In a recent interview at a church for a position as a worship leader, I encountered a most surprising question. Before I dive into the details, let me preface the story with this disclaimer: I am a pretty conservative, libertarian-leaning, tea party-ish, Bible-thumping guy. I know where I stand on the "sensitive" issues and am not afraid of stating my opinion or standing my ground when it comes to defending what I believe to be true. But those are not the real problems in my view. Within the context of this Blog, I would like to address the ugliness that goes beyond the right or wrong of these issues: The type of prejudice, biggoted behavior that I will for now label: Churchiness 2.0.
It begins when I sit down for the interview with the “quarum of twelve”--the search comittee. They each had an itemized list ofinterview questions to ask at each turn. We spent the first few minutes bantering back and forth with trivial conversation, discussing favorite movies, music, weather, sports, etc. By the time we were finished with the small talk, they felt like I was one of them . . . a good thing if I were going to be “working along side each other in a unified effort to build God's kingdom”(notice the churchy lingo).
The first questions were pretty typical--family, hobbies, musical experience, resume' stuff--but what came next really caught me off guard. We were laughing together like old friends who had been apart for a very long time . . . as if we were just catching up with each other and I was filling them all in on my adventures while I was away. Suddenly, in a very chummy way, a man who appeared to be in his upper 50s (we will call him Captain Churchy to protect the innocent) belted out the next question in a jovial laugh: "ha ha ha....Soooo…. how do you feel about the Gays?"
My face dropped. The room was awkwardly silent. I was wondering to myself if he had actually said that. I replied in a sort of matter-of-fact way, "You mean homosexuality?"
The feel good vibe suddenly left the room as Captain Churchy fumbled for his paper, and in a stuttering voice said, "maybe I just better read off the paper."
He read, "Within the context of leadership, where do you stand on _____________." Now that is a much different question. In fact, that question is a very valid one. The list that he gave--abortion, drinking, gambling, premarital sex, and homosexuality--were the typical, uncomfortable hot topics of churchiness, but they are valid topics and deserve thoughtful answers. These are exactly the types of issues that are used to divide, not unite modern Christians, and are often thrown about in a ‘one size fits all’ type of ways--the truth being that there are a lot of different views on these topics within the church body.
In reply, I simply said that I felt like as leaders in the Church we should be examples of Christ-like behavior--an answer that I thought was both biblical and reasonable. But not to Captain Churchy. He was not satisfied at all. I knew what he was looking for, but I was not about to give him the satisfaction.
Captain Churchy snorted, "But what is your position on each of these issues?"
I replied, "I believe that it is not our job to police other peoples behavior, but to guide them on how to live in Christ. I think that as they grow in Christ, sinful behavior will become less of a focus and the Holy Spirit will convict them of the behavior they need to change." I quoted Dallas Willard from an article he had written saying that "living in Christ should consume us in such a way that anything else just isn't interesting."
The tone of the rest of the interview became cold and very matter-of-fact. So far I have not been offerred the job.
It is precisely this kind of Churchiness that kept me away for 20 years. It was only after I found a Church that was willing to accept the sinner and guide him in his growth in Christ, that I made a real fundamental change in my life. Isn't that what Jesus did? Didn't he go hang out with the outcasts of society, walk with them, guide them, LOVE them? Shouldn't our charge in the "Great Commission" be handled the same way?
Who invented this Churchiness as a template for making disciples? I certainly don't find it in the Bible, don’t see it in the Jesus I have come to know, and don’t feel it when confronted with broken people, only a hope that somehow we can start to go beyond Churchiness in our lives and relationships, and start to GET REAL with the God who created us.
S & S
