The Viral Church

In the last Church Practice article we showed the problems that exist in the current Evangelical ecclesiology. Essentially the church has the structure of a business, with the final product not being monetary profit but converts. As Marx's critique of capitalism shows, a business will do anything to gain efficiency and maximize profit. Thus, the church ceases to be a place of love, caring and acceptance and becomes a place of conformity, obedience, and aggregation of power. Why? Because what matters to a business is the business, not the workers. Likewise, what matters to the church is the continued existence of the church, not the well-being of the people in the church.

But the church was never meant to be modeled after corrupt human institutions like businesses. Jesus said, "The lords of the gentiles exert power over each other, but it is not to be this way with you." We are not to pattern our gatherings after human institutions, and certainly not hierarchical institutions. Everyone in the Body of Christ is equal, and Paul in Corinthians spends some time developing this metaphor. "Does the eye say to the hand, I don't need you?" Furthermore, Jesus consistently denounced the aggregated power structures that the Pharisees had constructed in favor of individual response and connection to God.

Take John 8. The woman caught in adultery had no case; she was guilty. The bible is quite clear on what should be done to her and the Pharisees were biblically correct in wanting to stone her. Jesus by his act dissolved the power and authority of men and their systems of power, who use the bible to further their own stations. Jesus' remark about "you without sin cast the first stone" is telling. Human aggregations of power only serve to hide the sins of those in the power structure. We are all still human and frail and sinful. But those in the power structure can pretend that they are holy because they can always draw attention to a worse sinner who has no power in their system. Further, by vouching for one another they can maintain the illusion of holiness. If anyone should challenge the system there are dozens of sins in her life the church can expose, ensuring that they remain silent. The church has become the machine.

The Viral Church, however, has none of these characteristics. It is interesting to compare the church as it appears in the New Testament with the abomination called the church today. Small groups of believers met in houses and supported each other, praised God, and invited friends to join in. No power, no station, no lord of the manor standing above everyone else. Instead of the church taking money from the people, the church distributed money to people. Instead of political power, the church was persecuted.

The Viral Church is small. No more than a handful of friends and family, perhaps 15 people at most. The benefit of a small church is that there is nothing for the power mongers to desire. Who wants to be lord of 15 people? Wooo! What power! What prestige! The Viral Church has nothing to covet; it cannot serve as a power base.

The Viral Church is nonprofessional. With such a small group of people, there is no need for a priest. No one needs to be formally trained in hermeneutics or pastoral ministry. No one needs to quit their day job. In the New Testament, most of the church consisted of slaves who didn't have the option to quit their jobs. There was no such thing as the clergy. There is no need for clergy today. The Viral Church makes do without leadership. Chaos? Not with 15 people there isn't. There is no staff. There is no secretary to run off with the pastor.

One argument against a nonprofessional church is that heresy could come into the church because people are not trained. Well, heresy is in the church at the moment, spewing out of the mouths of people who have all sorts of degrees and training. How does training stop heresy? Think of the highly-trained pastors who are racists, or sexually immoral, or think that everyone but their sect goes to hell. How has training in any way helped the church? People will always believe what they want to believe. I know many ministers who sign statements of faith they don't really believe. What does a master's degree teach you about loving people? I have heard scripture twisted in English and in Greek. I have seen people with terrible character in positions of power. Training does nothing; it is worthless. In fact, since most theological training is indoctrination in a sect's particular set of heretical beliefs, I would argue it does nothing but perpetuate the wicked system we currently have. Fuck it. Give me someone with true character over those with Master's degrees any day. (Full disclosure: I have one of those degrees.)

The Viral Church is money free. Since the group is small there is no need for buildings or church vans or pastoral support. There is no need for a collection. People can give their tithe to the poor and needy. Keeping money out of the church also helps to make it unappealing to the power mongers. When church budgets reach the millions, graft and theft are rampant. Every church I've been involved with has mishandled money in one way or the other. Best to just dump it; we have no need of it. Want to take the church out for coffee? Try paying out of your own pocket. There's no priest, so anyone can lead the church. If you want to set up a soup kitchen, you'll still need to set up a charity to manage the funds and such, but that is not the church. The church could participate in a soup kitchen, but the church is not a soup kitchen. The church itself needs no money.

