Kim Gentes

Church government is a topic that has as many opinions as there are churches. In fact, though the Bible talks little about church government directly, it is a main point of distinction among many Christian groups. This is both sad and telling of our fractured world and the bride of Christ. Because of this lack of cohesion, teaching and discussion among Christians on this topic, there are few writings on the subject that don't devolve into particularism.

One book I have recently read on this subject is Danny Silk's "Culture of Honor: Sustaining A Supernatural Environment". Silk is a senior staff member at Bethel Church in Redding California, most known for its popular leader, Bill Johnson. "Culture of Honor" is a different approach to church government than you might expect. It's main distinctive is embedded in the title of book- that the honor of people is the only way to true leadership of those same people. This is stated upfront in a succinct definition:

The Principle of Honor states that: accurately acknowledging who people are will position us to give them what they deserve and to receive the gift of who they are in our lives.1

Silk provides both strong points and excellent personal/church examples of those points throughout the book. The examples shine of the vibrancy of mercy, wisdom and faith that takes both God and people seriously. It is clear that Silk (and the book therein attributes this clearly also to Bethel) is looking to undermine the assumption of a business world influenced hierarchical church government and supplant on it primarily the pastoral care of mercy and wisdom within the context of a relational, not structure, based leadership. This is somewhat ironic because one of the main refutations that the book makes is actually a claim against the role of pastoral office as a primary overseer of the local church. But I will return to that later.

What I love about this book is it's common sense, and biblically based, understanding of its main thesis- that we are to honor people with the assumption of good in our hearts. Judgment is not an option, and even as leaders, we do not assume acts of "church discipline" are the first solutions to people's failures. In fact, Silk is almost masterful in his application of the Socratic method (guiding people through asking questions as a way of self-discovery) of pastoral counseling. He knows, like great leaders in history have always known, that people change only through internal acknowledgement and willingness to do so. This can often only come when those people are empowered through revelation of their own situation, failures, misunderstandings and sin. None of this can be imputed (and make a heart change) by typical "instructive" methods. Silk rightly leans on this key point:

Asking the right questions in the right way is one of the keys to creating a safe place.2

The author culminates a series of excellent examples into several poignant truths, debunking the need to chastise people into submission, and taking the message of Jesus mercy as the prevailing guideline for our actions, rather than the judgment and criticism so prevalent in many church governmental structures. He confronts this issue of judgment and its fallout head-on:

What offense does to you is it justifies you withholding your love. I get to withhold my love from you when you have broken the rules, because people who fail are unworthy of love, and they deserve to be punished. In fact, what punishment looks like most often is withholding love. And when I withhold love, anxiety fills the void, and a spirit of fear directs my behavior toward the offender.3

This brilliant statement is a cogent explanation of so many of Jesus teachings on leadership and sin, especially the specific lessons he was pointing to in his parables of the good Samaritan and the prodigal son. Silk, and Bethel, seem to have found an articulation for how to apply these deep truths that rises above the need to control people, based on their fear of "getting messy" with difficult situations and people.  The book pivots on the idea that "we are un-punishable"4, which is related not only as a core value but a culture changing reality for the church and the world- and who can argue with him! Silk has found in church government a place in dire need of the cross and Christ's work on it- the mercy of God, removing judgment from our realm to God's.

For these points, "Culture of Honor" is one of the best books you can read on church leadership and how to lead in relational grace rather than shaming or controlling people into "Christian behaviors". Interestingly enough, after recently finished reading Brené Brown's "Daring Greatly", I found that "Culture of Honor" is (at its core) a biblical exposition of the truths Brown discovers (through her research), that shame ultimately always fails as an effective motivator and leadership tool. An odd juxtaposition, to be sure, yet these books are linked in their foundational message of leaving shame-based methods and moving to forms of trust (in Brown's book vulnerability; in this book faith) that provide relational, not positional, power to influencing others.

