Mad Church Disease - the Lutheran infection

Anne Jackson recently wrote a book named “Mad Church Disease”.  The book is about burnout in churches among staff and volunteers.  When Anne diagnoses the problem, she seems to point at “burn out” as one of the biggest issues.  I’ve always thought “burn out” was a nebulous term - but Anne links it directly to dishonesty.

One of the symptoms/correlaries of burnout that Anne points out is a lack of honesty about being fallen human beings.  This might be something that could be addressed in some Lutheran churches.  I mean, we say that we’re “poor, miserable sinners” every Sunday in confession and absolution but do we really believe that?

I’ve seen a few things that worry about a Lutheran-specific strain of “mad church disease” in my own church body.  Here are a few:

+ The belief that “the” problem with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) is structure or hierarchy, not falling down on the job.

+ The belief that “the” problem with the LCMS is failure to fully subscribe to the original doctrine of the Lutheran Confessions, not churches failing to teach those things in a way that is compelling.

+ The belief that pastors/staff are, or at least should be, incapable of errors.  (Really, if you read this blog, you know better ;-). )  This normally leads to the pastor/staff/etc thinking that they’re the only correct ones in their church body/circuit/district/local church/etc.

+ The belief that the next new churchfad is going to save your @$$, not prayer, not the Bible, not education, not evangelism…maybe not even Jesus.

+ The belief that less contact, less dialogue, and less mutual accountability in chuches and church bodies is the best way to operate.

+ The belief that the theory is the problem, not refusal to act on the theory.

And I could probably go on.

The old addage goes, “Confession is good for the soul.”  I have plenty to confess of.  Some of it is written above.  I have more:

+ I have gotten into the bad habit of writing when I should be working.  (I should be writing the first draft of my sermon now, not blogging.)

+ I take on way more than what I can handle, often dropping the ball. (I did an inventory of my tasks and how much time they take over vacation - I’m at 49 hours with what I consider “just the basics”.)

+ I procrastinate because I don’t think I can get it done anyway.

+ I think my intelligence will make up for my inaction.

+ I talk to most of my friends through the internet, not phone calls, and I have yet to really develop good friendships in the city I live in partially because I don’t take time for myself, and partially because I have a problem with trust.

+ My relationship with Liz suffers sometimes because of church stuff.

What do you think is infecting you or your church?  How could you be freed from some of the problems in your church via confessing your problems?  How can God use even these things for good?

Image: Are you sure this is the stage? by Blurred Crusade at Flickr