In their book A Church Called Tov, Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer flag up the dangers of churches making people sign membership covenants in order to join.
They point to how such contracts, apparently increasingly common in US churches, have been weaponised.
They require people to raise concerns only in fixed ways and have been used by bad pastors to silence victims of abuse.
They can give a lot of power to those who want a cover up, and foster a toxic culture where victims are persecuted.
This whole idea of having to sign a church covenant seems a bit weird to me because, in the Church of England, membership of an individual church is open to anyone who has been (a) baptised and (b) either lives in the parish or attends that church regularly.
Dispersing power
To me, the important thing is to disperse power. To quote Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” And healthy church cultures occur where there has not been an excessive level of power concentrated in one man standing at the front.
The authors suggest that narcissist pastors like to avoid structures that contain accountability. Hence, they often prefer individual, non-denominational churches where they can fill the board of elders with people subservient to them.
I prefer the Anglican way in which individual church leaders are accountable to a diocese and also to the members of the church through a parochial church council. No human system is perfect but it does at least allow some accountability.
Conversely, membership covenants about giving the power to those running churches.
Centre on Jesus
The real covenant is between God and those humans who follow him. And we do, in churches, need to make sure that we are focusing on God, rather than on leaders.
That’s why the traditional design of a church is so helpful, with the communion table front and centre. The bread and the wine is a reminder that the central idea is what Jesus did on the cross and an opportunity to experience God’s presence.
I like a well-presented, eloquently delivered expository sermon as much as anyone, but churches should be about Jesus, not the preacher. If a church celebrates pastors who preach while wearing items of clothing costing thousands, it has lost sight of Jesus. The Messiah offered a different steer when he read out Isaiah in Luke 4:14-22 (CSB):
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me
to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Rather than look at ways to be controlling, church leaders should be looking at how to follow the loving example of the Messiah.
