Chaos Versus Control in the Church of Christ
The CoC has a serious identity crisis. You can call it bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, but by whatever term you choose, if the CoC were a human being, it would be seriously mentally ill. The problem is that it veers between the two extremes of being very rigid and controlling and being utterly chaotic, and the mixed messages that you receive as a child in that environment are maddening. Let me give you a few examples.
The church service: The CoC likes to say that everything is done "decently and in order," yet it rejects any sort of liturgy as being man-made (and Papist, to boot). So, although there is some structure to the service (in fact, every single CoC I've ever attended has followed pretty much the same order of service), if you look beneath the surface, things are quite chaotic. The sermon is on whatever random topic the preacher chooses. The scripture reading, if any, is often a Psalm and usually has no relevance to the topic of the sermon. And the song leader can usually be seen picking out a few random songs just moments before the service starts, usually choosing them on the basis of whether the congregation can sing them, not whether they match the sermon topic. At the end of the service, when they ask whether any of the men have any announcements, instead of just reminding folks about the potluck in the park on Saturday, some people would take it upon themselves to use the opportunity to denounce fellow members in front of everyone. I used to hold my breath at the end of every service, hoping that no one would say anything controversial so we could just get out of there and go home to dinner.
Prayers: Again, because the CoC rejects liturgy, it insists that prayers be spontaneous and from the heart. Of course, it's hard to come up with something eloquent on the fly. So what this means in practice is that you either get the guy who rambles on aimlessly for 10 minutes or the guy who recites the exact same prayers that he's been saying since the Nixon administration. As a side note, the kids in the CoC Bible classes are taught to memorize the Lord's Prayer, but the church never recites it during a service, labeling it "vain repetitions."
Church organization: The CoC is officially not a denomination because there is no central council or synod that determines what goes on in the churches. However, the CoC behaves like a denomination in many respects, and there is an informal network of preachers, deacons, and elders that gets together and shares ideas for how to do things. So wherever you go in the United States, all the CoCs look, sound, and act exactly alike. It's quite spooky, actually.
Church doctrines: Here's where it gets sticky. On the one hand, unlike them durn Catholics, who don't read the Bible and just let their priests and Pope tell them what to do (Disclaimer: this is the CoC's view of the RCC, not mine), the CoC is democratic in that everyone is free (and encouraged) to read the Bible for himself and form his own opinions and convictions...but the church is the pillar and foundation of the truth...but you're supposed to work out your own salvation in fear and trembling...but if you do something another member doesn't like, you're accused of offending that person or causing him to stumble...and if everyone else in the church believes something, you'd better believe it, too, or they'll start procedures against you for spreading false doctrine.
Interpersonal relationships: The CoC is a breeding ground for dysfunctional, codependent relationships. You aren't responsible just for yourself, you're also responsible for the feelings of everyone in the church, so a great deal of emphasis is placed on conformity with middle-class living standards and appearances. There are people in the church who take it upon themselves to try to control every aspect of everyone else's lives, to make sure that they're setting a good example to the outside world. I found that aspect of church life to be very suffocating and controlling. At the same time, however, we're supposed to be a peculiar people, who aren't afraid to stand out from everyone else and be different for the sake of the Lord. So, we're a bunch of conforming noncomformists? It makes the mind reel.
I strongly suspect that this tug of war in the CoC has its roots in its beginnings as a backwoods church, populated by people who were living a hardscrabble life and barely getting by. Every day was a fight to keep chaos and ruin away, so church was a refuge of order and calm. Even today, the few people who are converted to the church from other religions tend to be people whose lives are in disarray--those coping with drug addiction and alcoholism, mental illness, or family breakdowns. They like having someone tell them how to live their lives and give them a formula for salvation. To be fair, in the short term, I have seen some people benefited greatly by that external control. What always happens, unfortunately, is after they get their lives together, they start to grow and study and question the CoC doctrines and practices, and then they get into trouble with the rest of the congregation. The church simply can't tolerate dissent, and those folks almost always get kicked out. So the church helps chaotic people get their lives under control, and then casts them out into the chaos again. If that isn't mentally ill, I don't know what is.
