To Free The Beautiful Truth
Wow. I’m not really sure what’s happening here at Substack. For a while it was such a nice quiet little corner of nearly nothingness. I wasn’t an early user by any means, but in the short time I’ve been here it’s exploded with noise and probably corruption because of course the creators created the thing to make mucho bucks. I’ll probably end up back where I started in the beginning: Home. Give me a few minutes to get that organized and up to speed then maybe we can just head back there.
But I am sitting at my work table looking at Stratton Mountain and the trails, which still have snow, are glowing pink because the sun is just peeking over the horizon to the east in all its pinkorange glory.
It feels like that’s enough.
But I did want to sort through something here this morning, so let’s regroup, shall we?
Hi.
Um.
👋🏼🌊
English is very confusing, isn’t it?
So is this: I have been a pastor for ten years. Two different churches, but in the same geographic area, in the same church pod (denomination), in the same very tiny world we call Vermont.
Because I am not ordained I’m subject to a licensing process. Every. Single. Year.
I’ve been fishing around in my swiss cheese brain to find evidence of any other vocation that requires annual re-licensure, but I can’t think of one.
Maybe you can. Help!
I know dogs have to be licensed every year, though that also seems like a wonky concept, but I can’t think of any work that requires a person to answer the very same questions year after year and sit before a committee yearly, have them say, “we’ll get back to you on this,” and then have to wait to see if you’re allowed to continue to do the work you have been doing, in my case, as mentioned, for a decade now.
It’s demeaning. Also lacking in meaning. There is no substance to the process, no part of it that feels like it will help me do my job better. It’s a we do this because this is how we do this thing. It’s time consuming and, given that we’re operating within the ministry realm, it’s frustrating when I think about how it can and should be done better.
How about, for example, the licensing authorities show up, in person, and take stock of my situation in real life, in real time. Talk to folks, sit in on a Sunday gathering.
Call me crazy, but I’m willing to go out on a limb here and suggest that it’s stuff like this that’s killing churches, too. I know, the young ones aren’t coming and they never will; that’s part of it. But I think that now, with some history behind me, I can mention with a twee bit of authority that institutional entrenchment in processes, habits and behaviors that serve no one will erode, over time, the quality and energy of the establishment.
It reminds me of my teaching years when I had to jump through thirty-two flaming hoops to move from teaching in a private school to teaching in a public school. It was a lot of time-consuming nonsense, none of which was designed to make me a better teacher. I was a teacher; I had been teaching for seven years when I thought about making that transition. No, no, no, said the stern authorities guarding the doors to the public school classrooms, you must follow the rules. And what made it even more super fun was that the rules in every state were different.
How are things going for ya, public school?
I look around me at churches and the denominational organizations of authority, with all their committees and councils, their hoo ha with the magic wands and robes. I think back to my early days when so much of it made no sense to me. I remember becoming licensed the first time, sitting around the big table with all the pastors on the committee, many of them looking like they’d rather be napping than going through the process with me. It was like … yesterday you were not a pastor, but today we grant you the right to be a pastor, to offer communion and perform weddings and baptisms. You can now bestow these sacraments upon humanity!
Zing!
Funny, though, I didn’t feel any different.
I also never heard a word from anyone on that committee after that meeting.
Here’s the thing, yes, for certain there should be some sort of oversight in the world of churches, but I want to suggest that what it is, as it exists hasn’t worked very well for the past, oh, let’s just say many years. Pull away the top layer of religious righteousness and you’ll find the church world rife with every single kind of debauchery, criminal behavior and hypocrisy your mind can conjure before you’ve even finished your first cup this morning.
Give me a process any day that makes me better at what I do and I promise I will show up. I might even wash my hair that day! But subject me again and again to a bunch of meaningless, time-consuming these are the rules garbage and I will not only chafe, but I will probably eventually decide it’s time to leave. Broken systems break people.
Your ship is sinking, churchy authorities. And it’s on fire, too. And you want to know what books I read this past year?
You want to know my what goals are? OK!
My goals are
1) To liberate God from church.
2) To free the beautiful truth of everyone’s existence as a soul born of the love of Creator out from under the oppressive weight of organized religion.
I gotta get busy! Have a great day everyone!
xomo