WHAT IS GOING WRONG?

Over the last 12 months when I have been working on the leadership study, I have become acutely aware, through research and personal experience, of the casualties that the church is producing.

I hear of and meet people that have been burned by the church or church leadership, and whilst they haven't given up being a disciple of Jesus, they have given up on institutionalised church life, as it is too painful to be involved.

At the same time, I have noticed how the leadership of the church is either struggling because of the expectations put on them in the climate of the professional christian concept where the leader is the performer and the congregation is the audience, or they believe that they are God's gift to the church and they are to be obeyed without question.

It seems one of two things happen. Either the leader is burnt to a frazzle trying to cope with expectations or he is in control mode to make sure he gets the results he wants that will make him look good.

In both cases, it is all about him, not about making disciples of Jesus and the needs of the congregation. It is not about establishing the Kingdom of God but about building a personal empire.

I believe that this as much as anything indicates that man made religion and tradition has had its day and we need to find new ways of being church. We need look no further than the New Testament to find out how it should be done.

All over the world, there are people who are taking the scriptures seriously and putting into practice the pattern set down in the book of Acts and the Epistles for a vibrant, glowing church that has Jesus as the head and every member a contributing member.

Of course, organised religion is trying to disparage this New Testament norm as a fringe and unscriptural group of people, believing that ritual and control are the norm. When the evidence of scripture is assessed with an open mind those who trumpet the normalcy of tradition and clericalism have no foundation or support from scripture.

Those that meet in homes, eat meals together and allow every member to be a contributor in meetings are the ones that have the runs on the board. The non hierarchical house church is the one you will find in the New Testament, not the clerical led hymn prayer sandwich in a public building, no matter how ''inspired"or ''anointed" it is. As we know, given the right people, you can whip up a lot of emotion and anointing that masquerades as the presence of the Holy Spirit, whereas in fact it is nothing more that a warm fuzzy feeling that the right music can create an atmosphere for.

The true church is about relationship, not performance. The scriptures says that people were impressed by how much they loved one another, not by their singing, music, preaching or how much they could whip up the crowd into a state of spiritual euphoria.