Silk is expressive in his passion for his viewpoint and one can't argue with his experience for which he claims to be witness to the power of his model being operable- presumably, the church community he is a part of thrives in the leadership architecture of he describes in the book.  As I said, I enjoyed the book and found its primary points- honoring people, valuing their worth, Socratic-method counseling/pastoral care, creating safety in community and confrontation, the value of Christ's work making us un-punishable, avoidance of shame-based manipulation, faith/risk/vulnerability, reliance on the Holy Spirit, viewing the "on earth as it is in heaven" of Matt 6 as the primary perspective of God's kingdom intersecting and invading our real world, the inclusion of apostolic and prophetic ministries as essential components to local church leadership- to be excellent examples of the mercy-centered orthopraxy from which Jesus himself modeled ministry.

But to give this review its full treatment I must state where I felt the book falls short of what appears to be one of its main goals- to establish a new "order" of hierarchical rank in local church government. Specifically, Silk uses 1 Corinthians 12:28, which says "And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues."5 to attempt to justify this assumption about a hierarchical order of church government:

Paul clearly lays out an order of priority in this passage, and this order is related to the realms of the supernatural that correspond to each particular office.6

From this assumption, the author builds a lengthy argument and reasoning around establishing apostles as the current positions which should play the foundational role in church government. The problem is, he does not substantiate it well from scripture. One has to make the interpretive jump with Silk that "first...second...third" was implicit to authority and NOT to order of operation or a timeline. Further, the context of this entire section of Corinthians is actually the inverse point that the Silk is trying to draw from this single passage in a few ways.

View a detailed review of points that I felt were poorly made in this book.

This is disheartening, because (as I mentioned at the outset) this book has some excellent things to say. I love the main premise (and title) of the book, I agree with much of the foundational and grace-centered basis of the Bethel approach to leadership and conflict resolution, and I even like the important reconsideration of the roles of apostle and prophet into the local church government. However, the support and exploration of the church governmental theory is so poorly done as to undermine the value of the hypothesis. I am not even saying the hypothesis couldn't be true- I just don't think this book does a good job of doing that. Also, the tone of the book, at times, does not help endear the reader to give more benefit of the doubt to the author. At times, it sounds self-assured and perhaps even condescending to those who might not agree (a la "you might think you know, but listen, we've got this figured out").  I just think a bit more language of "consider this" throughout the book would have taken it from being a book that sounds sure of itself, to being one that church leaders might want to chew on and consider its points more seriously.

In the end, despite my long and detailed comments of frustration (mentioned above), I strongly recommend people read this book. Especially to any church leaders who are looking for insightful perspectives on church government. Struggle with this book, as I did. Read the stories, be inspired by them. And try to untangle the disconnected logic from the main ideas. As one church leader said "eat the meat, spit out the bones".  I initially read this book as an assignment, and when I was finished I thought "I could definitely serve at a church with that model". I'd use this book to explain the model- as it does that well- I just wouldn't try to use this book to defend it.

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/11qULKf

Review by Kim Gentes

1. Silk, Danny (2009-12-28). Culture of Honor: Sustaining a Supernatural Enviornment[sic] (Kindle Locations 179-180). Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.
2. Ibid., (Kindle Locations 318-319)
3. Ibid., (Kindle Locations 1076-1079)
4. Ibid., (Kindle Location 1181)
5. Ibid., (Kindle Location 566-568)
6. Ibid., (Kindle Location 569-570)
7. Ibid., (Kindle Location 720-721)
8. The prophetic model of Old Testament scripture, that Jesus did come to fulfill, is one of a Godly criticism to the people of Israel. Unlike our idea of explaining the future, most of what is labeled prophetic in the old and New Testament is the balancing critique of Gods voice. Often confronting, correcting compelling and reframing people's expectations and worlds against the call of God. Again, prophetic certainly does have a revelatory nature of all its operation but its clear that scripture most often has it as a balancing voice of insight meant to keep the Israel/the church from become self focused.
9. Silk, Danny (2009-12-28). Culture of Honor: Sustaining a Supernatural Enviornment[sic] (Kindle Location 746-747). Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.
10. Ibid., (Kindle Location 1326-1328)

Over 1600 years ago a young man made a journey- from a life dedicated to fulfillment in sexual passions and rhetorical conjecture to spiritual discovery and embrace of Christ and the church. That young man wrote down his story in what many consider to be the first autobiography in Western literature- "The Confessions". "Confessions" was written by Saint Augustine, who would later become the famed bishop of Hippo (Hippo Regius). His literary output, along with his philosophical and theological stature, made him one of the famed 35 "Doctors of the Church" throughout history.