The Viral Church is a group of friends. Many churches consist of groups of strangers fighting for social dominance and prestige. This is why the Evangelical church is full of back-biting, hatred, gossip and liars. Such tools are useful in climbing social ladders, but they have no place in the church. If the church becomes a small group of friends, there will be no prestige to fight over. No one will brag at work about how they are the head of Sunday School at First Baptist. No one will care. The Viral Church can dispense with all of the social trappings that the existing church wallows in. It can be a group of friends. People who love God gathering together. Will there still be dicks? Yes, there are always dicks, but there will be nothing for the dicks to reign over. There is no kingdom for them to usurp. At worst, they will be annoying.

The Viral Church knows it does not have all the answers. The days of promoting one sect over another are over. Even Jesus didn't have all the answers ("When am I coming back? Only my Father knows.") and we as humans know even less. Since the church will no longer hold the keys to the kingdom, every Viral Church stands among equals. Don't like this group? Try that one. Don't like that group? Try another. Who cares? This allows diversity in the Body of Christ, since no one church is claiming to be the "right" church. Different Viral Churches could have radically different theologies and emphases. Pick one that you enjoy; it's as simple as that. No politics necessary.

The Viral Church is viral. Since it is just a group of friends, the church grows by people making and inviting friends. Humans are social creatures; we all live and die by our relationships. Thus, the Viral Church is based upon those relationships. When a given Viral Church starts to get crowded it splits apart, sort of like families do. There is no creed; there are no requirements. You don't make your friends fill out a statement of faith before they can be your friend, do you? Why should the church be any different? People with common interests will naturally group together. Likewise, if you go to a viral church that believes something you don't, stop going. Or stay. It's really no big deal, since we are not saved by how we think anyway. But that is the topic of another essay.

One argument against the Viral Church is that it precludes mass worship. I don't think it does. If you want a mass worship festival, set one up. Get a bunch of bands together and have a concert. And really, I've heard more bitching about mass worship than almost anything else in the church. The songs are too fast! The songs are too slow! The music director won't let us play guitar! The worship leader always plays guitar! I don't like those Jewish songs! Blah fucking blah! Christ, you'd think the church was in some deep persecution the way people bitch about worship. So I say, forget mass worship. It doesn't work. Get together with your friends and worship God however you want. Sing hymns if that's your deal. Listen to death metal if that's your deal. God really doesn't care. We just need to get over ourselves.

And that's ultimately what the Viral Church is about. Humans getting over ourselves. Your beautifully constructed building with the thousand seat arena and the grand organ and the dozen Sunday school rooms means exactly Jack to God. All that matters to God is your heart and your character. Burn the rest of this shit; it does not matter. The reason the church has failed is that it spends its time concentrating on the worthless human prideful pursuits instead of trying to help people live honest lives of character and grace.

Love. Freedom. Diversity. This is the Revolution.

Comments

[cspew]

Well I never!!! I am totally offended by your use of the word "dick". I think you still could have gotten you message across by using a less offensive term like "asshole", which really fits better in this context. Hrmph!

You're really hitting the nail on the head in your last paragraph there. Isn't that the thrust of Jesus' ministry on earth? Jesus came as a member of the poor class (there was no such thing as a middle class back then) and railed against the injustices of the church on their people. He encouraged "open commenciality", which meant small groups of close friends who shared everything and spent time together. What you're advocating here (even if people didn't agree with you 100%) certainly MORE resembles Jesus' life than does the church today.

One interesting note is that the early church did have pockets of people here and there called "churches". It's not clear how large these churches were and how they were organized. It's also not clear how long it took for the early church to get into the corruption of power and money and politics. (probably not long!) I wouldn't hold anyone to the limit of 10 or 15 or 20 people; however, I agree with a smaller group in practice - it would be easier to keep it free of the stumbling points.

