Tim Bednar's Paper - "We Know More Than Our Pastors."

First of all, an apology is in order.  Back in November I mentioned that I intended to read Tim Bednar's paper "We Know More Than Our Pastors," and in saying that I felt like I sort of promised I would read it.  Tim has checked in with me in a comment since then to see if I had read it.  I hadn't and I also rudely didn't reply to Tim.  It was one of those things where I was embarassed, but thought I would get around to it then forgot about it, so in case you see this Tim, my apologies for not responding sooner. 
Now I've read the paper and recommend that you read it also.  I'm not saying you'll agree with what he has written and many folks won't like the implications of what he has written.  Even Tim has said that he is uncomfortable with some of the things he has written.  But, if you want to understand how the Christian blogging movement got started this is a good place to start.

Tim began blogging in 2002 and this paper is the result of six months of research and a survey of bloggers in October and November of 2003.   After this survey and research he came to the conclusion that bloggers are the vanguard of what he calls the participatory church. 

When he says that "We Know More than Our Pastors," he doesn't mean that any single blogger knows more than any particular pastor.  He means that bloggers networks extend beyond the reach of a single pastor.  On page 39 he says:

In the process of blogging, we have discovered that our emerging network is smarter, more responsive and more creative that our churches, pastors and denominations. Michael Boyink interprets it this way rephrasing a point from Cluetrain Manifesto, “People in networked congregations have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another that from [their churches].”

Tim contends that bloggers have access to more information of all types than their pastors realize and that they are far more sophisticated than their pastors give them credit for.  This knowledge goes beyond biblical and theological knowledge, although I think this would be included in the sense that bloggers can find out things they need to know online.   On page 30 Tim mentions a lady who was able to bust her pastor for plagierism through the internet as an example of the expansive knowledge that bloggers have.

Bloggers are creating their own community and this means that they expect to participate in the creation of community in the church.  Bloggers aren't looking to follow the pastor's vision, but are looking for the pastor to be a co-creator with them of life in the church. 

Tim summarizes the partcipatory church in this way:

• The traditional church conceives of itself as an exclusive community and determines who is a “member” and who is not.  It believes that it owns these definitions. This is no longer true. Christianity is an open conversation by those following Christ. Those involved in the conversation define the terms, not the church.
• Conversations are all around us. Christianity is one of many.
• Christians get information for their conversation from multiple sources that include, but are not limited to Christianity. We no longer pursue spiritual formation within the bounds of a single tradition, church, pastor or denomination. We are having hyperlinked conversations that subvert traditional hierarchies.
• Every Christian is a creator. We no longer have to wait for church authorization to think or act or speak in the name of Christ.
• Christians belong to multiple congregations.
• Participation in the conversation is spiritual formation.
• Congregations are conversations. They have a human voice. Congregations are getting smarter and more informed as they talk to each other. Participation in this new kind of networked congregation fundamentally changes people.
• Churches are not congregations. They do not participate in the conversation of their congregation. In fact, churches spent most of their time, energy and money creating parallel conversations and get frustrated when no one participates in them. In this new reality, churches sound hollow, flat and literally inhuman to their congregations. They do not speak the same language because they do not have a human voice.
• Churches that think they do are kidding themselves and missing an opportunity.
• Congregations are more important than churches.
• Most churches and pastors assume they build congregations. This is not true. Rather they belong to congregations. In this new era, congregations (like conversations) are all around us—we are in search of churches (and pastors).
• Congregations credential pastors they trust and invite into their conversation. Pastors emerge by building a reputation from within the congregation based on consistency and transparency. Pastors add value to congregations as they add connectedness.
• Successful pastors and churches of the future will enter into co-creative covenants that help congregations deal with complexity. They see themselves as benevolent keepers of Christian tradition who enable Christians, embrace emergence and foster learning. They do not see themselves as gatekeepers or arbiters of membership in the church.
• Pastors are not primarily preachers. Sermons are no longer teachings, but learning experiences. Goal of preaching is to learn not teach.
• Congregations are looking for pastors who serve them and offer the Sacraments. We are not looking for a vision.
• Church planters are people who are called to find and eventually pastor emerging congregations.
• The participatory church intimately connects with the real storytellers of Christianity, namely the congregation. Pastors and churches no longer tell the gospel story. All truth statements are co-created by congregations through the process of emergent conversations.
• These new participatory churches work on a gift economy. This means that Kingdom work is the reward not financial remuneration or power.
• Relational authenticity and longevity--not attendance--equals success in the participatory church. A church’s primary value to the congregation lies in its ability to connect Christians in conversation, service and sacrament. Connectedness equals healthy spiritual formation.
• Participatory churches provide more meaningful and memorable experiences because they participate with congregations. Even if Christians do not contribute to the conversation, they still expect a better experience because of the participation others.
• The participatory church is diverse in viewpoints and traditions. The new ministry of the pastor is to co-create systems that help congregations manage complexity.
• The greatest skill a participatory pastor will possess is the ability to listen.
• Congregations are their own watchdogs because they are the real stakeholders. Churches and pastors no longer need to screen their congregations for orthodoxy, arbitrate membership or filter their conversation. Orthodoxy will emerge. Call it emergent orthodoxy.
• Orthodoxy is not determined by a single source, but is distributed throughout the congregation. Neil Cole, a leader in the organic church movement observes, “The best solution to heresy in the church is not to have better-trained leaders in ‘the pulpits’, but better-trained people in ‘the pews’.”
• What I am trying to describe is a new kind of church created by believers