The essence of the book is framed well by its title- this is the testimony of a man who pours out his confession and remorse of sins, all the while showing almost no regard for his own piety as viewed through posterity. But Augustine is anything but thoughtless. He is seen as one of the great theological thinkers in all church history. But "Confessions" shows us the strength and expanse of his character- his ability to be fully intellectual in logic and rhetorical arts, while being completely aware and involved through his passions and senses. He argues convincingly, at times, through understandings of sin, grace and even the essence of time, and yet feels, cries, repents, anguishes and joys all the experiences of his life.

"Confessions" first several books (chapters) are a chronological account of Augustine's life, beginning literally at his birth and eventually leading up to his conversion and eventual baptism into the Catholic church. He talks extensively about his vices related to sexual relationships, his search for "truth" (as found through various academic and religious pursuits) and his desire for integrity in ethics (viewed through scepticism of others dishonesty and his realization of his own duplicity).

Augustine was searching for the reality of eternity, joined the "trendy" religion of the day (Manichaeism) and pursued a worldly career with much success and promise (professor of rhetoric). Hints of his eventual conversion are seen early in his life, his mother being an ardent Christian. Augustine has deeply Platonic seeds planted by his "enlightenment" of true happiness that occurs when he reads Cicero's Hortensius, which disavows physical pleasures for the search of truth. Through a brilliant mind he deduced the fallacies of much of the materialist philosophies of his day and (at least in his intellectual pursuit) seems to be pounding on the church door to find God by the time he is finally captured into Christ by the words and influence of Ambrose, the brilliant orator and bishop in Milan.

Throughout the volumes, Augustine is deeply philosophical about a range of things related to internal sins and thoughts and temptations, but once he is converted and is baptized, his life turns completely from his focus on a secular career and sin indulgences. This is not because he has no more desires, but because he struggles with them, confronts them and ruthlessly surrenders his life to teachings of scripture and direction of the church. Once "in", Augustine becomes clear champion of the faith combating his former vices (especially Manichaeism and astrology) by writing and arguing against them. "Confessions" itself is part of that legacy of Augustine's apologetics. The book itself has a final section of 4 chapters that are starkly different than the first 9. Moving from an autobiographical style, Augustine moves into philosophical and intellectual explorations of the topics of time, eternity, matter, form, creation and even the Trinity. In the last two chapters he moves into a rhetorical interpretation of Genesis 1/2, explaining his thoughts on creation and trying to confer the possibilities of how portions might be scientific (though he never uses that term) and/or allegorical.

"Confessions" is a deeply human book, expressing for the ages the plight of the human soul- its vices, joys and ultimately its discovery of true purpose in the person of Christ. Augustine has a highly developed sense of emotions in this book, but it is coupled with a brilliant mind whose introspections range from core Christianity to profound theology. Though there are some topics and ideas that are obviously bound in the 4th century, along with its author, so much of this book is truly "modern", even "post-modern", in that Augustine looks both to philosophical thought and deductive experience to parse through the theories and realities he is facing in his quest for God.

The book is relatively short (270-300 pages depending on the version you have) and should be at the top of the reading list for any thoughtful person searching for truth, for reality and ultimately, for God. To struggle through "Confessions" is to struggle alongside Augustine, and indeed with the human narrative, from our base nature into the reality of spiritual discipleship and life. If you have this book for a school/college assignment, don't be afraid, get reading. It will not be disappointing. A true classic.

