I nearly forgot what subject I said I was going to come back and discuss. I remember now: the divide.
Man, there are so many angles to approach this from, I really don't know where to start. I remember reading Churchy's comments and coming away thinking, "Hmm....Good stuff", but as of this moment, I don't remember what he said. (And I don't feel like scrolling back).
Ok, I guess I'll tackle the issue first from the perspective of respect. To some degree, I believe that the clergy deserves some deal more respect by virtue of the performance of their office. I'll illustrate using my own experience as an example. When I first came to my church, I was briefly a pew potato and happy to be one. Then my pastor at the time, called me out and told me the Lord wanted me to be a deacon. (Real life translation: "You're one of the only 3 men here. We need help cleaning the church.") Not long into serving in that capacity, I started teaching Sunday School (when we still had a Sunday School). Teaching Sunday School was the best thing that ever happened to me. It forced me to be in the word daily. As a result, I grew by leaps and bounds. People could easily see how much time I was putting into the word by my knowledge of it. As a result of my knowledge and study patterns and my role as a teacher, I was afforded a different level of respect than I received as a pew potato. I view the respect that a pastor should get in the same light. He studies, meditates, prays, counsels, comforts and visits to a much greater degree than the average layperson, so in my mind, he's earned different level of respect with regard to operating in his office.
Then, there's this concept that the author(s) brought up that I think is prevalent even in today's church- not every church, but enough to where it's a problem. The concept I'm referring to is viewing the pastor as a substitute for God, or even a type of god. I have personally seen how people literally worship their pastors. It's sickening. If I remember correctly, the author suggests that the original (and subsequent) design of the church buildings helped to foster this idea. Nowadays, we have pastors that are superstars who get more love and support from their respective congregations than the God that they're supposed to be preaching and teaching about. The sad thing is that at the root of that is tradition! In essesnce, congregations have been "trained" over time that this is the way they should view their pastor. Now check this: in these churches, the evangelists do all of the evangelizing, the deacons do all of the cleaning, the associat ministers do all of the ministering and visiting and administration, while all the pastor does is put on a show from 11-1 every Sunday. The evangelists, deacons, teachers and ministers are not treated like rock stars (though they are given respect), but the pastor gets all of the glory, so to speak.
I had more, but I've lost my train of thought. Can't wait to discuss chapter 3.
