Deep Churchonomy

I'm thinking still of the issue(s) I wrote about in my last post, which have become linked to the book I just finished reading yesterday, Deep Economy, which I also posted about recently. This book has me thinking a lot, and it's no wonder that the two have become connected.

In yesterday's entry, I wrote about the proliferation of programs in the church, questioning if everything a church gets itself into is a move of God. At one point I suggested some of these programs are a result of "a 'fad' which dictates effective churches do this, this and this." The key word here is "effective" and helped me connect this phenomena with the book.

Bill McKibben, Deep Economy's author, repeatedly brings up how the movement towards efficiency in every area of our modern life has been taken to extremes, creating very vulnerable centralized systems for everything from energy to agriculture. This is increasingly jeopardizing us as both a nation and a race, and this endangerment includes our entire planet.

But what I'm getting at here is that this cult of efficiency has sunk deeply into the way we approach everything - even our religion. As a Christian, I have repeatedly heard the message that we cannot substitute faith for systemology. And yet churches everywhere are filled with topical "how-to" sermons to improve every aspect of our lives. The "biblical approach to anger management" or "how would Jesus improve his marriage?" or "10 ways to be a better Christian." Sound far-fetched? Then you haven't been in your local Christian bookstore lately. (How about the New York Times #1 bestseller, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential by Joel Osteen, pastor of a mega-mega-church in Houston. You may be interested to know that the book has spawned a board game, (amusing review here), in case your family wants some inspirational playtime after praying for more stuff in accordance with the book's prosperity theology-based advice.)

What exactly is efficiency anyway? The definition doesn't sound harmful at all:
1. the state or quality of being efficient; competency in performance.
2. accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort.

So where's the problem with adhering to the goal of being as efficient as possible? Well, in the world it's led to things like agribusiness, with one person overseeing thousands of acres, making barely any money, using pesticides, depleting the soil of nutrients, driving costs so low that the market has squeezed out nearly all competition and provided for monopolies, and given birth to the scarily easy risk of terrorist attack to our food supply... just to name a few.

In the church, efficiency leads to focusing more on marketing programs than on evangelism (and as someone who works in a marketing department, I constantly fight the inclination to creatively package whatever message I'm currently involved with), to replacing discipleship with "growth classes," to structuring the church along business models, to maximizing attendee comfort and minimizing the radicalness of Christian theology - watering down messages, removing any intimidating religious symbols, handing out fill-in-the-blank sermon notes.

Lest I begin to sound like an old-timer who wants uncomfortable pews and traditional dress standards back in the church, let me assure you I enjoy sitting at a small table in my jeans on Sunday mornings. My point is that it's difficult enough for most people to learn to follow the Jesus in the Bible without stripping away the real teachings of Christ that are the only way to get them there in the first place.

Remember, part of the definition of efficiency is "to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort." Commendable when you need to make 350 lunches on a Friday night, but even that's only up to a certain point. Consider the fact that Michelle Marks, the Assistant Director of Food For Thought, has continually needed to find new ways to either add more work or "slow down" the process of making lunches to accommodate all the volunteers that show up Friday nights, since the goal of Friday nights is less about production and more about community. If the mantra for Friday nights was "More, Faster" it could definitely be accomplished, but at the expense of people feeling connected to each other and to something bigger than themselves.

Efficiency taken to its end result is creating a giant mob of insulated individuals - who have no identity. Cogs in a machine churning out bland expressions of shallow, uniform faith. We would never consciously choose this for ourselves, but this is the sum of our choices. And the problem is often that we don't make conscious choices - routines, advertising, our own addiction to efficiency and convenience, and the fact that the list of alternatives is usually pretty darn short have us programed to "go with the flow." It's incredibly hard work to make intentional choices that are contrary to the norm. I know this first-hand. But the payoff is real freedom, yet also being part of a meaningful community. Knowing that you matter to the people around you, that the way you live your life is making a positive impact on the world.

Efficiency is great if it leads to excellence and paves the roads that connect us to each other. But it should be used in moderation, as it is only a tool and not a god. I prefer to worship the G-d who knows me and invites me to know Him; the G-d of relationships, not a god of systems and programs.