Will Exposing Spiritual Abusers Lead to Meaningful Change?

The barrage of articles, podcasts, and Facebook posts detailing alleged abuses of mega church pastors, prophets, and evangelists has grown into its own cottage industry.

I wrote recently that I believe we should be VERY careful how much we consume and discuss content about corruption and abuse. Not at all because we need to shelter the guilty. But because we as third party consumers have no real responsibility to uncover or discuss the private lives or public failings of others.

Some of my friends and fond acquaintances have objected to my criticism, and defended their approach by arguing that exposure can or will lead to reformation in the church.

I disagree with the idea that exposing the corrupt practices of influential Christian leaders will by itself expose the artificial and ineffectual state of the modern church and lead to effectual reform.

The reason why is that most church members do not question the organizational structure of modern day auditorium-centric church. And so the solutions they'll come up with post-scandal exposure will be slight tweaks and modifications of the existing model.

Significant change rarely comes from those who are the most invested and who benefit most from the current model.

The current model is a known quantity and it has become unquestioned tradition, and it feels safe to attend as an audience member with no actual responsibilities required and little disruption to every other part of daily life.

It's easy to do auditorium-centric Church because of the very fact that you can attend and leave unchanged. The scale and the platform create an environment in which no one expects anything from you. Unless you're a professional or a gifted on stage.

As to whether the person calling for change bears the responsibility to establish that change, we could have asked the same exact question to John the Baptist:

"Hey dude, why are you telling us we're sinners and dunking people in the water? Where's the path forward? Why aren't you leading us into the change you want to see?"

And so we see that the Body still needs to function as a body. We don't each do all things equally well. We don't each carry the responsibility for all the things. We're not all hands or feet or eyes or mouths.

It took John the Baptist, and his disciples, and then Jesus, and his disciples.

And Jesus didn't build the Christian church during his 30+ years on earth. But he discipled some regular everyday guys who did.

There are already house assemblies gathering and supporting one another with their gifts and talents and resources. It's already happening.

Some of those came about organically just through friendship and relationship. Some of those gathered around a rallying cry from voices who've been calling for this restoration for decades.

I don't think you're going to see leaders in the present day auditorium centric Church shifting course and calling the congregation to an exclusively house-based model in which they lose their platform and their salary and their prestige. That's not typical human behavior.

In fact, the ones who do make the attempt may find themselves caught in the struggle of 501c3-ing a home network model with the covenants and bylaws.

One of the biggest questions to come will be: how much industrialization of the church is necessary? This is where the worldviews and practices of permaculture would serve the Body of Christ to learn from God's Creation how ecosystems work and thrive and are sustained.

I have so many friends and acquaintances in church leadership that it pains me to write this because they are wonderful people with hearts to love and serve. and I know my words will be taken as an insult by some, or a belittling of their life's work, and this grieves me more than I can say.

I think it would be equally concerning for a person to call for an end to the current structure, AND flesh out the entire new structure, AND lead and facilitate that group into practicing that new structure.

Your pastors aren't your most skilled teachers. Your teachers aren't your most skilled pastors. Your evangelists aren't your most skilled pastors or teachers. Your administrators aren't your most skilled pastors or teachers or evangelists. Your accountants aren't your most skilled administrators.

It takes a body.