The other day I asked my good Congolese friend what he thought about hierarchy. I asked him if he thought it was biblical. You see, in this DRC culture hierarchy is clearly evident, especially in the local church. Tribalism has been modified within the church walls. The more important people sit closer to the front. The closer to the front you are, the better odds you have of sitting in a nicer, more comfier chair, and not a hard wooden bench. If you are the lucky preacher, you have the “throne room chair”. Some churches have above this royal seat its own personal overhead fan. Keeps you cooler than everyone else in a the hot and stuffy church. And the women will sit on one side of the church with all the children, and the men will sit on the opposite side. And if your skin colour happens to be white, you have 2 seating options: A) Front row seats; B) Or the “special VIP section” off to the side of the pulpit.
These things wouldn’t bother me too much if they didn’t feed this invisible hierarchy of importance. My Congolese friend said that God institutes hierarchy in the church to keep us from being a chaotic mess. He says that hierarchy allows us to be organized, to keep everything in order.
I am a U2 fan. They are simply a fantastic timeless rock band. I respect and enjoy their music, lyrics, and especially Bono for his attempts to be a voice for third world poverty in Africa. He is a man of action who does seem to want to sit idly as the African world is suffering many injustices. One thing perplexes me, however, about Bono. He acts like a Christian, he sometimes talks like one (except for those few cusses coming out of his mouth, ain’t very “Christian” is it). He has never professed to be Christian to my knowledge (is this true?). My understanding of Bono is that he has this gross distaste for the church as an institution or as an organized religion. I don’t get it. The church could not exist without being an institution. Sure, its hurting a lot, a walking-crippled bride of Christ. There is sin in the church. Surprise. There is no evidence in the Bible of an idealized church. Churches are twisted up cess-pools of sin (in its ugly and real state). The beauty of the church is that out of God’s abundant, overflowing mercy, He chooses to make the church into something useful and eventually, very gorgeous. And we are the Bride of Christ. I don’t get it, but this is the way it is.
Bono says; "People have been perverting the Gospels and the Holy Scriptures since they were first written—mostly the church. This AIDS emergency actually is just such a valuable example of everything that's wrong and perverted about Christianity today…There should be civil disobedience on this. You read about the apostles being persecuted because they were out there taking on the powers that be. Jesus said, 'I came to bring a sword.' In fact, it's a load of sissies running around with their 'bless me' clubs. And there's a war going on between good and evil. And millions of children and millions of lives are being lost to greed, to bureaucracy, and to a church that's been asleep. And it sends me out of my mind with anger…[I want] to implore the church to reconsider grace, to put an end to this hierarchy of sin. … All have fallen short. Let's stop throwing stones at people who've made mistakes in their life, and let's start throwing drugs."
I believe with my Congolese friend about hierarchy being biblical. How else can a church be lead if there is no leader? It seems like an organizational method of God to bring order to the church. Yet church hierarchy gets distorted from its true purpose when sin gains control of it, substituting itself from the Holy Spirit. Because in a Holy Spirit filled church there are no different levels of importance, just different positions and gifts all used to build people up, to go out into the world as God’s witnesses in a hurting world, to ultimately bring God glory, not ourselves.
When I preach in DRC I will probably sit on the “throne room chair”. Its rather uncomfortable sitting up on the front stage facing the congregation in a cushioned seat. Let’s not play games here, this church is full of sinners, including the preacher (that would be me on that day). The preacher will probably be tempted to of himself as better as almost everyone else in the room (pride). The congregation will probably think that the preacher is better than them (another form of pride). And since he has white skin, they might view him as a “little god” (lower case “g”). True scary stuff. This simple setting easily gives the impression of the twisted ness sin causes in a hierarchy of importance. Yes, sin is present in the church just like it is in the secular pagan city marketplaces. Show me a place without sin and that would be heaven, and we’d be dead for that to ever happen.
In a third world country where poverty rules, people walk and talk the dusty streets with their high tech cell phones. This bothers me because I think it feeds this hierarchal system which rates one persons worth greater than another by what he has or doesn’t have. Its sick to me because people act on what they really believe in, and I guess many people believe there is worth in having a cool cell phone. Sick. And on a tribal continent where human life is based on what tribal group you are from, and on a bad day, in a bad setting, you might find yourself being attacked and brutally killed because of it. In my limited opinion, this is the simplistic and sick cause for what we call genocide. When I return to Canada shortly, I am going to think twice before I might purchase a cell phone. Not very cool.