Addicted to Control: the Ongoing Crisis in the Christian Church.
by Christopher Wells 3/2025
The Christian church of today is in crisis. It is an internal crisis of its own making. Preceded by literally centuries of misguided and un-Biblical theology, many churches today practice a brand of Christianity that is more focused on controlling the members of its own congregations than on spreading the good news about Jesus Christ. The result is an anemic church that is bleeding membership and turning off many who are attracted to the message of Jesus, but not attracted to the authoritarian practices of the local church. The time has come for reformation.
I have entitled this series of essays, Addicted to Control: the Ongoing Crisis in the Christian Church. In this series I will be addressing several topics of significance and will have some criticisms about how many church organizations are governed, as well as touch on some doctrinal issues. Read in the wrong frame of mind, some may perceive that I am being overly-critical or that I believe the modern organized church should be abolished. Far from it. I am a passionate believer in the divine mandate given to us by God that has established the Christian church (including all of its legitimate expressions) as the pillar of God’s truth in the earth to spread the good news about Jesus, the Christ, for the salvation of all humankind.
Whether you are Catholic or Protestant, Baptist or Pentecostal, belong to a denominational church or an independent or non-denominational one, the issues I will touch upon have significance for all branches of the Christian church. Here is a list of the current problems facing the church that I will be addressing:
- Abuse of power (both passive and active abuse)
- Un-Biblical leadership structures
- Lack of sufficient accountability and transparency
- Un-Biblical subjugation of women
- Lack of a public forum for discussion
I will now share two brief stories to illustrate the spirit in which I approach this solemn task.
Recently, I confronted a close relative who is a believer on a matter of sin in their lives. I have known this person for my entire life and we love each other dearly. However, over the years, a particular sin in this person’s life has caused me and others I love great harm. While I have mentioned it to them before on various occasions, they had previously refused to repent, instead making excuses or explaining away their sin by blaming others or defending themselves by saying it was not sin at all. This individual was in their eighties at the time and rapidly approaching the end of their earthly life. I felt that it was the time to approach the issue once again in hopes that they would repent, stop harming others, and not risk facing the Lord Jesus without having made things right with God and others beforehand. Some weeks after my most recent intervention-style confrontation with them, they called me and confessed that they had repented of the un-forgiveness in their heart. I was overjoyed.
The second story is a parable of sorts.
The internal combustion engine has been, without a doubt, one of the greatest inventions ever devised by humankind and has benefited us all immeasurably. With it, cities have been built, lives have been saved, and immeasurable wealth has been generated by its many and varied uses. One of its greatest and most beneficial uses has been in the automobile. Yet, for all its usefulness, the early cars had significant safety problems. For example, they didn’t have seatbelts or airbags. In those days, a crash in a fast moving vehicle was almost certain to result in significant injury or death. These early vehicles were also not very fuel-efficient. I remember an older car we had when I was a teenager that got around twelve miles to the gallon. Today’s modern cars have seatbelts and airbags, as well as a host of other design features that make crashes (even at high speeds) far less likely to end in serious injury or death than before. Additionally, modern cars are much more fuel efficient. A Prius, for instance, gets between thirty-nine and forty-five miles to the gallon.
When the powers that be decided over the years to improve the safety of the automobile by adding seatbelts and airbags, they weren’t doing so because they thought the car was a horrible idea or that the early builders of said vehicles were evil geniuses trying to destroy human life in horrible accidents. They did so because they believed that improvements could be made to a good thing to make it an even better thing and prevent unnecessary injury and loss of life. Similarly, as improvements have been made to increase fuel efficiency in modern vehicles, those who made the improvements weren’t pointing fingers at the original designers and calling them idiotic backwards-thinking Luddites. They were simply making changes to make the engine more efficient than it had been before, so it could go farther on less fuel and ultimately serve the human race better.
My confrontation with my relative and the design changes made to improve both the safety and efficiency of the modern automobile have something in common. Both efforts were undertaken with a goal of addressing issues that were causing harm and limiting effectiveness so that greater good could be done.
I come to my present task with this same spirit. My hope is, as I write about issues that exist within many Christian churches that need to be exposed and changed, that the leaders of these churches will ultimately make the necessary changes and the effectiveness of the Christian church to expand God’s kingdom on earth will be greatly enhanced as a result.
Essay links:
Essay #1: How the Modern Church is Limiting the Body of Christ
Essay #2: Leadership in Today’s Church: What is Wrong and Why it Matters (Part 1)
Essay #3: Leadership in Today’s Church: What is Wrong and Why it Matters (Part 2)
Essay #4: Controlling Behaviors in Church Leadership – Part 1
Essay #5: Controlling Behaviors in Church Leadership – Part 2
Essay #6: Misogyny in Sheep’s Clothing
Essay #7: Iron sharpens Iron
Links of interest:
Article header photo by Kenny Eliason: https://unsplash.com/photos/white-and-black-concrete-chapel-in-low-angle-photography-771BfGqMtTs?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash
The website of author C.L. Wells 