My Lovers' Quarrel

2024.  A new year.  We aim for change, but the reality is it’s hard to accomplish.

40 years ago, I started working in the institutional church.  I began as an eager and naive participant. Then experience and reflection caused me to question my assumptions.  I sought new insights and perspectives, which in turn led me to advocate for change.  It’s a relationship in which I have remained engaged for 40 years, working in various positions as an ‘intrapreneur’ attempting to inspire and lead change.  However, it’s not been an easy relationship. In fact I have had an ongoing “lover’s quarrel” with the institutional church.

I write this on January 1, 2024.  A day for contemplating change.  As I started with some reflection time, I read from a meditation I frequently use. The Lectio 365 reflection for this New Years Day ended up reigniting my lover’s quarrel.  Lectio's choice of words to characterize what mission advance means, elevated the ‘full time’ Christian worker, and by default undermined the majority of those who comprise the church.  It was inadvertent, I am sure.  But that’s a symptom of institutionalization, and the reason for my quarrel with it.  The institutional structure depends on the elevation and prioritization of certain roles & gifts because without them it could not sustain its purpose as an institution, nor it’s funding.  Its recruitment, training, and polity by default advance the class of people that are required to sustain the system.  This perpetuates a cycle of self preservation.  I have discovered as an internal change-agent that although this institutional system has the ability to change itself, its very existence is threatened by the change it seeks/needs.  A paralyzing irony.

Transitioning to the often-cited models espousing less structure and reduced dependence on a clergy class, so as to become a more scattered, organic and neighbourhood/marketplace model of existence, is often endorsed in the rhetoric and even strategic initiatives of church institutions.  However, this frequently falls flat during any attempt at execution.  Change is hard.  Execution is harder.  In the past 10 years I’ve led 3 change initiatives, all endorsed and funded by my denomination, that have either been closed or reduced to token, status-quo existence because of the relentless pressures of institutional thinking and demands.

I am not anti-institution, but I have a quarrel with it.  I stayed in it for 40 years advocating for and leading change until recently when I was released due to institutional budget pressures.  I still have hope that the church-as-institution might be courageous enough to change itself.  Where that isn’t feasible, at least be a sponsor/incubator of initiatives that eventually live and grow external to it.  In other words, be magnanimous and empower/cheer on what it can’t accomplish.  However, I no longer think that is possible for my denomination, nor for others. Whatever is now being birthed that is truly new and able to engage culture as effective Kingdom ambassadors, is for the most part coming from outside the institution of the church.  They are often small and scattered initiatives.  Most likely they will never gain the size, status or collective energy typical of the institution.  There is a part of me that wishes they could.  But then I suspect they would suffer the fate of the very institutions they were trying to influence and reform.

This is an historic tug of war.  A pattern that I believe is a divine check and balance to save the church from itself.  

The 5 core APEST gifts (see endnote) that are meant to simultaneously energize the church and keep it in dynamic tension, too often fall prey to their own competing values.  Rarely are they able to perform together in their natural state of tension.  Our humanity ensures that stalemate. Human nature leads us to prefer stability, captured in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  It’s how our brains work – which is why it is hard to change in the first place.  Logically then it’s how we work in collective community, such as in politics, clubs, associations and of course, the church.  Once we have established a measure of personal or collective stability, our preference is to remain there – whether it works for us or not! But change and growth comes from tension.  That tension in the institutional church’s context is the push-pull, the in-out breathing rhythm of the APEST gifts.  Their interplay is necessary to ensure a Christian community retains and displays the dynamic necessary to ensure true impact.  This isn’t happening.  Safety, security, and tolerance for incremental change dominates the institutional church psyche and strategy.

Here is where I part ways with many of my peers.  The church as we know it is not the hope of the world. Christ, the dynamic of that community, is the Hope of the world.  Let’s not confuse the institution of the church with the Community of Christ as some do.  They are not intrinsically identical.

I repeat - The church as institution is not the hope of the world.  Christ is.  Christ living and working through His people is the basis for how we are to organize and act.  The challenge has been, and is, that the institutional needs of the church really drive their agendas for change.  Choices around strategy, personnel or budgets are made in reference to its long-term survival or viability.  Let’s just be real here: rarely is a decision made that fundamentally re-shapes the posture and structure of the church, because its hard for insiders to be change-makers due to the existential threat to their own role, status and employment.  The usual outcome of a ‘what’s next’ vision discussion is a tweak that is trumpeted as innovation.  Tweaks can be communicated with bold rhetoric.  If a bold strategy is launched, I have seen how the cost is often experienced as too heavy to sustain.  The attempt withers.  The system is sustained.

My conclusion is that the church as institution won’t change to the extent needed for significant, relevant impact on this current world because it is incapable.  To reorganize away from institution to be a collective community of ambassadors of Christ, each empowered to build the Kingdom of God, is too threatening to existing livelihoods, missiology and ecclesiology.  As has been the case through history, change happens predominantly outside the institutional form. Some change agents may remain connected as though in orbit – still within the gravitational pull of the institution.  I’ve taken that route so far.  Others leave the pull of institutional gravity entirely.

