Tuesday, April 10, 2007

"They" smell like sheep...

Lynn Anderson wrote a book called They Smell Like Sheep about effective leadership strategies in the contemporary church. The title is provocative, and brings to mind an attitude that I get concerned about among seminarians and others.

It seems like everyone who labors within the church for more than a little while-- and by labors I mean above and beyond the average volunteer level-- gets to the point where they think everything the church does is off-track, ingrown, distracted by stupid debates, or simply ineffective. And frankly, these are often fair critiques of churches, locally and denominationally.

What bothers me about this is two-fold: first, it is problematic in its "all-or-nothing" categorization. R.C. Sproul drew a helpful distinction between "total depravity"-- where everything is touched and affected by our sin-- and "utter depravity"-- where everything is completely sinful. Orthodoxy has always rejected utter depravity while upholding total depravity. I would challenge these who are down on the church to similarly reject a view of the "utter fallenness" of the church: no church does everything wrong.

The other thing that bothers me is the distinctive "they" language about the problems in the church. Hey, aren't you a Christian too? Aren't you a member of one of those churches you're running down? Talking with a pastor friend one day, I was commiserating with him about some difficulties he was having with some in his congregation. I borrowed Anderson's title, saying, "Yeah, they smell like sheep, don't they?" His response was humbling: "yep, and I can't tell who stinks worse-- them or me!"

Friends, wait for the Bride. If Christ loved HIs church enough to die for us, we can love her enough to be patient as she struggles with sanctification. Wait for the Bride.