Ecclesiastical Pornography
I missed last weekend at Christ Community in Daytona in order to be a part of my nephew’s wedding. There’s a sister church, a church plant in St. Augustine called Coquina Community Church. Gardner Gordon is the pastor and they are meeting at an elementary school. They have a neat guesthouse, which they graciously made available for me during the weekend. While there, when not spending time with family, I was reading a book about being a pastor by Eugene Peterson. It’s titled Under The Unpredictable Plant. Peterson talks about the church or “parish” as he often calls it and a common seduction to which pastors fall prey. I think what he says is equally applicable to every Christian when it comes to what we expect from the church. It also ties into the theme of the church that we’ve been looking at in Acts. In one place Peterson writes about what he call’s ecclesiastical pronography.
Parish glamorization is ecclesiastical pornography — taking photographs (skillfully airbrushed) or drawing pictures of congregations that are without spot or wrinkle, the shapes that a few parishes have for a few short years. These provocatively posed pictures are devoid of personal relationships. The pictures excite a lust for domination, for gratification, for uninvolved and impersonal spirituality. My own image of the desirable congregation was shaped by just such pornography — a tall-steeple church with a cheesecake congregation. It alarms and dismays me that even though I long ago quit looking at the magazines and lining the walls of my vocational imagination with the pictures I am still vulnerable to seduction.
Peterson drops the image of “ecclesiastical pornography” but continues to talk about the tension between our ideas of an “ideal” church and the reality of the “real church”. In one place, after mentioning some of the common weaknesses of churches and congregations, he writes:
But the people in these pews are also people who suffer deeply and find God in their suffering. These are men and women who make love commitments are faithful to them through trial and temptation, and bear fruits of righteousness, spirit fruits that bless the people around them. Babies, surrounded by hopeful and rejoicing parents and friends, are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Adults, converted by the gospel, surprised and surprising all who have known them are likewise baptized. The dead are offered up to God in funerals that give solemn and joyful witness to the resurrection in the midst of tears and grief. Sinners honesty repent and believingly take the body and blood of Jesus and receive new life.
I found the following comments about consumerism and the reality of Christ and the church resonated with me. Was the church ever meant to appeal to religious consumers? Does she, even in her humble and imperfect expressions, possess a beauty birthed by grace and seen only with eyes touched by the Holy Spirit?
I can find biblically no other form of church. Nothing in Israel strikes me as terrifically attractive. If I had been church shopping in the seventh century B.C., I think the Egyptian temples and Babylonian ziggurats or the lovely groves dedicated to Asherah on the green hills of Samaria would have been far more attractive. If I had been religion shopping in the first century A.D., I am sure that either the purity of the synagogue or the intriguing rumors surrounding Greek mystery religions or Hellenic humanism with just a touch off myth in the background would have offered far more to my consumer soul.
A bare sixty or seventy years after Pentecost we have an account of seven churches that shows about the same quality of holiness and depth of virtue found in any ordinary parish in America today. In two thousand years of practice we haven’t gotten any better. You would think we would have, but we haven’t. Every time we open up a church door and take a careful scrutinizing look inside we find them there again — sinners. Also Christ. Christ in the preaching, Christ in the sacraments, but inconveniently and embarrassingly mixed into this congregation of sinners.
These quotes/excerpts all come from Eugene Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant, pp. 22-24. I’d be interested in what you think about Peterson’s ideas and his images.
Larry is the senior pastor at 
I sure like the idea of a realistic “picture” of the church….open the door and see the sinners, people through God’s grace are able to sit, grow, worship, and learn together. It means we have to humbly accept God’s grace because we remain huge screw-ups, and it means we have to offer grace to others because essentially they are just like us.