I have my point of view.  You’ve read it here and in other of my blogs.  Yet the great hope I hold is that Christ works in and through all our imperfect organizational creations.  I truly wish the institutional system could change.  I dedicated the bulk of my career to that end.  I have seen some advances but also many disappointments.  My hope for its’ transmogrification is significantly diminished.  However, my hope lies in the universal Christ who is working through His community all around this world.  Those change agents/ambassadors are inside and outside the institution of the church.  Christ is ensuring that His ways are being advanced to bless and to change individuals and communities around the world.

So, let’s keep living and acting in hope.

Harv

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APEST = Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher.  Based on Ephesians 4 and popularized as a framework by Alan Hirsch in his book The Forgotten Ways.

Advent and Starfish

The in between.

Irrespective of our faith, humans often live in an ‘advent space’, anticipating the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event. For Christians around the world, now is the season of Advent. They remember the first coming (advent) of Christ, and remind themselves that they live in the ‘in between’ of that first event and Christ’s’ promised second coming. 

We all live the in-between:

• In between dreams and reality
• In between expectation and present circumstance 
• In between promises and fulfillment 
• In between hope and despair 
• In between careers (as I am now)
  

Currently global conflict and political rivalries have many of us living in-between our hopes for humanity and the brutal reality of ego, power, selfishness and outright hate. We hope and perhaps even pray, for peace. We protest and pressure politicians. Our desperate wish is that our leaders would lead change; would see fit to reconstitute the systems that support injustice and lead to conflict. Yet it seems so rare that this happens.

So, what are the options? Do we abandon our hope?

The best and most immediate path to change lies in ME. I may not hold political sway, but I hold sway around me. You and I as individuals are the ones who can, in the face of human need, show up with grace, mercy, love. We live in the trenches, in the street and the neighbourhood where needs are seen and experienced. While our individual actions will not necessarily change policy or the political process, they are immediately felt by the receiver. By the one.

But in a world of crushing need, is any effort worth the one?

It's like that old starfish story. A young child is walking on the beach. The tide is out. Hundreds of starfish are stranded on the sand and rocks, exposed to the sun and to predators. She’s concerned for those starfish, so starts picking them up and throwing them back into the ocean. Someone sees the futility of this effort and gets her to look up an see all the starfish on the beach and says “Look, there are so many of them. What possible difference can you make?” That child picked up a starfish, threw it into the ocean and said “It made a difference to that one”.


When we are confronted with the vast expanse of global issues, or within our own local communities, it is often overwhelming. The tide is out. It’s way out. People are stranded and exposed to crushing systems, indifference, and lack of courageous and principled political leadership. Many voices, including our own, say there’s no use trying. “What possible difference can you make?” It’s too big a task. Leave it to charities, non-profits or government. The system is too entrenched for your personal efforts to make a difference anyway. So, take care of yourself. Don’t vote. Don’t get involved. Don’t step in. Throw a few bucks to a charity. Then don’t forget to post your anger and indignation on social media.

But what if you could make a difference to one?

What if the one who showed up to address a need became a hundred?

What if those hundreds became millions?

This seems inspiring. Good fodder for a charity’s commercial or a sermon! But frankly there’s simply no guarantee your act of good will be repeated by others. How would you even know? Who is keeping count? You can’t control the math.

But that’s not the point. The point is to show up. Sleeves rolled up.

Yes, you can pray for leaders to lead. Yes, you can pray and/or protest for systems to change. Yes you can vote and hope for the best.  Yes, do those things and more - but don’t wait around for the answer. The small, repeated and real-time demonstrations of love and grace to fellow human beings will do more for a person now, in their time of need, than praying and waiting for miracle to happen.

For Christians, the point of the Advent season is not to be ‘hopeful’ about a second coming as though hope was a feeling. To hope is to act with that future in mind. To build a world that represents the wishes and ways of the One who is coming again.

For all of us in the human family, our hopes for an equitable and peaceful world are worthy. Worthy of action that starts with one small act. 

 

So, pick up a starfish. It’s an advent act.

My Last Day

Dec 8, 2023 is my last day as an employee of The National Ministry Centre of The Alliance Canada. I have served in numerous roles within this faith community since Sept 1983. 40 years. Most recently as Strategy Director for Marketplace and International Churches. This isn’t a retirement. I intend to keep working. It’s a release due to significant budget constraints the organization faces. The processing of this has taken me through many emotions, all typical of an unanticipated transition. I wish the ending of this part of my career was different, but it is my reality now.

However, a budget cut isn’t going to be my story. While it is the organizations' story, here is mine: 

I have been privileged to have a ministry career where I could develop and then utilize my skills in facilitation,coaching, leadership and program management. It has enabled me to serve on a global stage and according to who I am. What an uncommon joy to be able to leave while living the optimal experience of vocational & personal convergence. I also leave a high functioning, committed and ‘’real’ team that has exemplified true servant leadership. So, if a person must ‘go’, it’s a great way to go. 

