The Wizard of Oz…and is Jamal Jivanjee crazy?

I’ve never really liked the movie The Wizard of Oz. Throughout my lifetime though I’ve been forced to watch it on multiple occasions when my kids or a family member wanted to watch it—it allowed me to catch up on some sleep. I can’t really put into words why I don’t like it, I just don’t.

There are portions of the movie though which have anchored themselves into my psyche; flying monkeys, the Wicked Witch of the West melting (particularly cool) and the Witch’s Winkie Guards parading up to her castle chanting in cadence “o-ee-ya! eoh-ah.”

Some have speculated the soldiers were actually saying is “all we own, we owe her.” I could see how somebody so dedicated to a person, or what represents a person, could be thoroughly loyal to the person, in spite of the fact that the Wicked Witch of the West was wicked. Personally, I think the Guards were asking for Oreos!

For several days I’ve read postings on Facebook regarding several videos that Jamal Jivanjee had posted relating to John Piper taking a sabbatical from his church, and Francis Chan stepping away from his church into what will likely be a different kind of ministry in which “church” looks different (his own words) for him and his family.

Jamal seemed to open a rather large can of worms to which dozens of Facebook friends (and perhaps soon-to-be ex-friends) responded. In his posted videos Jamal was bringing into question the “intuitional” church of the West, including America, and including the church in Kansas, Dorothy’s home state. I simply cannot forget Kansas now!

Upon reading the various threads of conversation, comments and feedback surrounding Jamal’s video, something became very apparent to me regarding those threads of conversation.

There were comments about pastor worship, and building worship, and worship worship, there were comments about a watered down gospel, Sunday morning productions, church as a social club, legalism, denominationalism, the cultural context, mega-churches, house churches, small groups, cell groups (lets hope Al Qaeda isn’t listening in), church in the First Century and church in the Twenty-first Century.

I am intrigued by the latter portions of The Wizard of Oz, especially the exchange in the Great Oz’s throne room.

The scene begins with the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow and Dorothy standing before the Great Oz holding the broomstick from the Wicked Witch of the West. Great flashes of fire erupt and green smoke billow around the ghastly image of the Great Oz. Simply terrifying!

During the exchange Dorothy asserts that they have held up their end of the bargain by bringing the melted witch’s broomstick, and she wants the Great Oz to do something today. To which the Great Oz responds, “come back tomorrow.” Feisty Dorothy replies, “I want to go home today.” Imagine that, meek turned no-so-meek Dorothy challenges the Great Oz.

In his booming voice the Great Oz responds, “I should be so lucky to have you tie my shoes.” No, wait a minute, that was the line from My Big Fat Greek Wedding when Toula’s mom, Maria, takes a jab at her husband Gus and puts him in his place. Actually, the Great Oz says, “do not arouse the wrath of the great and powerful Oz.”

Meanwhile, Toto sneaks off behind the silk green curtain, and like a miniature circus pony pulls the curtain back to reveal a simple old man standing at a bunch of controls that look like something in the b-grade sci-fi movie The Thing from Another World that was spoofed on Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

That segment of The Wizard of Oz, in a small way, reminds me of what it’s been like to be in vocational ministry and a pastor in the American Church. Things behind the curtain look a great deal different than in front of the curtain, as Dorothy and her ragtag group of friends discovered.

Throughout the threads of conversation regarding Jamal’s post there seemed to be a noticeable absence of identifying “the church” as people.

Almost all comments identified “the church” as an institution at worst, or an institution made up of people at best. As with Jamal, there were people who were assessing “the church” with a critical eye toward some of the things that seem to be wrong with “the church,” and, there were some people assessing those with a critical eye, defending “the church,” in spite of its blatant inadequacies.

In all of it there was very little talk about “the church” being people—God’s people, Jesus’ people.

“The church” has always been about people, the ekklesia, whether they’ve had physical structures or not. Jesus had a church of 12 men and a few women who supported his ministry, and his primary concern was for those people and others outside that circle that needed a new spiritual birth.

Others have said it, and I agree, as he hung on the cross Jesus probably never thought the impact of his sacrifice would be reduced to an invitation for people to join and to support an “institution”, but, in my thirty-six years of being a part of the American Church this is what I’ve discovered when I walked behind “the curtain”…Jesus is being lost in the institution that bears his name and all he stood for, lived for, died for and wanted his followers to accomplish. That doesn’t mean that everybody is part of the “institution.”

“Do you presume to criticize the Great Oz, you ungrateful creatures, think yourselves lucky that I’m giving you audience tomorrow, instead of twenty years from now,” the Great Oz bellows as he turns around and discovers he’s been exposed by Toto.

Many in “the church” don’t like it when the curtain is pulled back and things are exposed for what they are; they attempt to do what the Great Oz did as he began to stammer as he continued attempting to speak as the Great Oz into the microphone, even as Dorothy and her posse looks on and sees him for what he really is.

