Looking at the title, some might say, “Hey, aren’t you a teacher?”
Well, yeah, I guess at times I function that way in the Body, and my profession has been teaching for ten years, so … sure. But that is exactly why God has taught me so much about the gift and function of teachers in the Body.
Every gift of God is meant to be a blessing to the whole Body. But every strength and gift has with it the potential for abuse, and therefore an inherent weakness if not used properly. That is what I will discuss today.
The function of a teacher (or a teaching) is mainly interpretive and instructive. Therefore, there is a greater judgment for teachers and teaching. They are filters for the Word to the Body.
Not that I’m that strict on delinieating what teaching really is. I’ve been praying and started teaching, teaching and started prophesying, and other strange combinations that only seem so strange if you feel the need for scholastic categorization.
Which leads me to the first of three problems with teachers. In any subject of study, this is what happens. We feel, in order to understand something, that we need to break it down into individual parts to categorize and better explain. That dismantling then takes labeling and ultimately a new specialized language evolves around the subject. That’s all fine and good when dealing with mechanical engineering or economics, but the Kingdom of God shouldn’t work this way.
Because, not only do you get an unnecessary gap between “believers” and non-believers based on terminology alone, but you also get teachers whose authority is more based on their ability to speak a specialized religious language than their ability to encourage the Body in holiness, righteousness, love and good works.
This categorization also creates division. If one scholastic categorization of the Trinity doesn’t line up with another, they call each other heretics, when in fact the whole scholastic and worldly approach to the spirituality is the heresy.
This categorization also leads to a professional class, which results in a priest class isolated from the “laity”.
God once told me, ten years ago, in what almost amounted to an audible voice, “You can be a Pharisee about house church, too.” He was teaching me much of what I know about what people call “organic” church over the years, but it takes constant diligence to disallow your own view to devolve into religiousity and another form of legalism.
Pharisees are easily created with worldly scholastic approaches to scripture and spirituality. And they don’t usually even know they are Pharisees.
What made Jesus upset with the Pharisees (and other religious leaders of his day) was not their dedication to the Law. In fact, they were soundly accused of NOT obeying the Law … not obeying the HEART of it, at least. They had added, based on their own interpretation and instruction, more to the Law than it was meant to include, and then they made these additions a priority, even at the cost of the very purpose of the Law itself.
This is how you get cookie-cutter reproductive models (the franchise mentality) from both mega-churches and organic churches. Models and paradigms are easy for teachers to come up with and even easier for others to follow. Shrink wrap it in a book, stretch some scripture to back it up, and it can spread like wildfire if it worked in some little corner of the world. Following the Spirit alone is much more difficult.
I do believe in better ways and better principles, but usually it is much simpler and direct than many teachers want to make it. And despite their motivation (I quickly assume good motivations for the most part), they end up pulling people away from the simplicity that is Christ and overburdening the Body with traditions from men instead of the leading of God.
I’ve spent most of the time on the first reason because I’ve never heard anyone directly address it. I’m still relatively young and don’t hear everything, so that is fairly subjective, but I’ve heard enough to make it significant.
Then next two are easier to see, I feel, so should go a lot quicker.
The second weakness in teachers is the temptation to draw people to yourself instead of Christ. Again, it is really easy when you start talking and people are locked into every word you say and taking notes and complimentary after you are done. And in our modern religious culture when they put your name in lights and have you sit in special chairs, it is all an invitation to pride and self-seeking.
If you associate this 2nd reason with the first, then this self-seeking can become a career-minded path that places more responsibility and recognition on a single individual than is spiritually healthy, both for the Body and the individual leader.
In other words, you get people who agree with you because you said it, unquestioningly and unreservedly. There is a fine line between honoring spiritual leadership and hero worship. The former is godly and builds the Kingdom. The latter is of the enemy and builds worldly kingdoms.
Third and last, since the function of teachers is interpretive and instructive, this is how bad doctrine finds its way into the Church.
It is no coincidence that when Paul dealt with bad doctrine he also dealt with those who taught it. Bad doctrine doesn’t just show up. It usually comes through teaching, which requires a vessel, a teacher.
And what counts as bad doctrine is not what you might think. Bad doctrine either questions or misrepresents basic truth (like the gospel) or unduly adds traditions and philosophies of men to the power and simplicity of Christ.
Good doctrine “stirs up love and good works” not “vain arguments”.
Like I said before, and you’ve read here on this blog, I believe wholeheartedly in higher and better ways and that a major paradigm shift is needed in the Church. But you can only take it so far before it becomes about a formula and not following God at all.
I’ve seen people in very wrong paradigms live holy and righteous and full of love and compassion and dedication to the Lord. I’ve seen people in the right paradigms have very little of the character of Christ. I’m not justifying wrong systems or diminishing correct principles, only putting them in their proper place. God will not allow even correct paradigms to define or limit the immensity of who he really is.
I’ll go into some ways to guard against these things in a post soon.
Peace.