Church Oligarchy
Dr. L. Praamsma in his The Church in the Twentieth Century (p. 216) calls attention to the common criticism that the World Council of Churches is run by a few leaders (an “oligarchy”).
More than once the oligarchic structure of the World Council has been criticized. Essentially, the government of this global movement is in the hands of a small number of men, ecumenical experts who not only prepare the meetings but also exercise a great influence on the formulation of the future decisions.
To a certain extent all of this is unavoidable. This is the way a big business should be operated. But a basic question still confronts us: Should the churches be organized as a big business? Are permanent offices and ministrations apart from those of the local churches justifiable on the basis of Scripture? Shouldn’t national and international assemblies of the church be of short duration and bear a humble character?
It is striking how aptly this criticism may also be applied to our own growing Christian Reformed bureaucracy. That bureaucratic establishment gets a further major increase with the recent decisions to establish a new office of director of pastor-church relations services and a full-time music editor. When questions were raised on the synod floor as to what salary would be paid for the latter office no answer was forthcoming.
How long will our long-suffering, quota-paying churches and membership tolerate the government of the Lord’s church being transferred to an oligarchy which, like the Roman papacy, increasingly seems to take little account of and give less account to t he churches and members which it is supposed to be representing? (See the article on church finances in the March, 1982, OUTLOOK).
P.D.J.
God is NOT mocked
Writing in the July 14, 1982 issue of The Presbyterian Journal, editor Dr. G. Aiken Taylor says, “No one will ever convince us that the date and time for the current space shuttle (Sunday at 11:00 a.m.) were not deliberately set to embarrass Christians—perhaps those Christians who have been outspoken in the NASA program. We will stick our neck out to predict that some of the experiments will go awry—for God is not mocked.”
Well, Taylor’s prediction was on target. It was announced following the launch that the rocket boosters that were supposed to parachute back to land to be used again, failed to do so. They were lost at sea, a loss of many millions of dollars. Scientists were not able to explain why the parachutes failed to open. With editor Taylor, we know the reason. God is not mocked.
H.V.H.