I love this concept of an honest community of Christians seeking to live together in faith. And at the same time I scorn it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful concept. Community- honest, loving relationships, people being patient and humble with one another, a congregation that loves one another from the heart because of the intrinsic value of souls in need of God’s grace. The problem is that such a community is made up of humans, and this would be contraconditional to, not only the MO of the society we live in, but the human condition itself. Churches are wonderful for those that are truly living in faith for God, or those who enjoy a wholesome network of superficial relationships. But for the soul that’s truly struggling to understand, that doesn’t possess the faith like that of those that surround them on Sunday morning, and that isn’t comfortable pretending like they belong when they know they really don’t, the community concept isn’t quite so effective. What about the sinner who really sins and doesn’t know how to stop or maybe they’re not positive in their own heart about the community’s specific concepts of sin? A community is defined as “Ecclesiastical: a group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule.” The nature of community demands that one who doesn’t fit the mold not be received or accepted as a member. So, how is the addict supposed to grow through his addictions by learning of God’s love and Truth, or the homosexual receive the healing he/she needs? It’s true that sin is not to be openly accepted and tolerated in the body of Christ. Yet, the futility of the church bodies that I’ve seen is mind-numbing by demanding that the sin simply be hidden from sight. You can’t have a community without honesty. You can’t have deep relationships without being able to trust the people in the community enough to be honest with them from your heart. If you enter a community with honest intentions but a lot of unresolved issues, how are you to trust the people around you and honestly pursue Truth and healing? Them- with their nice little Christian lives, and you a dirty sinner; the natural human response to someone who doesn’t fit nicely into the mold of your social group or community is to judge them accordingly, and that’s exactly what even Christian humans do. It’s hard-wired into us. I’ve been in a million conversations with Christians when they eventually get around to the personal questions they want to know, whether it’s about my experiences, my values/opinions or my personal faith, and I immediately feel very defensive. From what I’ve seen it’s the honest people that are judged and condemned, and hurt and ostracized. Even rather superficial disagreements are used to shame. Honesty is critical in community. So is unity, being “like-minded”. And in the body of Christ, it’s essential to call sin as such. So, what is the response of the community members supposed to be when there is someone that is continually struggling with sin in their life? I can hear the gasps of the Christians that I’ve known at the thought of such a one being a part of their church community. Yet, it’s this very one that so desperately needs to grow in the grace and knowledge of God through the communities that He’s established to share His love and Truth. And it’s these struggling souls that would rather stay at home on Sunday morning than to go into a church and have to pretend to be what they know they’re not. What does the Bible say about how the community is to function in this aspect? From what I’ve seen, church “communities” leave no room for honesty or sin. And what is the line that separates healthy “like-mindedness” and legalism? I’d love to hear any thoughts you may have. I hope my question is clear enough.
I wanted to respond to this last comment but there are so many good questions and observations in it I’m not sure I can offer more than a sincere stab at it.
You raise some important issues the church needs to look at honestly. I think all the struggles or imperfections of the church must have been foreseen by the Lord who ordained the church. Just as the church has to accept imperfect people so also imperfect people have to accept an imperfect church. That’s all part of following Christ and the focus of the two posts on the church from Peterson and Bonhoeffer.
You asked:“What about the sinner who really sins and doesn’t know how to stop or maybe they’re not positive in their own heart about the community’s specific concepts of sin?” As far as not being positive in their own heart about the community’s specific concept of sin, there has to be room for disagreement in matters where the Bible is unclear. The community has to allow for that. But part of being in a community is a willingness to abide by some of the communities’ standards. Community means “having certain things in common”. So, while there has to be a spirit of grace there also has to be a foundational agreement on Scriptural standards for life.
You asked: “So, how is the addict supposed to grow through his addictions by learning of God’s love and Truth, or the homosexual receive the healing he/she needs”? All sinners and strugglers are to be welcomed and loved because we are all in one or both of those categories. But if by “becoming a member” of the community you mean formally joining the church there is an element of accountability involved in that. At Christ Community we ask for four membership commitments and the fourth is this: “I commit to respect the government and discipline of the church and promise to protect its purity and peace.” So the person who becomes a part of the community does not have to pretend or be perfect but they do have to be willing to be accountable to others and to live a life of continual growth and repentance. I know there are many churches that are very judgmental. There are others that are gracious. Even the gracious churches may have people in them who are too judgmental because of their own struggles and misunderstandings of Scripture. They too are part of the community.
Sometimes the problem lies elsewhere. Sometimes people want transparency without vulnerability. In our culture especially some people want to be very open and honest but they don’t want anyone to question or correct them and they don’t want anyone to hold them accountable for change. That’s not biblical community either. If people are in the process asking questions, repenting, growing, struggling and confessing, I think the church can “call sin, sin” but still offer a lot of support and love and authentic acceptance. If the person shrugs off their sins and willfully defies Christ and the church then it’s hard to see how they can be an intimate part of a community of Christ’s followers. The other thing I’ve seen is people who feel a lot of shame that doesn’t really come from the community as much as from their own hearts. The community is just the context for feelings of shame and pretending that are more about the person’s inner battle than the church’s true spirit. I’m sorry that, as you put it, “From what I’ve seen, church ‘communities’ leave no room for honesty or sin.” It shouldn’t be like that.
“So, what is the response of the community members supposed to be when there is someone that is continually struggling with sin in their life?” The answer is humility about ourselves, honesty about the sin, and love for the person. As you put it so well, “it’s this very one that so desperately needs to grow in the grace and knowledge of God through the communities that He’s established to share His love and Truth.”