Now, I could argue all day long with much of what he has said here, but that is not my intention in posting this.  My intention in posting this is driven by the view that if we are to understand any culture we have to understand that culture as it understands itself.  And while there is alot here that I think is flat out wrong biblically, Tim has given an accurate description of the blogging subculture.  And of course, for those who follow the emerging church, much of what Tim says here overlaps.

When I say I think there is a good deal that is flat out wrong biblically, the bloggers Tim has interviewed probably wouldn't agree.  They would say that they are creating a biblical community.  What they are arguing against is the notion that pastors have some privileged role as the gatekeepers of orthodoxy and community.  Bloggers would not consider themselves beholden to the ideas of orthodoxy and community handed down by the traditional church through her pastors.  They can create a new form of orthodoxy and a new form of community based on the bible.

So, as troubling as this may be, this is what we are working with in the blogging community.  Bloggers have a strange mix of independence and interdependence.  Bloggers long for community and interdependence but they want to do this independently of existing traditional ecclesiastical structures. 

Almost everyone who reads me knows I'm a pastor and if you are new hear and didn't know that now you do.  But being a pastor carries little if any weight in the blogging community, except maybe to a few members of my own church and others who are very traditional in their outlook. 

As the internet and blogging spread and as whatever big new thing(s) that supplants blogging in the future spreads it will not just be technology that is spreading.  The internet and blogging are helping shape a worldview.  Andrew Sullivan said that blogging harnesses the democratic nature of the internet and I think he is on to something there.  By nature, the internet is the great leveller and blogging is its latest and most intense incarnation of this levelling.  The internet and blogging are helping create a hyper-democratic, egalitarian worldview where the traditional gatekeepers of information, orthodoxies, community and other assorted whatnot are losing their power and status at an accelerated rate.

That's my way of saying that Tim is on to something here and even if you don't like what he is saying, its worth paying attention to.

Right now we live in a strange world where some can find evidence to back up Tim's contentions and others can find evidenced to deny them.   

In my church there are only a handful of people who know what a blog is.  More and more are learning because we now have a few bloggers.  We have several college age kids and youth who blog who probably understand these things better than most.  Then we have an older generation, and I would put that older generation as anyone over the age of about 25, for whom all of this stuff Tim wrote would be foreign.  These older folks probably wouldn't see too much evidence of these mindsets and so there are many who would think this is not an issue we are facing.  Still others might acknowledge that this stuff is out there, but it doesn't really affect them.

Awhile back I listened to a message by Tim Keller where he said that there are still enough traditional people in America that traditional methods of doing church and outreach can work to build a church.  But those pools of traditionally minded people are shrinking more and more.  Keller advocates listening to those who minister in places like New York City and LA and other major population centers where all of the postmodern, "cutting edge" stuff is happening.  He says that what you see in these places will begin to dominate more and more of the American cultural landscape and so, if we are to get ahead of the curve, we need to pay attention to how the church is ministering in those places.

This doesn't mean the culture becomes normative for us, but it means we rethink how we interact with the culture.  I have a hard time accepting some of the things in the list above, but I value the insights it gives to the blogging world and the world that is being shaped by bloggers.  I encourage you to read the rest of the paper for yourself.

