the “I Know Better Attitude”

“Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity,…” Hebrews 6:1 NIV

One of the things bothering almost any teacher with experience is the person who knows better than the teacher what should take place in the classroom. A great teacher works to understand and anticipate the needs of the student with their planning and expertise in a subject. Great teachers also recognize the age of other teachers has nothing to do with the ability to teach and will make and receive suggestions over things perceived as necessary to learning. In school districts, it is still common for those teachers with the most experience to “rule” the decision making process without any real thought of the decision not being relevant to the situation.

As I grew up in the church, the concept of submitting to one another was actually relinquished to the tradition of submitting to the elders. Now I have mentioned several times how our elders are the most experienced and godly men in the congregation and yet this does not release the church from its obligation of making decisions. I found it quite refreshing recently to hear one of my elders reminding the bible class how brothers and sisters having a problem with one another were not instructed to take the matter to the elders but rather take it before the church. I mentioned earlier in another blog how we actually created painful relationships and mental anguish for our elders when we take a problem to them and ask for them to side with us against another brother or sister.

Getting to the point of this post, all of us “know better” when we examine how things should work in our congregation. We know what kind of songs should be sung and how they should be sung. We know who should and should not wait on the table or lead a prayer. We know, better than anyone else, what is needed for our church and if it is not going well, it is the preachers fault. We fail to even consider ourselves submitting one to the other in love.

Well, this post is not going to rag on the preacher because it is not any more his fault than my own. In fact, if things are not going well everyone, talking about the wrong things being done, is most likely at the root of the problem. We don’t need to worry about the worker to our right or our left but the one putting shoes on our own feet. We have the choice to work and serve God and make things better ourselves and we don’t need permission to do righteous things in the name of God.

I did say I was not going to rag on preachers but I did not say I would not discuss their bondage relative to the congregation and I believe it is still one of the strongest bondages I have been part of throughout my history with the church. I am sad to say I have been part of a system where young men are sent off to school where personal knowledge of scripture becomes superior to the majority of us and then we tell the teacher/preacher what it is he should teach. I have grown up in a system where it is the job of the elders to hire and fire preachers.

Even when we ignore the concept of a “located preacher,” I am not sure where we find the job description of elders calling for them to handle the hiring and firing of those who serve the church in this capacity. I would guess this goes back to my thinking of an elder as the “CEO” of the congregation instead of the spiritual leader. I believe I even know people who believe the bible should list previous leadership of a business or corporation as a requirement to becoming an elder. It was mentioned in class not long ago how people in crisis often call for the preacher instead of calling for the elders and so I think this is a result in many minds of seeing the eldership along the lines of “business” end of the church and the preacher as the spiritual leader. Sadly, when preachers have become the spiritual leader in a congregation they are rarely appointed an elder. I would guess those seeing the eldership as the business “CEO” might find this in conflict since they are “charged” in the eyes of many with controlling the preacher.

Yes, I have been to elders telling them, (“I know better,”) you would do a good thing if you would get another preacher. While I am completely on the other side of this equation with my current congregation and think our preacher is better than a slice of bread with butter squeezed firmly in my hands, I am sure there are those who think he should be preaching an entirely different message and I would be surprised if they have not been to the elders with this complaint. If it was me taking the message to the elders, I would hope they would tell me to shut my mouth of the complaint unless he was doing and saying something in denial of Christ and in that case I should take the problem to the man myself. In fact, the preacher should probably have his job at his discretion, or at least the discretion of the church and not an eldership and if he is a spiritual leader of the church, the church should ask him to be an elder and not a group of men “traditionally” charged with appointing elders.

Having tried to make my point about how I have always been part of those who know better what should take place, I must confess my view of the life in a congregation has always been attached to the life of the eldership and I am not sure if I have ever been part of a truly live congregation because the church of my heritage has always waited on the command from above, much like the papal system. The church has never been allowed to function properly because the church has never been allowed to be NON-DENOMINATIONAL.

Yes, all of the church congregations of my past have not been non-denominational as they claimed because we (the congregation) had to follow strict guidelines of the hierarchy running the congregation rather than the church doing what the church wanted to do for the cause of Christ.

It is my prayer to live long enough to see the church step out to lead the activities for Christ as we look to the elders for the example of Christian living.