God is our Father. The Church is a family, reflecting God's own nature: relationship. Any good parent has the right and responsibility to direct their children's actions via command and prohibition. As time goes on, and maturity takes place, this direction becomes more like consultation. The child no longer follows rules simply fearing the consequences of disobedience (compelled behavior), they see the reasons and principles behind the instruction, decide to embrace that, and choose appropriate directions themselves (induced behavior).
I read an article recently that seemed to imply that hierarchical command-and-control management is really ineffective and dishonoring. Preference should be given to "chaordic" leadership, where leadership spontaneously appears from different individuals to address the need of the moment.
"Induced behavior is the essence of leader/follower. Compelled behavior is the essence of all the other relational concepts. Where behavior is compelled, there you will find tyranny, however benign. Where behavior is induced, there you will find leadership ..." -- The Art of Chaordic Leadership, Dee Hock
This is correct, but the author fails to explain why. The growth process which begins with "command management" (early parenting) needs to take place to facilitate the process of maturity. When this process is cut short, growth cannot occur. This is relevant to our personal emotional maturity, our personal spiritual growth, and corporate spritual growth of the church.
The law is not eliminated by the gospel, it is fulfilled by it. In the New Covenant, the Spirit's presence, direction, and power now rest permanently within the individual follower and within the church at large, to enable us to genuinely act from the motive of self-sacrificial love. But we don't necessarily always rely on that direction and power. Sometimes we ignore it.
Is fear (and behavior compelled by it) wrong? No, just immature. Are we really so far along as individuals or as church that we can disregard God's commands? Don't we occasionally look to the law to keep our selfish tendencies in check? No matter how much growth takes place, to some degree we are always spiritual children. We simply need to continue the process of growing up. I would argue that disregarding the usefulness and validity of law will stunt growth, not facilitate it. Law was never intended to provide salvation; commands are not a replacement for mature motivations. The law cannot save us, because the law only describes love: as measure to compare our actions to. It does not enable us to love.
1 comment:
Wow Gar! I read all that Dee Hock stuff and didn't get shit out of it. God works in mysterious ways indeed. I love the comparison. Chaordic Leadership where leaders spring up as needs do, sounds intriguing, until something goes arye. I'd say there still needs to be a Command & Control matrix to fall back on. Like we still rely on our parents (if those relationships are still strong) when things get tough.
Brendar (secretly runs with scissors)
Post a Comment