Pilgrim Soldier

I’ve been thinking a bit more about the Pilgrim Church quote that I took from Gerard W Hughes’ God in All Things in this post. The thinking was helped by the comment that Martin put on the post, but also by some other thoughts I’ve been having for a while now.

Weber’s concept of the “Iron Cage of Bureaucracy” seems to be at work here. Weber put forward the idea that any organisation (and humanity in general I think) gradually puts in place a set of systems that protect the organisation at the expense of those it was created to serve. In a very simplistic way, if we look at the history of the Church and the various splits that have happened down the centuries within it, they are often to do with people being frustrated at the system that has conspired to stop them doing what they feel they should be.

I don’t think that its that the Church purposefully set up structures to put barriers between humanity and God. They have simply built up over the centuries as we have been battered by the rubbish that the world throws at us. We seek to reduce the damaging effect of the many battles and consequently have allowed temporary fortifications to become bases out of which we may make the occasional foray behind enemies lines.

This is why we need to be careful when we question the structures of the Church, because for many people they are extremely important and they see them as being part and parcel of their walk with the Lord. For a few these structures actually create the order they need to connect with God in an extremely deep and amazing way. This shows the value that structure can be for our lives.

The problem is though that, in majority of cases, these self same structures actually prevent most of us from connecting to God in the way that He wants us to. Many don’t even realise this is happening and may simply think that the shallow existence they go through is what Christianity is like, and that the privileged few are, at best, spiritual giants or, at worst, spiritual ‘nutters’.

How do we deal with dilemma? How long will it be before the new models (or vintage models) of Christianity start building up traditions that will in the end confine them?