The Problem of Organized Religion

Read a fascinating article from Gary Hamel in the Wall Street Journal about a talk he gave at a recent Willow Creek Leadership Summit regarding the Church.

Here are some noteworthy quotes that made me cheer.  Some of which many of us have been saying for quite some time:

My hypothesis: the problem with organized religion isn’t that it’s too religious, but that it’s too organized.

Absolutely agree. What is to be a movement has often been institutionalized. This doesn’t mean there’s no leadership- but it does mean that there’s a danger in stuffing what should be set free in a box.

…church attendance may be lagging, but nine out of ten Americans still claim to have faith in a spiritual being—a number hasn’t changed much over the past two decades.

This is not a new statistic. It’s curious, and sad, that the church is the last place those who are interested in faith would go to discover more about spiritual matters. I am hopeful for the future as many new and renewed churches are seeking to change that story. I’m happy to say that Project Church is one of them.

Over the centuries, religion has become institutionalized, and in the process encrusted with elaborate hierarchies, top-heavy bureaucracies, highly specialized roles and reflexive routines. (Kinda like your company, but only more so). Religion won’t regain its relevance until church leaders chip off these calcified layers, rediscover their sense of mission, and set themselves free to reinvent “church” for a new age.

Don’t miss the key words here: rediscover and reinvent. I’m reminded of the quote by H. Richard Niebuhr, “The great Christian revolutions come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there.”

I truly believe that the Church isn’t going to thrive because of anything new, hip, or innovative as much as we will by returning to our roots as found in the scriptures as a community on mission driven by the gospel of Jesus.

Read the article in its entirety