The great thing is, this book is available in every format, from paperback (I have the Penguin Classics edition), to digital book (I recommend the Oxford version for Kindle), and even on digital audio book.

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/12PaLZT

Review by Kim Gentes

The last 20 years has changed the church music landscape drastically. But do choirs need to be a casualty of this change? Dave Williamson, one of the most respected voices influencing modern choirs in the last 20 years, says an emphatic "no". His brilliant new book, "God's Singers", reshapes the vision of the church choir from performance group to a God-centered, worship leading troupe.

The book alternates between both heart and practical issues of choirs, helping you move into gradual change of developing a choir that can be good technically and in its motives. You will be challenged, encouraged, and wisely taught from one of the best minds and practitioners in church music.

The book is divided into 2 main parts-

●     A “What & Why” section

●     A “How” section

As you can guess the first section deals with biblical and philosophical foundations of Dave’s thesis. And what a clear thesis it is. Even before the book proper begins, Dave lets the cat out of the bag when he lays out his premise: "the choir is potentially the most powerful worship leader in any congregation."  The naysayers won't be long in hearing the what and why of Dave’s statement, as he lays out the facts for about 140 pages of insightful, loving, wise and even humorous dialog about why this is important and what we should hope for in a choir. What's more, Dave doesn’t spare himself in the dialog. In fact, many of the stories contained in the book are examples both of Dave’s failures (and learning from them) as they are times when God brought success through his grace. I love this about the book, because Dave sounds like a real person and we aren’t talked down to by someone who’s “made it”.

The second section jumps immediately into the fray of building and developing your choir with everything from helping pastoral leadership to understand and support the choir (for churches adding choirs for the first time), to transforming existing choirs, how to do interviews of choir members (prospective and current), how to organize a choir (including excellent job descriptions), how to creating a transformative choir retreat weekend, head-chart harmony, singing techniques, how to introduce a new song to your choir, leading a rehearsal, memorization, planning a service, sound check, working with praise teams, and on and on. Dave has packed this book so full of material, the only thing I caution is trying to go through it too fast! It’s rich and deep and helps on so many levels. In addition to all that (and I've skipped a lot of other things too numerous to mention) the back inside cover of the book comes with a full audio CD of exercise, samples and workout materials related to the book sections. Fabulous!

Whether you are thinking about starting a choir in your modern church or need direction for moving it forward from its current languishing, I can't urge you more strongly to consider Williamson's new book "God's Singers". Every church pastor and worship leader should read this book! You won't be disappointed!

Amazon Book Links (Dave's book is available in two forms)

Director's Edition: http://amzn.to/JOHHbt (Amazon)  or CBD (much cheaper)

Singer's Edition: http://amzn.to/Nc1Ed5

Review by Kim Gentes

NOTE: you can watch a video interview with Dave Williamson about both the book and his wisdom on worship leading choirs. The video is located here.

Saint Teresa of Avila is another of the Catholic mystics who has profoundly impacted Christian formation/spirituality in the last 500 years. Like Therese of Lisieux, St. John of the Cross and others in the mystic tradition, Teresa of Avila takes a route of growth that focuses profoundly on the topic of love and uses the lens of introspection to probe the depths of the soul to find and purge inconsistencies for the person to find ultimate union with God.

To begin down this path Teresa defines an expanded understanding of the soul as a philosophically different and complete component to a human being, much in the Platonic/Geek dualistic model of separated body/spirit. Her exploration of this soul description begins with its magnitude.

