Trusting God is Leading Us

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together wrote that everyone ought to sing the same part in church worship services. No altos, sopranos, tenors, or basses. Just one melody. That way the singing is united and not showing off to his or her neighbor. Don’t you agree? (Bonhoeffer, 59-60)

I think most of us church-goers would say, “That’s nice Bonhoeffer, but we think harmonization in our church is fine. We think it creates beauty and glorifies God.” I would also add, “It’s a relief to sing harmony when I struggle to hit the high notes.”

But how can we disagree with Dietrich Bonhoeffer? He was a famous German Theologian. He was hung by the Nazi’s in 1945 for being associated with a plot to kill Hitler. He was a brave, strong Christian. He wrote fantastic theological books. Isn’t Bonhoeffer an authority on how we ought to run our church? Shouldn’t we trust his instructions about singing?

To that, I think, we’d respond by saying that being killed by Nazi’s and writing great books doesn’t give that person the authority to tell our church how to sing. We are in awe of such Christian heroes, and we regard their work with respect. But we too have the authority to decide what is right by studying our Bibles and listening to the Holy Spirit. Like Hebrews 5:14 says,

“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Thus, the Lord guides each congregation in the best way to conduct their singing. One church decides a choir will do the singing; another only does chants; another repeats praise choruses fifty times in a row; another only sings hymns; another has decided they’re taking a break from singing altogether.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was right about many things, but he didn’t have the authority to say how all churches ought to sing.

Isn’t this also true when theologians, authors, and famous pastors say that all churches ought to do x, y, and z? Isn’t this an example of how they’ve spoken outside their authority? Have they been asked by God to judge this matter for all churches? Isn’t it true that they are only responsible for helping to make that decision for their own church? Isn’t this evident in the diversity of churches?

Some gatherings of people have met in homes and been led by women. Some underground churches have met in secret and been led by day laborers. Some churches have met under mango trees and have been led by foreigners. Some churches have met in prisons and been led by criminals. And some churches have met on plantations and been led by slaves. The diversity of church locations, congregants, and leaders is a testament to God’s diverse family. The diversity is also a testament to the freedom found in Christ to discern these things for ourselves without fear of condemnation.

Arguably, there’s no clear set of laws for the logistics of how churches must operate in twenty-first-century America where most everyone is literate, owns a Bible, and is educated.

It seems to me that when people in authority tell those who are NOT under their authority what they ought to do, the power has begun to go to their heads. Greed for more power, lust if you will, has probably crept in. Maybe even some insecurity with their doing things differently.

“One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting everyone else to give it up (Lewis, 78). Likewise, one of the marks of a bad man is that he cannot take a course of action without thinking everyone else ought to follow suit. It is a content and courageous man/woman who can follow Christ and not publish books saying that his way is the right way for everyone.

For us, this means some iconoclastic action is needed in the way we view some evangelical idols. They may have spoken in authority where God did not give them dominion. Consider this. Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and John Calvin all wrote that woman’s nature was inferior to men’s based on Paul’s writings. Because of women’s inferior nature, they said, wives were restricted as rulers/leaders. Aquinas in his writing On Nature and Grace believed that men and women had one nature before sin and two natures after sin, the woman’s nature required she be in submission to the man.

These church giants did the best they could with what they knew and what they believed the Bible said. But they were wrong. Women’s nature is not inferior to men.

Who then can we rely upon to know how to run our churches? It seems to me that if one day we will judge the world and even angels, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:2-3, then God has equipped us to judge for ourselves whether or not our churches ought to have women preaching, women in leadership, men working in the nursery, or what have you. It is not a decision for the theologians and Evangelical Bigwigs. It is a choice each body of believers makes based on how God has equipped and gifted each body of believers.

Has God given some the gift of teaching, let them teach. Has he gifted some to work with Middle Schoolers, let them work with Middle Schoolers. Has he gifted others with discernment, listen to their discernment. Has he gifted some with caring about maintenance, let them maintain something. Has he given some the wisdom to spot false teachings, let them guard the church’s doctrine. Has he given some leadership qualities, let them lead without lording it over others. Let them lead in a way that doesn’t cause others to lust over having such control, but rather to be humbled that their leaders would do such a service for them.

It is scary to be unique. It is scary to do something different than those we’ve trusted. Especially if we still believe they have authority over our lives. It requires quite a lot of faith to do so. Faith that God has given us the power to rule and decide for ourselves, and faith not to fear that we’re botching the whole thing or something terrible is bound to happen where God can’t comfort, forgive, or redeem. We also need faith that God is doing his good work in other churches even if they do something differently and write books about how we’ve done it wrong.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together. (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1954.)

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. (New York: Harpercollins, 1980.)