Well maybe the title is not so accurate, I’m not waiting for something to alleviate boredom like Vladimir and his partner.

I am, however, awaiting news from a little known conference.

In the meantime, thanks to Kelcy for a reference to the new article by Douglas Jacoby.

At first, I was thinking along the lines of “Well – Duh,” but then another thought struck me. You know, high pressure situations also create groupthink and many of the former ICoC congregations are in high-pressure situations. Some are learning how to be autonomous after years of decisions being made higher-up. In those churches, there can be members that are unhappy with either “slow progress” or “getting away from what made us great”. Evangelists are getting copies of the Portland Bulletin mailed to them talking about the great ‘turnaround’ in Portland. On top of all that, these leaders may be suffering a real identity crisis. After years of being defined by how ‘fired up’ they were and how many were getting baptized, all of a sudden, the only person demanding anything is themselves. I have witnessed such a painful experience and it is quite difficult.

In light of one or all of these pressures, how easy is it to let someone at a bigger church do some or all of your thinking for you? Seriously, there is pressure and it doesn’t feel like there is time to think through issues, why not just rely on someone else that has already done a lot of work? My church did it with our study series. I’ve seen other churches do it with everything from missions, to preaching, to church leadership. As an example closer to home, you ever rewrite an encyclopedia article as a report for school?

Outside of the ICoC subculture, groupthink has also created some issues. For example, in Matt 19:24 Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. There are commentaries that mention a “Needle Gate” that is very low and narrow. It required the camel and rider to crouch in order to enter Jerusalem. I heard this a few times growing up and in the church. I’ve heard it preached as a way to present what Jesus really said similar to Luke 14:26. (You know, he’s not really saying hate, what he really means is …)

Back to the point, there was no Needle Gate. It doesn’t exist. The earliest mention of it is an eleventh century theologian. This continued throughout the Middle Ages. Late, Victorian tourists to Jerusalem were even ‘shown’ the Needle Gate. Amazing what writers of commentaries resort to in order to get published. It is also amazing what we will quote in order to make the Bible say something that it does not. That, however, is a topic for another post.