In speaking of the soul we must always think of it as spacious, ample and lofty; and this can be done without the least exaggeration, for the soul's capacity is much greater than we can realize, and this Sun, Which is in the palace, reaches every part of it.[1]

But within this Platonic construct, the imagery and understanding of the soul is quite articulate and helpful. Teresa jumps immediately into the examination of the inner self.  She finds in this inward journey, a more careful examination of the human condition, both as broken and beautiful agencies to the purpose of God. Again of this inward reflection, she says:

self-knowledge is so important that, even if you were raised right up to the heavens, I should like you never to relax your cultivation of it; so long as we are on this earth, nothing matters more to us than humility. And so I repeat that it is a very good thing -- excellent, indeed -- to begin by entering the room where humility is acquired rather than by flying off to the other rooms. For that is the way to make progress, and, if we have a safe, level road to walk along, why should we desire wings to fly? Let us rather try to get the greatest possible profit out of walking. As I see it, we shall never succeed in knowing ourselves unless we seek to know God: let us think of His greatness and then come back to our own baseness; by looking at His purity we shall see our foulness; by meditating upon His humility, we shall see how far we are from being humble.[2]

Teresa begins with the assumption that self-investigation is actually a way of expressing humility, since we are changed when we see the contrast between ourselves and God, our nature and God’s nature.  In fact, for Teresa of Avila, humility is acquired by self-knowledge. For most individuals in modern culture, this type of approach would seem more selfish and less apt for personal change. But this is the gift of the mystic writers - they actually become the true inquisitors of their own hearts, who deal in honestly and expect you will as well. 

What develops in this book particularly is a description of the soul as a series of unique mansions within mansions (something like a Russian doll configuration). The initial exterior mansions are representative of lesser levels of union with God, fraught with sin and seemingly regularly pulling people back to a starting of spiritual development largely due to a lack of freedom from sin and a continued unhealthy self-absorption. The interior mansions also correlate with levels of prayer progress that the adherent makes as they manage through these levels of mansions.

What anchors the mystics insistence on self-knowledge as a path to purity is their equally consistent trajectory of faith founded deeply in love. Love is the lynch-pin, the catalyst and end game for every point and sub-point of The Interior Castle, and the Avila saint says as much: 

As I have written about this at great length elsewhere,I will not repeat it here. I only want you to be warned that, if you would progress a long way on this road and ascend to the Mansions of your desire, the important thing is not to think much, but to love much; do, then, whatever most arouses you to love. Perhaps we do not know what love is: it would not surprise me a great deal to learn this, for love consists, not in the extent of our happiness, but in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything, and to endeavour, in all possible ways, not to offend Him, and to pray Him ever to advance the honour and glory of His Son and the growth of the Catholic Church. Those are the signs of love; do not imagine that the important thing is never to be thinking of anything else and that if your mind becomes slightly distracted all is lost.[3]

If there is any problem with the approach of the saint of Avila, it is not in the sincerity of her heart or the assumption that she puts forth that we should have likewise. Instead, it may be simply in the belief that such great wisdom can be birthed from a person living a life in the convents and taken for use among people who live daily in the strain and grime of broken humanity as it exists outside of the cloistered communities of the monastic traditions.

Product Link on Amazon: The Interior Castle

Review by Kim Gentes

[1]Therese of Avila,  “The Interior Castle”, translated E. Allison Peers (Radford, VA: Wilder Publications, 2008),Kindle Edition, Location 495

[2]Ibid., Location 509

[3]Ibid., Location 988

Clergy sexual misconduct is a complex topic. Attempting to identify, prevent and even confront it is even more arduous. In their book, “Betrayal of Trust: Confronting and Preventing Clergy Sexual Misconduct”, Stanley Grenz and Roy Bell attempt to tackle the gambit of definition, identification, prevention and confrontation of this topic, and they succeed. Grenz and Bell take a decidedly clinical approach to the book, rather than primarily a theological or pastoral vantage point (they do deal with the issue as it relates to pastors and their church communities, but most insight, sources, support and direction comes from the clinical arena).  This gives the text credence to the professional therapeutic community, as well as the clergy world.  While the book clearly articulates ethical implications of clergy sexual misconduct, it also investigates the far reaching effects on all parties involved- the victims, the pastor-offender, the pastor family, the local church congregation and even the broader representation of the pastoral offender as they stand as a representative Christ to the world/broader community.

