Yet in this school, five teachers decided to “celebrate” the end of the school year by getting drunk, stoned, one to the point of passing out followed by juvenile antics.

Now I recognize that there are tons of great people teaching in public schools. There are Christians who devoutly believe in our Savior. There are plenty of teachers who celebrate the end of the school year in ways that don’t involve marijuana. On the other hand, there are apparently many that do. I don’t think this is normal or accepted among teachers but how many of us really know? My point is not that all public school teachers, or even most, are drug users and sophomoric.

Here is the thing. You really don’t know. You might get the fine, upstanding perhaps even Christian teacher. Or you might get one of these knuckleheads. You have virtually no say in the matter. You don’t interview and hire or even get a chance to talk to most teachers before they are hired by your school system.

Are you sure you want to roll the dice with your kids? Maybe they get the good teacher. Maybe the get the one who just happens to have some weed at his house in case of a party emergency. Maybe you have no idea from a five minute teachers conference which one is which?

Think about it.

Dave Black on leadership

From Dave Black Online (Friday 10/23 8:08 AM) :

Since ministry is a matter of function and not of status, we would do well to allow various gifted teachers to do the formal teaching in our churches. If I understand Eph. 4:11-12 correctly, all pastors are to be teachers, but not all teachers are necessarily pastors. A good spiritual leader, as I have said before, delights in setting people free to use their gifts for the good of the Body. This means that the regular pastor-teacher may have to yield to other gifted teachers. You say, "But they can't teach as well as I can." All the more reason to allow them an opportunity to hone their skills in the crucible of teaching. According to 1 Tim. 3:2, all elders are to have the gift of teaching, and it would be very healthy to allow them to share the burden. Members of your congregation may well be shocked to find their regular pastor-teacher sitting down while another gifted teacher gives the formal instruction that day, but what a message that would send about every-member ministry. It is unfortunately so radical a concept that it may take time to become accepted. I was delighted to see in our congregation a gifted teacher in our church filling the pulpit when our pastor was away recently. How glad I was that we didn't go outside our Body and bring in a guest speaker. There was no need for it; we have several excellent teachers in our midst.

Amen to that. That picture of leadership is something we should seek and pray for.

Feminism equals unhappy women

Read this essay from Albert Mohler. I think the truth is inescapable here, women were sold a mess of pottage in "feminism" which has led to a generation of "liberated" and miserable women and we all, men, women and especially children, are paying the bill for the lie sold to women. Feminism hasn't improved the lives of women, it has made them unhappier and more stressed out. 30 years of feminism has left America unhappier, more unstable and more confused than ever.

Thanks Gloria Steinem!

The Gospel is not behavior modification

joshgelatt.com: Parents Beware: This will kill your children

Great quote I am lifting from Josh Gelatt's blog (that he lifted from somewhere else!)

"Moralism – - the idea that we merit God’s favor by being good – - is the deadly enemy of Christian parenting. Moralism trusts in its own goodness, virtue, and principled intentions to get a “not guilty” verdict from God on the day of judgment. It is deceptive. A cloak of morality over an unregenerate heart can make it difficult to discern the child’s true spiritual condition." William P. Farley

What do you get for $1.8 trillion?

Virtually nothing!

Multi-Site Churches taken to their logical extreme

Michael McKinley at the 9 Marks blog, Church Matters, asks if the rise of multi-site churches doesn't lead to just playing a recording of someone reciting Jonathan Edwards sermons for the gathering of the church instead of a live preacher.

Well, why not?

I think this is a great idea!

If the purpose and pinnacle of the gathering of the church is for the people to hear one man give a sermon, then why shouldn’t we just listen to the very best men via teleconference or even recording? We hear all the time that the problem with the church is that we need more and better expository preaching. With all love to my friends who preach and in full recognition of my own limitations in preaching, I would say that you get a much better expository sermon from Piper or MacArthur than you get from virtually any senior pastor in any local church in America. If the goal is to hear a solid, expository sermon why not get the best sermon you can get? Better yet. What if you broadcast Bob Kauflin every Sunday morning on a tape delay “leading the worship”? What is the difference between Bob on video and a guy up front telling you what songs to sing? Bob is going to give you a “better”, more polished and professional song leadership. The accompaniment will be on key, the singing will be perfect, the songs will be properly vetted. How about we film Ligon Duncan praying and reciting 1 Corinthians 11 over a huge pile of oyster crackers and pallets of grape juice? Then we could ship portions out to churches observing the Supper that week and splice in the footage of Duncan blessing it prior to passing around the platters.