The church service: The CoC likes to say that everything is done "decently and in order," yet it rejects any sort of liturgy as being man-made (and Papist, to boot). So, although there is some structure to the service (in fact, every single CoC I've ever attended has followed pretty much the same order of service), if you look beneath the surface, things are quite chaotic. The sermon is on whatever random topic the preacher chooses. The scripture reading, if any, is often a Psalm and usually has no relevance to the topic of the sermon. And the song leader can usually be seen picking out a few random songs just moments before the service starts, usually choosing them on the basis of whether the congregation can sing them, not whether they match the sermon topic. At the end of the service, when they ask whether any of the men have any announcements, instead of just reminding folks about the potluck in the park on Saturday, some people would take it upon themselves to use the opportunity to denounce fellow members in front of everyone. I used to hold my breath at the end of every service, hoping that no one would say anything controversial so we could just get out of there and go home to dinner.
Prayers: Again, because the CoC rejects liturgy, it insists that prayers be spontaneous and from the heart. Of course, it's hard to come up with something eloquent on the fly. So what this means in practice is that you either get the guy who rambles on aimlessly for 10 minutes or the guy who recites the exact same prayers that he's been saying since the Nixon administration. As a side note, the kids in the CoC Bible classes are taught to memorize the Lord's Prayer, but the church never recites it during a service, labeling it "vain repetitions."
Church organization: The CoC is officially not a denomination because there is no central council or synod that determines what goes on in the churches. However, the CoC behaves like a denomination in many respects, and there is an informal network of preachers, deacons, and elders that gets together and shares ideas for how to do things. So wherever you go in the United States, all the CoCs look, sound, and act exactly alike. It's quite spooky, actually.
Church doctrines: Here's where it gets sticky. On the one hand, unlike them durn Catholics, who don't read the Bible and just let their priests and Pope tell them what to do (Disclaimer: this is the CoC's view of the RCC, not mine), the CoC is democratic in that everyone is free (and encouraged) to read the Bible for himself and form his own opinions and convictions...but the church is the pillar and foundation of the truth...but you're supposed to work out your own salvation in fear and trembling...but if you do something another member doesn't like, you're accused of offending that person or causing him to stumble...and if everyone else in the church believes something, you'd better believe it, too, or they'll start procedures against you for spreading false doctrine.
Interpersonal relationships: The CoC is a breeding ground for dysfunctional, codependent relationships. You aren't responsible just for yourself, you're also responsible for the feelings of everyone in the church, so a great deal of emphasis is placed on conformity with middle-class living standards and appearances. There are people in the church who take it upon themselves to try to control every aspect of everyone else's lives, to make sure that they're setting a good example to the outside world. I found that aspect of church life to be very suffocating and controlling. At the same time, however, we're supposed to be a peculiar people, who aren't afraid to stand out from everyone else and be different for the sake of the Lord. So, we're a bunch of conforming noncomformists? It makes the mind reel.
I strongly suspect that this tug of war in the CoC has its roots in its beginnings as a backwoods church, populated by people who were living a hardscrabble life and barely getting by. Every day was a fight to keep chaos and ruin away, so church was a refuge of order and calm. Even today, the few people who are converted to the church from other religions tend to be people whose lives are in disarray--those coping with drug addiction and alcoholism, mental illness, or family breakdowns. They like having someone tell them how to live their lives and give them a formula for salvation. To be fair, in the short term, I have seen some people benefited greatly by that external control. What always happens, unfortunately, is after they get their lives together, they start to grow and study and question the CoC doctrines and practices, and then they get into trouble with the rest of the congregation. The church simply can't tolerate dissent, and those folks almost always get kicked out. So the church helps chaotic people get their lives under control, and then casts them out into the chaos again. If that isn't mentally ill, I don't know what is.
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