Working Ideas

Church divisions are almost exclusively academic divisions. The reason I don’t understand my Lutheran neighbor is because a couple academics got into a fight hundreds of years ago. And the rest of the church followed them because, well, they were our leaders. So now we are divided under divisions caused by arguments a laboring leadership might never have noticed of cared about. Practitioners care about what works, what gets things done. They have to agree because there are projects on the line. Educators don’t have to agree at all. They can fight and debate and write papers against each other because, well, the product they are churning out is just thought, not action. - Donald Miller

These words were part of a blog post Donald Miller shared today. In essence, Miller was challenging what he perceived to be the status quo, that scholars are in control of the church today. He argued that this has caused numerous problems that would not have occurred had practitioners been in control. To this I offer both an "Amen!" and an "uhh?"  Without a doubt, academics who sit in their ivory towers of scholarship and pronounce judgement upon the church while never dirtying their hands are not who we need as our leaders. I agree that doctrine is fluid and must be adapted in the face of real-life ministry but also that ministry must be adapted in the face of truth.

I am a big fan of Miller's writings but perhaps he, like so many, saw an aspect of the church that has not been entirely beneficial and choose to throw the baby out with the bathwater. He argues that the Apostles were undereducated labors and that this sense of hard work empowered them to lead a revolutionary movement as opposed to merely argue about it (which they also did). Yet what we often forget was that while they were indeed labors, they were far from uneducated. Most Jews during this time, even if they failed to complete school, still the had the first five books of the Bible memorized. While some were fishermen, others were doctors and even Pharisees. In fact, as the book of Acts progresses, we see the twelve fade away and witness the largest surge of focus and growth coming from Paul, who was a leading scholar in his time. But here is the difference between what Miller is decrying and what the early church did. While they absolutely put an emphasis on educating themselves in the things of God, they also acted upon this knowledge. The answer for the church today is not to toss out scholarship but combine the practices of study and work.

I hardly would call myself a scholar, I spent nine years building docks on the coast of South Carolina, I been a bouncer at a bar, worked at a feed store, and now manage a restaurant, but despite my history of work, I have always benefited from the pursuit of knowledge. Not knowledge simply for the sake of knowledge but for the sake of refining my practices, so that my labor can be informed and productive.  Paul exemplified this balance of knowledge and work. He pondered the depths of what Christ's resurrection meant for us and in I Corinthians 15 he lays out a beautiful theological argument for this doctrine but he sums it all up in these words, "With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort." Paul understood that this theology fueled our work-ethic, that even if our good deeds seem meaningless, their will be a resurrection one day and then we see just how meaningful those deeds were.

So I say all this to challenge you and me to not forsake either our minds nor our hands (nor our hearts for that matter). For to do so leaves us with either a puffed up and crippled faith or uniformed, aimless works.  Neither is healthy. Instead we should think deeply on the mercies of God, having our minds transformed and consequently live sacrificed lives. Then perhaps we can begin to live in the unity that Miller and myself so deeply long for.

Its something to think about.