For most Christians in traditional churches on a Sunday morning, they are primarily sitting and watching. Does it really matter if they are watching a guy in-person on stage or Mark Dever on a video feed? I think taking the traditional model of evangelical church life to a logical extreme, why not do this? Just think, we could take up the offering and put it into the bank and then the central church could sweep the money into one big account and distribute it. That is how mormons do it. Instead of squabbling about carpet colors at the local level, let a regional super senior pastor figure it out. For those of us who are Reformed, we could break it down regionally. Albert Mohler could get the south, MacArthur everything west of the Mississippi, Piper the Midwest and Northeast and Dever could run the east coast. We could appoint under-under shepherds in smaller areas, Steve Lawson in Alabama, Kevin DeYoung in Michigan, etc. No more boring, wandering sermons. No more butchering of “A Mighty Fortress is our God”.

I think this idea has real promise.

Excellent conversation at Evangel

Rapidly becoming a "must read" on the blogosphere. Check out this conversation about the "culture war" and the Gospel. Excellent thoughts and stimulating conversation.

The church is not Outback Steakhouse

I have been wondering about the topics I tend to blog on. I often focus on behavioral issues, Christian life issues like homeschooling or headcovering. I have noticed that there seems to be a backlash against this of sorts and it is not without cause. There are way too many people who are nitpicky, whether it is over issues like the King James translation of the Bible as the only acceptable translations or who is able to label themselves “Reformed” or any of a myriad of extra-Biblical traditions that have taken on the gravity of binding commandments. Give this reality, perhaps we should just focus on the Gospel proclamation and not worry about the ancillary issues. Rules divide so let’s stay clear of them.

Perhaps not.

Again, I understand the motivation for this attitude and have no small amount of sympathy for it. It is something of a badge of honor and piety to claim that you are focused only on the Gospel and not bogged down in minutiae. On the other hand, an awful lot of the pages of the New Testament are taken up with the issue of how we are to live as Christians, as individuals, families, the gathering of the church and with unbelievers around us. Much of the Old Testament revolves around the character of God and that doesn’t change nor can we as believers live as if it has. I worry when people dismiss clear Scriptural teaching, whether under the auspices of not being “legalistic” or in a pseudo-pious, “I focus on nothing but the Gospel” attitude. All of those pages of instruction in the Bible are not merely filler around John 3:16 but serve a vital purpose in guiding Christians in their life after being born again, navigating the tricky waters of living as Christians in a lost and fallen world, and living as redeemed sinners in community with other redeemed sinners.

The problem stems from being unable (or unwilling) to differentiate between commands and rules we find in the Bible. They are treated as one category and are treated as if they were identical. In a snap shot, I find the following categories in Scripture: Old Covenant commandments (like temple sacrifice, purity laws, tithing); Biblical revelations regarding the nature of God that are obviously unchanging (the Ten Commandments); New Covenant commandments (proclaim the Gospel, gather together, love one another); descriptions of events that are not prescriptive in nature. As an example, the New Covenant Christian has no need to sacrifice in the temple. A New Covenant Christian is obliged to have no other gods before the one, true God. We are to gather together as a non-negotiable command, to love one another and our neighbor, to preach the Gospel, to care for the poor and a myriad of other commandments by which we demonstrate our love for Christ (If you love Me, keep My commandments). The view that once you become a Christian, you don’t have any rules is great for Outback Steakhouse (No rules, just right) but it is eminently unbiblical. We are under grace, not the Law but the truly redeemed believer doesn’t live as if there is no Law.

I also don’t buy into the “if you are convicted” argument. We cannot look at commandments and pick and choose the ones we wish to follow based on our own personal convictions. “Well, I know the Bible says stealing is wrong but I am not convicted about it”. That is clearly silly but it is the basic argument I hear all the time. If the Bible gives us a clear command or principle, I don’t see not “being convicted” about it as an excuse we can find anywhere in the Bible. “I know the Bible says we are to love our neighbors, but I am just not convicted about this issue”. Really? Not being convicted is code for “I recognize what the Bible says but for whatever reason I don’t want to obey”. If I claim, as I do, that the Bible specifically says that a woman should cover her head when praying I am either right or wrong on that issue. Either I am interpreting 1 Corinthians 11: 2-15 correctly or I am not. Your personal conviction or mine is irrelevant here. Where I fail to love my brother as I should, and I do fail here, I recognize my failure and repent of it; I don’t hide behind a lack of conviction to excuse it. Commands in the Bible deserve our attention and consideration.

