Is Christianity a movement or an institution? Lessons from the Health Care Debate

[James Nored]

There has been much talk about those who have shown up to "tea parties" and town halls to protest government spending and the current health care bills. Principally, the question has been, is this a genuine grass roots movement? Or are these merely events manufactured by political groups.

I'm sure that there are elements of both. But for my part, I see people who have never gone to political functions going to them. I don't condone rude behavior, such as shouting people down, but the people I have seen speaking on the news seem to be very genuine in their concern. I am interested in going to a tea part or town hall myself to get a feel for people's moods first hand.

Bussing in protesters, whether from political groups or unions, would not be a genuine movement. But providing information on where to go? This kind of "organization" does not mean that there is not a genuine movement going on.

So now let's turn to Christianity. Certainly, it began as a movement. There was no massive "institution" organizing them, no manufacturing of responses. The movement was a Jesus movement, a spreading of the message and way of life of Jesus and the kingdom of God. As people heard about this Jesus and responded to him, they passed this on by word of mouth and in the public square. Their primary public spokespeople were passionate believers, willing to die for their faith. As these Jesus followers engaged in mission together, they naturally bonded, coming together to encourage one another, break bread, and pray.

In other words, the church was the result of the movement, not the other way around. When we start with Jesus, we get a church. When we start with a church, we miss Jesus. The faith becomes all about structure, organization, following the rules, and top down management.

So what are we today--a movement or an institution? Certainly, the church has largely become institutional--inflexible, bureaucratic, and hierarchical. Consider the following:
- A movement flows wherever the message needs to go. An institution says that you must go through "government forms" and a lot of hoops to do anything.
- A movement is innovative. An institution is primarily concerned about preservation of established ways of doing things.
- A movement has natural leaders who surface as the message is being spread. An institution requires a person to run for office and have an official title, designated by the institution.

Not convinced? Try changing your assembly times each week in response to the needs of the message or community. In many churches, try doing something religious (hold a Bible study, outreach, or worship) without getting approval. Try ditching Wednesday night service for Saturday night neighborhood outreaches. What would be the response?

So you tell me--is the church a movement or an instituion?

[Eric Asante Obeng]

The New testament Church . It is not an institution.The Lords church is a movement, that has a message , Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 1cor 15:1-6.The Leaders are choose by the local churches.e days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the wordActs1-7.the movement is this And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. matt28:18-20

[James Nored]

Bret, you are dead on. It is indeed the nature of movements to institutionalize in order to preserve the gains of the movement. Institutionalization gets rid of subtleties and ambiguities, as happened in the Restoration Movement, and lines are drawn in the sand.

There is no easy solution. But embedding flexibility in the DNA, as you indicate, is one safeguard.

[Bret Wells]

The reality is that it is very difficult to maintain a movement past the first or second generation. Movements naturally tend to institutionalize because of the desire to protect what has been accomplished or built. It did not take the restoration movement long to solidify and form institutional tendencies, and while I hope it won't be the case, I suspect that at least some of the church movements in the East and South will experience similar tendencies.

I think that perhaps what is needed is to actually allow movement and fluidity to be established as foundations of the institution. I have not been convinced by the simple church, anti-structure approach. Structure is not the problem, it is allowing the movement to be defined by structure that is problematic.

Our context is certainly more movement than institution, but even Christ Journey is already facing pressure - from within and without - to institutionalize. The hallmarks of institution - financial stability, clearly established leadership hierarchies, permanent facilities, well developed programs targeting specific groups - are also the hallmarks of success for the modern church. Therefore, there is pressure to achieve those things; many of which can actually hinder our ability to function as a movement of God's people in this community.

Some of the blessings of these hallmarks are that they cultivate feelings of security and stability as well as helping provide continuity. I think that part of our task in avoiding the temptation to leave behind our movement status is to develop markers for stability, security and continuity which are more true to our missional, mobile and movement characteristics.

[Jon Van Bruggen]

@ James. I totally agree. The cultural Christianity that is prevalent in some areas of North America is quite prohibitive to the movement of disciple-making in those areas because people already consider themselves disciples by the very fact that they merely go to church. This is certainly not a new observation but it makes me wonder how to "change the scorecard" (to use Reggie's terminology) when in the midst of a conversation with such people. What questions can we ask others and ourselves to monitor our discipleship?

[leatrice wilkinson]

If only we could come up with a formula convincing people that Christianity is a movement rather than an institution! Work on that James, please!

[James Nored]

Jon, great points. i am greatly encouraged by global Christianity, with the vibrancy of the "Global South."

i find it interesting--and disappointing--that you have found so many church planters focusing upon the church, rather than Jesus. Will this not by its very nature appeal primarily to Christians and non non-Christians? Imagine Christ-followers in the 1st century spreading the gospel of the church. Would not people have said, what? The church only makes sense with Jesus!

I like your sailing analogy. Sail on!

[Jon Van Bruggen]

Great post James. Certainly in the Western context the church has become very institutionalized. I can't say the same for the church in Latin America, Asia, and Africa (fortunately) and knowing some people who serve around the world I would dare say that from a global perspective the church is very much a movement.

That being said, many of the North American church planters I talk with are focused primarily on the church (structure, curriculum, management, etc.) as opposed to helping others follow Jesus (and then helping those new disciples do the same). So when a person treats church planting and disciple making as two separate processes I typically use a sailing metaphor. When sailing, our focus must be on the boat, the condition it's in, the direction of the wind, and where we're going. If we focus on the wake, our looking backwards might lead us to run off course or even run into the shore. As followers of Jesus, disciple-making is our boat. If we keep our focus on disciple-making, then we can be free to let the church emerge in our wake.