Old Choking New

I don't want to this first proper blog of 2010 to sound like a rant, but it is so that's how it comes across. I'm fed up with the narrow-minded bureaucratic madness that is entwined with the church in the UK.

I'm currently going through the early stages of the Ministerial Recognition process to become an accredited baptist minister. To be honest, I'm wondering if it's worth the hassle. Emails and forms have been bounced back and forth demanding this information and that arrangement.

One particular issue is the apparent need for an association member to see me lead and preach at a service (evidently the word of my references, all well regarded ministers in their own right, is not good enough for the association). The churches I am involved with are contemporary churches. They have a gifted set of worship leaders and preachers for each service (as one pastor puts it "you don't have a dog and bark yourself!"). It is highly unusual for one person to do both tasks. However, in the traditional 'old-school' Baptist world there are churches where the minister would lead and preach. This though is a model that is slowly dying out in favour of wider teams. It was suggested that if I couldn't lead and preach then I should just preach but at least be involved in the preparation of the service and 'certainly lead the prayers'.

In my opinion, this model of identifying potential church leaders is too rigid a structure built in a fading era, out of date and struggling to keep a grasp on reality. The system seems a lot like the Choluteca Bridge.

The bridge was built to get people from dry land, across the river, to dry land. It was an effective transport system. Until 1998 when Hurricane Mitch tore through Honduras causing a lot of damage and re-routing the river which once flowed under the Choluteca Bridge.

It now perfectly and soundly straddles nothing and is useless. Its structure is secure. Its strength remains. But it's pointless now the environment has altered around it. Perhaps this is the same for some of the old-school baptist processes. As the culture shifts and the ways we do church broaden and alter to meet the needs of the culture around us so too the system of appointing leaders of those churches should probably adjust to its surroundings or risk looking like a stupid, out-of-place bridge straddling where the river used to be.