Conversely, there are many Christians who have the opposite problem. They don’t find enough rules in the New Testament to satisfy them so they start making up rules (KJV Onlyism, no card playing) or misapplying Old Testament rules by ignoring context and applying them to the church. Or in some cases, they think that applying moralistic rules to people will somehow sanctify an unbeliever or make a non-Christian at least act superficially like a Christian (the “make America a Christian nation again” crowd). This tends to appears in the fringe fundamentalist camp like the nutcase burning Rick Warren books and non-KJV Bible in North Carolina to make a point. If the point he is trying to make is “I am a loon”, then mission accomplished. There are two problems with this camp. The first is that they are making rules and yoking believers with those rules that are inapplicable or entirely absent from the Bible. The second is that they often are misapplying or flat out ignoring the rules that do appear in the Scriptures. Until we can get ourselves straightened out on the clear teachings of the New Testament within the Body of Christ, we should avoid trying to “Christianize” America.

What we are left with is an either-or dichotomy where you either keep every rule you can find in the Bible without a shred of context and perhaps even making up some up or you chuck the whole thing and base your actions on your own conscience and convictions.

There are some general things we should remember when it comes to rules and commandments.

Read the Bible at all times and in all places in light of the cross.

It is true in many cases that Old Testament laws don’t apply to Christians because those laws find their fulfillment in the cross, in the person and work of Jesus Christ. I find laws like Sabbath observation, tithing, etc. to be abrogated under the New Covenant. But there are also important principles that I think still apply to believers because they are reflective of the nature of God and His Word. Even if we are not called to a specific, 1/10th tithe that does not mean that we are freed from giving joyfully and sacrificially to those in need and to support the Gospel proclamation. We are not bound by Sabbath laws and rules about purification but that doesn’t mean we are freed from sanctified lives or from the need and command to gather together as the people of God. In many cases, the standard for the Christian under the New Covenant is higher than for those under the Old. For the truly regenerate, these rules and laws and commandments are not a heavy burden, they are a delight.

Don’t yoke believers under burdensome laws where Scripture is silent but also do not be silent where Scripture speaks.

Where the Bible speaks, let it speak. Don’t argue with it, don’t try to explain it away. The New Testament has a lot to say about how we are to live, worship, behave in these days after the cross. We should diligently seek to hear what Christ has to say in His Word, not striving to find a work around to avoid obedience. Trying to muzzle the Bible is neither pious nor proper. But where the Bible is silent, don’t feel obliged or justified in filling in the blanks.

Sanctification is our goal, not moralism.

Sanctification cannot be mandated or legislated. Sure you can make people adhere to laws to promote moralism without changing the heart. That however is not the goal of the church. A truly sanctified individual will exhibit high moral character without coercion. External piety is actually pretty easy for humans to exhibit, heart change comes only through the working of the Spirit and we cannot dictate to Him where and how He operates.

Don’t let the motivation or behavior of some dissuade you from following God’s Word.

I try to be aware of this in my own life as I have the tendency to see certain behaviors as dividers. Homeschooling our kids or my wife covering her head should be done to honor God and bring glory to His name, not to exalt ourselves over others. I stray over that line frequently but my failings are not God’s failings, and the behavior of some does not negate the commandments of God. Me being rude or someone else being judgmental about an issue is not a license to ignore what Scripture says.

In the life of the Christian, our regeneration / conversion is not the end of the story. It is in many ways the beginning. A thirty year old who comes to a saving faith in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the Gospel has perhaps six decades of life ahead of them. How a redeemed sinner is to live in relationship to the world around him and among God’s people is not some ancillary topic and it is something where confusion and misinformation abound. We should carefully and prayerfully search the Word to see what it has to say about our lives.

We shouldn’t expect pagans to act like Christians, we should expect them to act like pagans. As intramural questions among Christians though, we can and should spend time asking how we should now live as the Body of Christ in a way that is faithful, sanctifying and glorifying to Christ. We are given rules and commandments not as a burden but as a blessing.

Latest mormon missionary report

a very brief report on last night's mormon visitors at the Fo-Mo Chronicles.

FYI, Acts 6: 4 is not about you

Great treatment by Alan Knox on Acts 6:1-4 which is often used to defend ministers spending half of their work week in their offices preparing a 40 minute sermon.

Prayer and the ministry of the Word