One of the most amazing realizations of church I had was a pastor I really liked and helped me a ton walked away from a prestigious position with a mega church.
One day he realized that he was just a part of a big machine that produced conformists rather than doing work of God. So, so SO many resources went to keep the machine running... building costs, salaries, programs, etc. He finally got to asking himself if there was much meaning left over. The answer was of course "yes", much work was being done, however at what cost.
He actually rationalized that here he was in a Bible belt town with a congregation of about 3,000 in a community of about 80,000. The resources that went into putting on the Sunday service was like putting on a major production.
Yet he ovserved that there were over 46 AA meetings in that same town every week. If you added NA and Alanon, it would be closer to 60. Yet there were no salaries, titles, buildings, budgets, positions or even leaders. It was run by the people for the people it served... not unlike the early church?
So basically he quit and went back to practicing law which is where he came from in the first place. He wrote a book called "The Church Corporation" I do not believe it has been released yet but keep your eye out for it.
This man is not some theorist. He is a businessman and experienced lawyer... would be in his mid-50s has adult kids and has worked in a few different parts of the world.
This drove me all the closer to my program of recover.... and frankly rooms like this. I read very little of the commercial stuff from Michele. I did at first but my real healing came from the fellowship of these dialogues.
