What is wrong with institutional church? “Honey, I blew up the church”

Short version … for those on the run …

In an idealistic sense, when this question is phrased, “What’s wrong with the contemporary church?” the answer is: nothing. God responds to the pure faith in His people’s hearts and He continues to bless and use many expressions of church. In an honest sense though, it doesn’t take rocket science to see the systemic inconsistencies in the modern church when compared to the simplicity and power of the early church.

When the question is put this way: “What’s wrong with institutions as a context for missional community?” the problems become more readily apparent. Perhaps this question could be answered with another question: “What is the best place to raise a child: an orphanage or a family?” In other words, the problem is not a “people-issue”; it is a “system-issue”. Too often, the modern church depends on institutional systems that askew our foundational dependence on the Lord Himself; soliciting our loyalties, usurping both our affection and attention.

What’s more, in an institutional construct, structures and systems always trump relationships; that is, the true relational design implicit in being a Kingdom community is lost in the labyrinth of institutionalism. As the saying goes, the “house (in this case, the institutional system) always wins”.

In the “long version” (below) we look at how the church lost its simplicity and became entrenched in a man-made institutional construct. We also begin to explore how we can respond today in rediscovering church as organic, relational and fluid instead of institutional, hierarchical and rigid; a family community rather than a business enterprise or religious establishment.