I like the answer Larry gave in his last paragraph. “The answer is humility about ourselves, honesty about the sin, and love for the person.” For me the key part is love; both giving and receiving. When I first walked into the church a sinner with no salvation, I was not ready to let myself be loved. I was on the defensive side. Once I found that the people there had a genuine interest in helping me and not judging me it was much easier to relax and trust some people. For me , I had to let myself be loved before I could love. In “My Utmost For His Highest”, Oswald Chambers wrote about this in his reading for May 11.
“Love is an indefinite thing to most of us; we don’t know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the loftiest preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that this sovereign preference be for Himself (see Luke 14:26). … the Holy Spirit reveals to me that God loved me not because I was lovable, but because it was His nature to do so. Now he commands me to show the same love to others by saying,’…love one another as I have loved you’ (John 15:12). He is saying, ‘I will bring a number of people around you whom you cannot respect, but you must exhibit My love to them, just as I have exhibited it to you.’ This kind of love is not a patronizing love for the unlovable - it is His love, and it will not be evidenced in us overnight.
‘The Lord…is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish…’(2 Peter3:9). I should look within and remember how wonderfully He has dealt with me. The knowledge that God has loved me beyond all limits will compel me to go into the world to love others in the same way. I may get irritated because I have to live with an unusually difficult person. But just think how disagreeable I have been with God!”
I think that if our “Community” could adhere closely to these principles healing and trust would be much easier to come by. I think an earnest attempt at this is made at Christ Community Church.
Chuck, I liked your last line–”I think an earnest attempt at this is made at Christ Community.” I think that is true, not perfect with every person, every time, but in a substantial way. I think there an atmosphere of perservernce with each other so we can continue and grow in the faith. It is almost like faith/hope & love is a group project, that we work out individually as well. I am impressed your reading Oswald Chambers! He is a long time favorite, he makes you think differently about “normal” things.
This is my first time writing here, though I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s thoughts on this blog. I want to encourage those who attend Christ Community with these words from the Lord:
“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” (1 John)
Though I do not regularly attend the services at Christ Community anymore, I care for you all very deeply. The first years of my faith in Christ were nurtured by the Lord through faithful believers at CCC. And how thankful I am the Lord used these people! Please read and pray for understanding of this verse.
The whole reason CCC exists is not to attract more people under its tent/tents, but to point others to Christ Jesus!!! All else is worthless.
It seems that today’s church has strayed from the original meanings on community.
To illustrate, I’ll offer a real life example:
My first real encounter with a Christian community was a home Bible study I attended in NY. The study, led by a 70yr old lifetime construction/wood worker seemed all but exciting to me. Yet for some reason I kept coming back and looking forward to the times we met together. This quiet, firm leader showed me his passionate love for Jesus Christ. He drove 45 minutes with his wife every week to meet us, and devoted his words and actions to helping us know the Lord. This Lord, this Jesus got him through 70 yrs of rough, uncertain times. He shared his passion without any references to today’s pop culture/media/superstars/philosophers/etc. The Word of God was what he used. Looking back, sitting down and hearing the Word of God verse by verse and responding with awe encouraged me so much. All different ages attended the Bible study, even the neighborhood kids who were just in the house to play video games decided to stay and hear the Word. See, I’ve come to realize it was not the old man I came back to hear, it was the perfect love of our Father I came back every time to hear about. This Christian community was not about how well dressed or educated or smooth sounding everyone was to attract outsiders, it was about our Lord every week.
Unbelievers who will undoubtedly attend CCC this Sunday and many Sundays more do not need to see that everyone is perfect and smily and having everything together. What they should see in the worshippers at CCC should be something that is already natural, not forced by music, hands, or the commotion of a Sunday morning. They should see worshippers who admit they fall, but who also admit they belong to and need Jesus Christ. They should see worshippers ready to answer about their faith!
The fellowship hall can be painted in soft colors, the Panera bread can be there every week, the Bible study and sermon can be there every week, but my encouragement to you all is this: is it the Lord you seek and the Lord you share the reason you get up and go to church every Sunday? Or is there something else which distracts you from having an intimate relationship with our Lord?
Anon…you got it right. Sometimes in all the “commotion” (and it can be that), somehow in the midst of the music, the bread, the fellowship, even opening God’s word….sometimes what is actually lost is a real relationship with Christ. It’s like going on a date, and getting all caught up in the food and the decor, and not focusing on the one across the table from you.
As the former (and still sometimes) worship leader, I believe that if everyone came on a Sunday morning with the expectation of speaking to, and hearing, from Jesus Christ, the lid would blow off the place. A lot of folks do have that expectation. But let’s pray that more and more people come with that expectation.
I keep thinking of Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
In a similar sense,
In Christ Jesus neither soft colors or hard colors,
neither Panera bread or the absence of bread has any value,
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.