There are many ideas to sort through and untangle on the path to creating what’s next for me. However I have no immediate career plans except to finish my basement renovations, enjoy some family time, and take along-delayed anniversary trip with Becky. Together we have travelled the road of transition many times in our lives, and one thing we know – Christ always has a future for us.

A good friend spoke at a retreat I recently attended and addressed the notion of ‘finishing well’. He reminded us that no one knows where the finish line is, or when you will approach it. So then, how do you actually finish well? By finishing today well. If you finish every day well, no matter when the time comes, you have finished well. 

I am content to have finished this part well.

Harv Matchullis

Measuring What Matters

Expansion isn't necessarily a sign of growth.  It could just be swelling.

When a church wants to grow, it's a good thing.  But what kind of growth?

The metaphors of growth Jesus used in His parable-stories are clues to how churches can map their path to true 'expansion'.  The mustard seed, salt, yeast and light metaphors are about growth, but a kind that is organic and permeates its' environment.

The numbers of people in the proverbial pew do not adequately represent Kingdom growth. To design a church's budget, staffing and programs around that growth metric is an exercise in missing the point of the parables of Jesus.

Influence and integration of our surroundings is the point.  

Two questions for you and your church:  

1. Is your church equipping and releasing you for influence in the places and spaces where you spend the bulk of your life: your workplace, community, family and social life?  
2. How can that change?
   

YOU are yeast and seed and salt and light. Your world needs your influence and integration.

Harv

Stop Yelling

There’s a sector of Christianity bent on taking Jesus public, crowning Him king over everyone and forcing their version of Christianity on the world. 

It’s most obvious in Christian nationalist movements, but it also shows up in the rhetoric/posture of Christians who are engaged in culture war, defending their way of life by opposing things they view as inconsistent with Christ.

Let’s talk about being consistent with Christ, with the Jesus Way. The rhetoric of war permeates the Biblical story, and literalist readers carry that forward as applying to the way of Christ.  But it doesn’t. Leaving the literalist reading of Scripture aside for another discussion[1], let’s look at Christ (the true Word of God) and how He comes across to the world.  By implication then, how are we His followers to show up in the world?

For brevity I’ll refer to one story from Isaiah 42:1-4 where God the Father describes the posture His servant (Jesus) will take with the world. And I think that as you read about the life of Jesus, you will see how consistent He was living according to this ‘way’…

“Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight. I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.  He will not falter or be discouraged until he establishes justice on earth.”

For some Christians it seems Gods' ‘justice on earth’ is accomplished forcefully and via a culture war.  That’s the opposite of what God the Father lays out here as the ‘way’ of Christ.  Stop yelling.  Stop hurting the broken. Stop blowing out what little flame exists in the hearts of people towards the Divine. Show up quietly, faithfully, consistently, persistently.   That’s the Jesus Way.

 

Perhaps Robert Service, in his poem The Call of the Wild, sums it up best how we change the world:

“…the simple things, the true things, the silent men (sic) who do things…”

Harv

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[1] Suggested reading: A More Christlike Word by Bradley Jersak, Whitaker House, 2021

 

What Are You Looking For?

Jesus often asked people: "What are you looking for'?

Bono hasn't found what he's looking for yet.  Most of us are still seeking...something.

If Jesus asked me this question today, how would I answer?  Here are my responses. 

1. PEACE.  Deep in my soul I want peace with my Creator (which I actually have in my following of Jesus Christ).  However I also want peace within myself and for this fractured, tortured world.
2. PURPOSE: There is a purpose that peace with God brings to me, though admittedly I often wander away from it.  Yet I sense there is more to it, and I am not talking about a some kind of grand, earth-shaking purpose - but the knowledge that my everyday engagements, loves and interests are not meaningless.  I know that all of life is God's and therefore has meaning.  However I want to embrace that truth in my everyday, and be content in it.
3. 
   WONDER:  I live on the 3rd rock from the Sun, in a vast, unfathomable universe, surrounded on this planet - and in my own yard - with amazing life, beauty and mystery.  I want wonder rekindled in me.  
   

How would you answer Jesus Christ's question:  "What are you looking for"?

The Church and CSR

I am involved in many ongoing conversations around gospel, marketplace and the all-encompassing way of life that Jesus guides us to live.  To live into His truth - that as you are going about your everyday life in whatever you do and with whatever knowledge you have - you are a disciple-maker, is tremendously freeing.

Yet many churches are still not freeing people into this way of life.  Ironic.  Even tragic.

In their own expression of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), many churches have contained and restrained the gospel by programming the Way of Jesus into group activities and forays into ‘the world’, rather than equipping and releasing people to live their life in Christ in the 98% of life they spend while NOT in church.

How would our neighbourhoods change if the organized church re-organized itself in this direction?

Less will actually mean more.