Why are these leaders so disconnected from their local churches? Executives and politicians are often distressed by the way churches are run. James Unruh, who served as the chief executive of Unisys, was also at one time an elder at his Presbyterian church in California. He has since decided he will never serve again. He couldn’t stand the inefficiency of church meetings, a common refrain among those I interviewed.
“It’s very frustrating to be patient and not to try to run things because that’s what you’re doing all day in your business,” Unruh told me. Others described local congregations as “inefficient,” “unproductive” and “focused on the wrong things.”
These factors are driving evangelical leaders into the arms of fellowship groups that exist outside the churches, often called “parachurch” organizations. The shift began in the 1950s, but it grew dramatically over the past 20 years as the parachurch sector became more professional and well-resourced. Nearly three-fourths of the leaders I interviewed serve on the board of at least one parachurch organization, such as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. They prefer these groups because they have a broader reach and a bigger impact.
David Grizzle, a senior executive with Continental Airlines, told me, “I’ve intentionally pulled back involvement at my local church level and focused more on activities of a broader scope. … I get to the same place, but through a different pathway.”
Pastors and religious leaders ”” not just among evangelicals, but also among liberal and mainline Protestants, Catholics and Jews ”” are concerned about these developments.
Just an observation: The “parachurch” associations with which I am familiar in the Northeast USA seem have been exclusively founded and populated by men. Settled church congregations, by contrast, seem still to be where women hold much, it not most, of the “sway” – even if the majority of the ordained clergy working for the congregations are male.
This is just sad. It just shows how much we, as Americans are more concerned about ourselves and our ‘religious experience’ than really doing anything for Christ.
Why do I recoil at church sometimes? It’s because they don’t appreciate ME, or don’t live up to MY standards, or don’t get where I’m coming from.
Seems to me that Church is supposed to be about Christ and how to serve Him – not how to best serve ourselves.
Sick and wrong.
Unrah’s comment is right on target based on what Barna has found in his polling on why the church doesn’t get successful men leaders into church leadership.
This article clearly states why I am involved with Kairos, a quintessential parachurch organization busily following the literal words of the Bible when it says go visit people in prison. It is much more effective than the church in that ministry, gets better bang for the buck in terms of administrative cost than any mainline church could hope to approach, and is far more affirming and Christian than any church I’ve ever seen.
Parachurch organizations are great. They do a lot of good and give folks a good chance to grow in ministry.
However, it is in the local Church that we actually live our lives and learn to love our neighbors as ourselves. Parish life is mundane, sometimes boring, and a royal pain often as not. Let’s admit it: driving an hour or two and spending a few hours intensely involved in a common task with like-minded people is a LOT more fun than arguing about the budget at a vestry meeting or fixing the plumbing in the kitchen. If the parachurch organization gets stale, you can move on. You have to live with those fools at the parish.
There is a potential for breadth in parachurch ministries, as noted, but parish life gives you a chance to go deeper as the years go by.
As often as not, parish life drives people away–on purpose. In my parish the clergy and vestry are so negative on having general involvement that they added to the bylaws that nobody may attend (not participate in–simply attend and listen) a vestry meeting without a personal invitation from vestry or clergy. Fairly often they meet off church property–so one cannot even stumble into the meeting. One waits months to see the meeting minutes. So, the annual meeting is a sterile exercise in electing a slate of nominees and the next time we hear from the “leadership” is at every member canvas when we are asked to fund the goals of a group we elected to represent us and which then denies us any way of knowing what they do.
What are they afraid of (as they surely are afraid)? I don’t know, but they guarantee that when they come asking for pledges to fund THEIR programs and goals–fewer and fewer respond. It doesn’t take a Fortune 500 CEO to understand that this is not a productive environment in which to invest time, effort or money. Our world is fluid and productive enough that myriad opportunities for real contribution and ministry do not rely on the inwardly turned parish and its restrictive and excluding methods.
Steven,
I can speak from the receiving end of such attitudes that you are right on.
When our church in Panama City, FL was planning on revamping the church hall and sunday school classrooms, it was by chance that we notice they planned OUT the nursery. “Oh, we needed a larger meeting space, and thought no one would mind not having a nursery”. When we brought this up to the rector, we noticed that the next ‘revision’ of the plans had re-incorporated a nursery, although smaller than previously drawn in.
Another incident a few weeks earlier:
We had taken our 1 year old into church for services and we were told — not too politely, either — that babies distract from worship, so use the nursery from then on! We also had a nice chapel to the right of the altar area, that was closed off during services by a folding partition. When we and three other parents with infants started using that for a ‘mothers room’ we were told — by the rector — that that area was off-limits during church services, and that we would have to use the nursery if we wanted to bring babies on Sundays.
third, a cranky old-bitty came up to us and told us “I’ve rasied my children, I don’t want to be around crying babies in church”, when we pointed out that she didn’t have any children, she refused to back down: “Children don’t belong in church!” We replied “Jesus said ‘suffer the little children and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven”. She just uttered an expletive and marched off.
And then at the parish meeting they wondered why the church was not attracting more families with young children. We told them, and then left that parish, a parish, I might add, where my wife was baptized and raised and in which we were married and our two children were also baptized.
LibraryJim,
This must have been a heart-breaking situation for you.
God bless you and the little ones whom you nurture.
Thanks, Selah. My wife felt quite betrayed and to this day (over 19 years later) is still skittish about getting involved with a parish church — even to the point of regular attendance! She says she doesn’t want to go through that kind of emotional torment again.
Sorry, that should read “Over 13 years later” not 19. I was thinking of my daughter who is 19 (actually, about to turn 20 next month! No! I can’t be that old!)
LJ – A room with a soundproof glass wall, such as we installed in the rear of our church, solved the problem.