Trellis.

Part 2 in a series on the challenges of doing church post-Covid.

It seems to me that the church is both organism and institution. And although the word institution has some negative connotations, I think it’s a legitimate and necessary word (or concept at least) in our quest for understanding the origins, purposes, and challenges of doing church these days.

The dictionary describes an institution as “a society or organization founded for a religious, educational, social, or similar purpose,” or “an establishment devoted to the promotion of a particular cause or program, especially one of a public, educational, or charitable character.” So is an institution a good thing or a bad thing? Seems like it can be a good thing… as long as we understand its role and limitations. More on that in a moment…

So I guess we would agree that the church is an institution in the sense that it has a legal identity, leadership, governance, programs, staff, and often a physical facility. In most of the world its practical function is anchored pretty firmly in a Sunday morning worship service, supported by other activities around the edges. A few entrepreneurial types try to root their local church in small groups or outreach, but 99% will live or die by the weekly gathering.

So in what sense would we describe the church as an organism?

Even though organisms have their own structures, their essence is their life. There is breath in an organism, even plants, even cells. Organisms have relationships…that are organized by the institution. Organisms emerge, where institutions are built. There is an intent for the two to be symbiotic, but it seems to me that there is a somewhat predictable progression where the two often become competitive.

Whether we’re talking corporations or universities or governments or churches, the institution—unless managed exceptionally skillfully—often asphyxiates the organism. The examples of this are myriad, and the progression goes something like this…

Organism > Movement > Institution > Bureaucracy

(We could replace bureaucracy with “Blood-Sucking Imperial Sith Lord”) jk

Every church denomination began with an organism, a happening (an awakening we could say), that then gave rise to a movement. At this point the movement is still very “organic” as we see in the early church. The detonation of Pentecost spun the organism of the disciples into a movement that took Jerusalem by storm. A storm both holy…and quickly messy. Because humans are messy.

Before you know it, the care of the vulnerable is being overlooked (Acts 6), people are faking generosity (Acts 5), and the group is rocked by power struggles within and without (Acts 8, 15). The movement needs support, a container to hold the life of the organism, and so an institution is created: deacons, elders, councils, bylaws if you will (the epistles). And the organism is helped. For a time.

Eventually, as we all know, the institution is politically purchased, corrupted, and bureaucratized, and the organism that remains has to flee the institution for its very life, literally, into the desert, literally. The new (or renewed) organism of the Desert Mothers and Fathers spawns a new movement called the monastic movement, and it too eventually institutionalizes and bureaucratizes over the next few centuries until a new organism / movement emerges in the form of the Protestant Reformation (that everyone knows about) as well as the Catholic Reformation (which few of us know about).

The cycle of organism to institution back to organism back to institution is part of the human story. A necessary part I imagine. One needs the other…and eventually one is a threat to the other.

So enough of the history lesson. As normal people just trying to make life work, find some community, and follow authentic spiritual engagement, how do we do church?

growing the soul

Oh… you were looking for an answer? LOL. I’m just asking the question, framing some perspectives, inviting a conversation. So let’s talk about this. And let’s keep experiment with ways to connect honestly with God and one another. Our souls are desperate for the organism of church that has just barely enough institution to lift the Vine off the ground like a Trellis without becoming a cage.

serving the world

Jesus famously talked about new wine needing new wineskins. But if we stick with the trellis metaphor, there are a host of different models of trellising, some better for different vines, climates, geographies, etc. Maybe every human generation is a slightly different kind of “grape” and needs a slightly different kind of “trellis.” Maybe the church is in a World-wide Trellis Revolution. Maybe we’re on the cusp of some new “technology” (figuratively, not literally) that will help us do church in ways that support and release the full potential of our generation. May it be so.

takeaway

Trellis, not Cage.