For me, the most profound contribution of the book was to show (through numerous examples) that the definition of sexual misconduct is centered in the power granted (and used) by the offender via their position, status or trust in the local church community.  It is, then, from this position of power that misconduct is carried out, both because of its ability for the man in power to compel an opportunity for the woman to receive his advances and for the further use of that power to enforce an atmosphere of silence. Quoting psychologist Peter Rutter, the entire book is hinged on this specifically defined understand of sexual misconduct:

“any behavior by a man in power within what I define as the forbidden zone is inherently exploitive[sp] of a woman’s trust.”[1]

and

“sexual conduct between men in power and women under their care.”[2]

This definition of sexual misconduct as being rooted in a man’s position of power is crucial to identifying, preventing and challenging the behavior, as the author’s demonstrate by numerous examples. The first chapter of the book begins with explaining the extent to which misconduct has spread through all denominations and spheres of the Christian church. After that, the chapter identifies the scope of the problem across a range of spheres which such misconduct will impact- the pastor, the family, the church, the victim, and the gospel itself.

The second chapter explores the categorizations and situations in which a pastor can be “at risk” for sexual misconduct.  Chapters three and four explore the definitions and implications to which sexual misconduct is a betrayal of the trust and a misuse of power on the part of the offender.  In this section, the authors essentially place all responsibility for sexual misconduct between a minister and a congregant firmly on the shoulders of the minister. They quote Marie Fortune (which concurs with several other cited sources) by saying succinctly:

“it is the man’s responsibility, no matter what the level of provocation or apparent consent by the woman, to assure that sexual behavior does not take place.”[3]

Through a series of layered, logical arguments about power, authority and trust, the authors establish that the above is not only true, but is almost exclusively a male problem.[4] While not stating that it is inherently a male causation at work in the issue, the problem is due to the inequities of positions of power (both clergy and otherwise) being so dominated by men. Since power is at the base of the problem, people in power are the source of the misconduct.

The book goes on to make several helpful observations about how to minister to various groups of victims, recommendations and methodologies for prevention of misconduct, and even church response and possible guidelines for (church) governmental policies that may be helpful. All these items seem helpful.

One other very helpful point made by the book comes in the form of a listing of three proto-typical offenders of sexual misconduct: the predator, the wanderer, and the lover. While the stereotypes aren’t perfect, they articulate well the kind of people who may offend and what options we can consider in dealing with them.  Most poignantly, the wanderer seems to be potentially the most effective area to focus our efforts at prevention and restoration.  This is a helpful way to think about the issue, since it seems a fairly even-handed and thoughtful evaluation of what kinds of people may offend the privilege of the clergy position, for what reasons they might do so and how they might be equipped to avoid such offence.

That said, there were parts of the book that didn't seem complete or evenhanded. While understanding that clergy power certainly holds sway over congregants, there were three areas that intend power over a local church that are poised for the possibility of misconduct, but are not dealt with in this book. Other positions of possible misconduct are: spouse of minister, church boards and their members, and influential patrons of the local church.  Each of these positions hold possible power in local churches, none of which was dealt with in the book. I see that as a weakness of an otherwise excellent book.

That said, the majority of the book is insightful, compelling and helpful for churches and ministers. The oversights I have mentioned would have improved the book, but ultimately didn't deter from the book's effectiveness in the areas it attended to. For people with roles as pastoral leaders in church team, the most helpful thing to be learned from this book was the relationship of position/power to the potentiality of misconduct- that the minister is inherently endued with control in relationship to a congregant vis-à-vis the locus of power attendant to their position. Along with this control comes the corresponding responsibility for any and all actions of sexual misconduct between pastor to congregant.

Book Product link: Betrayal of Trust: Confronting and Preventing Clergy Sexual Misconduct

Review by

Kim Gentes

[1] Stanley J. Grenz & Roy D. Bell, “Betrayal of Trust: confronting and preventing clergy sexual misconduct”, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books 2001), Pg 17

[2] Ibid., Pg 17

[3] Ibid., Pg 94

[4] Ibid., Pg 17,19