Comments

[Diane R]

I can really relate to much of what Tim said. Although I am over 60, I find that I am way ahead [theological/church] information-wise of almost everybody, including the pastors, of my highly educated, internet savy church. However, extremely few there know what a blog is, much less a Christian one. One of my goals has become to encourage people in my [PCUSA] church, especially elders and pastors and others in leadership, to start reading a few. Some have asked me for my blog's URL and when they have, I've also recommended that they look at some of the blog links on the right-hand side of my blog so they can get an overall picture of what is going on in the larger Body of Christ from other Christian bloggers.
Those that have given me feedback usually say how overwhelmed they feel after reading. So I then suggest they only read one or two a week or day if they are on daily and have the time, and then go on from there.

I defintely feel that pastors MUST begin to read blogs and other Christian web pages beyond their narrow denominational scope.

[Terry]

Viewing Orthodoxy as a conversation is intriging to me. I see a lot of people who got that basics years ago and are still there. If entering a converstation means a certain level of competency and moving forward. As in a lot of things I could just see people being less orthodox, instead of more. People often focus on the minimums. So they look at it like, if I'm saved that is all I need out of this.

I'm not sure people are as internet illiterate as they may make themselves out to be.

While I appreciate that groups do make good decisions often. There is also a phenomena of mediocrity that can take place. In Wall Street, the herd (the total sum of investors) is usually wiser than an single star performer. There is something that motivates the herd and that is money. The herd is competent because you loose money if you don't do well. In Christianity, God is pateintly waiting for us and judgement will come after the end of this age. If we get it wrong now, there is not some immediate punishment to kick us like there is in the stock market. So we can all be spouting off ridiculous stuff and what is the result? God is calling us back to himself through his servants, in particular people like you David. God's word is a drawing mechanism that is a kindness. We should not minimize the importance of that function of a pastor. But you knew that already didn't you.

[Matt]

I feel uniquely qualified to response to this essay because I am the son of a pastor and was mentored by another to become a pastor, but never actually walked down that path. I chose a different path because, frankly, I did not feel I would ever know enough to bear the responsibility of herding the sheep.

To me, pastors have an explicit responsibility to do two things: equip the saints for ministry and educate them in the Word to help guard them from wordly influences. A third -- and I believe this role comes in a group of leaders and rarely an individual -- is correction when someone in the church has gone astray from the plain things of God's Word.

I don't when or why this happened, but in the 20th Century, pastors became responsible for doing all the work. People in the congregation became those who were being ministered to, not those who were doing the ministry. We grew up great individual leaders -- icons in some circles -- and the masses suffered in their ignorance.

So now we have a church body that demands to be catered to and small number of pastors quickly burning the wicks of their passion in attempt to cover all the areas in which the church body is failing the world. And for whatever reason, we fail to keep our focus on the Cross, choosing much lesser means of politics, sociology, pseudo psychology, and the world's inferior knowledge of the soul.

Everybody is responsible for this failing. Should we now receive this charge from a growing number of critics of mainstream Christianity by individualizing the Church? This is so far from the historical church as to open the doors for outright rebellion from the authority given to church leadership and organization by Jesus himself.

I think it's good that someone would say "I am responsible for my works, good or bad, and I am responsible for working out my salvation with God as I walk in His grace, mercy, and leadership." I wish more would take this view, because I think the Church would begin to do the things we are called to do. However, this should not be a call to abandon authority, regardless of abuses and malpractices of the past. The authority is there for a reason, yes, even given the infallible humans who, in relationship to God, are on no special terms than the rest of the body.

I would encourage those who are taking advantage of the freedom of this technology to not rail against this authority, but, rather, embrace it and love those pastors and endeavor to build them up and exhort them to equip others to do the work of Jesus.

I guess I'll get off my high horse now ... =)

[Tim Bednar]

Your response is one of the best I've read on the paper which I wrote ohh so long ago. Thanks for reading it--I know its longwinded. I am preparing an updated version of the paper to be "published" sometime around the first of the year.

[David Wayne]

Tim - glad you liked my review - please let me know when you get the revision ready

[Andrew Jones]

the title of tim's paper has always bugged me . . and i have told him this.

but still, its a great paper. Steven Johnson's latest book ("Everything Bad is good for you") has a good argument that our demographic is getting significantly smarter - and tim's horrible title might actually have some more truth to it than we previously thought.