What's your take on the great commission? If being a diciple of Jesus means doing what you advocate above, do you think one of our missions as Christians is to spread this good word to others? You don't seem as concerned about everyone agreeing on the same thing... is it important at all to keep the faith "going"?

[cspew]

One clarification: I don't mean in my above statement that the great commission is used to attempt to increase the membership of a single church, but rather that it is used to pass the way of life (and, yes, knowledge - even if we're not saved by it) to future generations.

[Rob]

Churches in the first century were house churches; no Roman house could hold more than about 15 people. Thus, the limit. But it is arbitrary. So a person was said to have a church "in her house" and all that means is an "assembly" or "gathering" in her house. This did not entail that the "church" was to become a separate entity. When Christians gathered together they called it a "gathering". That's all. I'm trying to remove the term "church" as a technical term with all the associated baggage.

One reason I call the new church the viral church is because it reproduces like a virus, by infecting people with the gospel. But this is far different from "evangelism" as many understand it today. Evangelism today is about getting people to agree with a set number of facts about my religion (the creed) and then having them make a public declaration about that. I think this is heresy. The gospel was never about a set of facts. How many facts did the theif on the cross know?

In order to keep the "faith" going, there would have to be one faith. But that has never been true. As cozy as the Evangelicals have been getting to Catholics lately, for example, they will always consider them heretics for praying to the saints. In other words, thinking that there is one faith is simply a manipulation aimed at keeping you under control; it has nothing to do with God.

[Brian Gigee]

Good thoughts. "Viral," however, has a negative connotation in our culture. Most folks are not happy to have been "viraled" but the image is noteworthy. Why not, "connecting" church? The greek term, "ekklasia," means the "calling out" people of God or the "called out" people of God who are open to the work of the Holy Spirit "connecting" people together to form church.

And as for the church giving away money vs. asking for money, you need to remember that St. Paul asked for money everywhere he went...so that he could send gifts back to Jerusalem to assist the women and orphans. All the money belongs to God! It's the church's task to see that there is just distribution and that's what you don't like...the church spending more on itself than others...SO, what's your plan for collecting and sharing all that belongs to God?

Again, I appreciate your thoughts but they need a dash of grace as it is far more easy to blame than it is to understand...

[Jonathan Oleson]

Cool discussion, have you all read the paper or visited the forum at viralchurch.com? Love to hear this discussion continue. Seems that all of us are a product of the corporate church and many are eager to experience something else. Can't wait to see what the second generation viral Christians will look like! Undoubtedly some viral churches will turn corporate...

I don't know if I take such a hard line as to say that all corporate churches are failing but definitely 60% if not 80%... Do you have to bash one paradigm in order to support another? Guess I'm still sitting on the fence waiting to see how this viral thing works out. Very intriguing just so new that there's no research or history yet.

[Rob]

Thanks for the comments. I will make sure to visit that site. Actually my problem with the church handling money is philosophical and would not change even if most churches handled money rightly. I don't see what money has to do with the church at all. And just because Paul does something doesn't mean I buy into it. :)

[Keith]

Your thoughts on "viral church" are so thought provoking. I really have a hard time with the use of language in this context (or I guess any context). I grew up using foul language like a second language, so I know what it is to be caught up in it. But I will say that what your describing as a church more closely fits with God's thinking in many ways.

Growing up in a very conservative church, I have a "default mode" of thinking. I fall back into it many times. It is hard to let go of the past and "think" when you have grown up this way.

I am trying, however. Our little church is really trying to break free from the thinking of the past. I am the pulpit minister for a small church in the south and trying to teach "us" to be this infectious group of people God has called us to is difficult. It's kind of like the Star Trek movie, "The Undiscovered Country." One of the statements made in that movie says, "If there is ever going to be the new universe of togetherness, how will it ever get past people like me."

I prefer to call this new thinking on church as many are calling it--the "emerging church." What is emerging is exciting and in many ways strange to us. But I do think things are changing for the better. It will just take time.

Hope this all makes some sense and thanks for letting me comment here.