Avoid Being Institutionalized

Christians should avoid being institutionalized.

What I mean by institutionalized can be illustrated by a conversation from the movie Shawshank Redemption (edited for explicit content) between Red (Morgan Freeman) and Heywood (Michael Sadler) and Floyd (Brian Libby).

If you recall in the movie, Brooks (James Whitmore) was let out of prison, but ended up hanging himself because he could not function outside the institution of prison.

The lesson is clear: institutionalization hinders a person's ability to mature and function outside their isolated community. The only way an institutionalized person can live is on the "inside."

The conversation is set in the prison yard...

Red: "Brooks ain't no bug. He's just... He's just institutionalized."

Heywood: "Institutionalized, my $@#."

Red: "The man's been in here 50 years, Heywood. 50 years. This is all he knows. In here, he's an important man. He's an educated man. Outside, he's nothing. Just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn't get a library card if he tried. You know what I'm trying to say?"

Floyd: "Red, I do believe you're talking out of your $@#."

Red: "You believe whatever you want, Floyd. But I'm telling you, these walls are funny. First you hate 'em... then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes... you get so you depend on 'em. That's institutionalized."

THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH

Churches are institutionalized when they believe that church is "the place where people are saved" as one former preacher friend told me it was. Churches become about "walls" as Red said. "Enough time passes... you get so you depend on 'em."

Churches are institutionalized when they grant ungodly authority to a few in churches which unnecessarily creates slanderers, or false accusers, (2 Tim. 3:3, KJV).

It's hard enough to address problems in a Christian community with the current auditorium/pulpit, classroom, and private elders' meetings set up. It's even harder when the entire community has been misled into believing that God has given a public speaker and a few of the older men more power than the rest of us to make decisions for us behind closed doors.

This is not how Christians in the NT decided things (see Acts 15).

It seems everything in the institutional model has become either delegated or expedient, but I'm not sure why.

Is this really the best way? Is it really God's way?

Churches of Christ have institutionalized positional authority in elders and preachers by separating them into a separate authoritarian class from the rest of the church.

Whether intended or not this gives them power over people’s time, money, and thoughts through a man made treasury and pulpit.

This institutionalization has created a positional self righteousness that exalts itself into the delusion of "I'm just agreeing with God/Bible" when judging other Christians' souls.

It's absurdly juvenile in that it does not even take responsibility for it's interpretations of Bible verses, but claims only to be "saying what God says" thereby avoiding any responsibility for misbehaving. When challenged with their misbehavior, usually all one gets is cowardice in the forms of denying it ever happened or wanting to sweep it under the rug.

When the church is institutionalized we become limited in our ability to serve God. We can only function on the "inside" of the walls or "place where the saved are." We even term what we do inside those walls "services." To whom? I don't think it's even a service to ourselves anymore, if it ever was. 

Institutionalizing power into a few creates a class of Christians who are rarely confronted because the masses fear their "authority," and/or being falsely accused as some kind of traitor, or unfaithful, to the Lord by them. It's a group control mechanism that maintains the status quo.

It's astounding how harmful the institutional church's "authority" can be.

This vested power by the masses into the few can be a cause for some to slander those they view as a threat to that power over the complicit masses exercised through the treasury and pulpit. The insults to God's faithful children by these supposed 'powers that be' needs to be exposed and stopped.

It's counterfeit and therefore harmful to the community's value. Just like counterfeit money.

This kind of behavior existing among the church really shouldn't surprise any reader of Paul's letters to the Corinthians.

In fact, the kingdom of God is about power, and it is wise to be on guard by remaining aware of those desiring it over the lives of others.

Those who covet God's power (Matt. 28:18) are to be "avoided."

Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.  But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Cor. 4:18-20).

If people are causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. After that, have nothing more to do with them (Titus 3:10).

Paul is not compartmentalizing their “attitude” while justifying their occupying of a position God gave them. 

The harm comes from creating the position of power over others in the first place.  

Compartmentalizing is diabolical, or of the devil, (2 Tim. 3:3, see below). It's inherently divisive and lacks integrity or honesty. We compartmentalize things in order to justify them so we don’t need to integrate them.

Churches can institutionalize dishonesty and cowardice with these supposed positions of power. We end up living lives of contradiction and falsehood or at least supporting those who do—the exact opposite of Christianity.

Even the apostles knew that they had no dominion over another Christian’s faith through which God is served:

“Not that we lord it over your faith; we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith” (2 Cor. 1:24).

Henry Cloud, in his book Integrity: The Courage to Face the Demands of Reality, writes:

“The opposite of integration is compartmentalization. That means that a part of oneself can be operating without the benefit of other parts, and that spells trouble… In fact, historically the word diabolical actually means “to compartmentalize” (p. 37).

“[Some are] uncomfortable with confrontation, but that is not normal from the beginning of life. If you have ever talked to a two-year-old, you are aware of this. If toddlers do not like something, you are pretty much going to know about it.”

“They have to somehow learn that to tell someone they don’t like something is going to get them in trouble. When they learn that, they learn to fear confrontation and find ways to negotiate the world of relationships by avoiding it.”

“They learn to subtly maneuver people, manipulate them, work them, work around them, please them, or whatever it takes to make it all work. But they avoid the direct path…. What is important now is to understand that when people lack character ability, there is usually a good reason. In part, they learned to not integrate that character ability into their makeup.”

“It could have gotten them into trouble early in life, so they avoided it and compartmentalized it instead. And, since a large part of our character is formed in our growing-up years, the early patterns are ingrained.”

“With integration, or completeness, there is also the problem of underdevelopment… What happens when we are underdeveloped in one of these critical areas?”

“First of all, it means we are human. That is the good news!”

“The nature of the human race is that we never get to “completeness” or “maturity” in the fullest sense of the word.”

“There is always room for improvement. There is the gap between where we are at any given moment, the true reality, and the ideal of the construct itself, ultimate reality. So, don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“A person of integrity is a person of balanced integration of all that character affords...”

The institutional model for churches needs to be de-funded and abandoned for a return to the New Testament practices of eating the Lord's Supper together (full meal), singing, praying and Bible discussion (Acts 20:1-11), so we can restore--not the pattern of NT worship--but INTEGRITY. 

Inevitable problems that arise among Christians of differing backgrounds can be better addressed before (1 Cor. 5:11) or at the Supper table among equal brothers and sisters (1 Cor. 11:33). 

This will eliminate the divisions--not sustain them by attempting to control the masses by the few through an institutionalized system of vesting power into a few to rule us. We can rule ourselves in our families through maturity and growth into Christ by influencing each other with our Christian life-example. And elders lead in this regard (1 Pet. 5:1-7).

But...

Tell me where elders and preachers are even mentioned in the following passage...

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matt. 18:15-20).

This is a 'church discipline' passage, yet no separate class of Christians can be found, because they are not needed. 

_________________________________________