What was noticeably absent from the threads on Jamal’s video’s postings was a lack of discussion about what “the church” is supposed to be and do. Jesus pretty much summed up his ministry efforts in two sayings, “love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love others as your self” (the greatest command), and “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…” (the great commission).

Loving God, loving others as ourselves, going, making disciples, teaching them to observe (obey) is the essence of what “the church” is to be. All that is the visible expression of Christ to our world; the world gets to see the Head and the Body for what it really is.

When we start filtering everything we do in “the church” through that filter it becomes apparent that there is more “institution” than not.

First, a great population of “the church” doesn’t love God first and foremost; they demonstrate that by what they do with their money, their time and their possessions. They pursue money, materialism and self far more than they pursue God. I know this; I’ve been behind “the curtain.”

Second, they don’t love others as themselves; they enjoy the comfort of their homes, their possessions and the pursuit of possessions without regard for those in their neighborhoods who are without, and those across the globe who are without. We spend more on pet food in America than we do on feeding the world’s hungry, and I’m talking about “the church.”

We’ve constructed the “institution” in such a way that we say “stay” to those who consider themselves followers of Jesus when he said “go.”

We have great buildings with great amenities; we have everything from theatre-style seating, to million dollar light shows, to coffee shops, indoor playgrounds and folks to wait on us hand-and-foot; why would anybody want to leave that!

The average American will never “preach” (or live) the gospel in such a way that somebody asks them how to become a follower of Jesus. Statistics show that the average American will never lead anybody to Christ in their lifetime.

Behind the curtain I’ve discovered that “the church” and the vast majority of its leaders aren’t interested in making disciples, primarily because it’s extremely hard work, that you have to be in it for the long haul, and you have to walk with people through a lot of mess. The making of disciples is done so that Christ will have his full expression through his Body, the Church.

So, instead, “the institution” creates discipleship programs and classes that have no life-on-life interaction, and doesn’t teach people to observe/obey everything Jesus commanded so that they can live life as a unified Body.

My experience has been that an infinitesimally small number of people in the American church have become dedicated disciples of Jesus—regardless of what Church Growth Experts want you to believe.

When Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” I believe “few” is far fewer than we want to believe.

But don’t try telling the Great Oz that—he’ll just pull the curtain closed.

Jesus’ demand for being one of his disciples was to give up everything and follow him. That’s not what happens in the “institution”.

As spiritual leaders we haven’t made disciples who make disciples. As such, in the “institution” we have dedicated staff whose job it is to minister to people in areas such as marriage, children, singles, teens, men, women, finances, etc., yet what our staff consistently finds itself doing is attempting to correct bad behavior, put out fires, rescue straying teens, cajoling apathetic husbands and exercising benevolence trust as a stop-gap to poor financial stewardship; all of which could have largely been prevented by real discipleship. But I didn’t hear any of this kind of discussion on the threads relating to Jamal’s videos.

In The Wizard of Oz the old man pulls the curtain closed and proclaims “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain”

In other words, don’t believe all of what you see, it’s not good for you, it’s better you remain ignorant to what’s really happening.

Then Dorothy herself walks over to the curtain and pulls it back to reveal the Great Oz. Dorothy asks, “who are you” to which the old man replies “I am the great and powerful Wizard of Oz” as his voices goes from a shout to a frail stutter.

It seems that Jamal has pulled the curtain back on the “institution” and some people are screaming “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”

In spite of what can be observed and attested to, some people within “the church” refuse to believe that there is something seriously wrong with the church in the West. They’d prefer it be business as usual, because business as usual pays to keep the “institution” open, it pays salaries and it keeps the machine going.

I once had a conversation with a pastor of a large church that had been in the ministry nearly twenty years, say to me, “I’ve often thought that I’d like to be part of a missional church plant, but then I remember I have two kids about to go off to college…what am I thinking?” That comment reveals what’s behind “the curtain.”

As the scene in The Wizard of Oz continues the Scarecrow calls the old man a humbug, an old term for hoax. The old man agrees that he is a humbug, to which Dorothy then accuses him of being a very bad man. To which the old man responds, “no dear, I’m a very good man, I’m just a very bad wizard.”

Experience has taught me that “the church” has many very good men and women in it, but they’re not so good at doing what Jesus did and living like Jesus did, which sort of makes them a very bad wizard, if you will.

Good people don’t always do good things. Good people can be good people without being good disciples and good lovers of others and lovers of God.

The trio of characters then confront the Great Oz when the Scarecrow says, “what about the heart that you promised Tin Man, the courage you promised Cowardly Lion” and the Cowardly Lion says “and the Scarecrow a brain.” To which the old man proceeds to give the Scarecrow a diploma to make him believe he has a brain, he gives the Cowardly Lion a medal to make him believe he has courage, and he gives the Tin Man a clock in the shape of a heart.

Propping up an “institution” that masquerades as disciples making disciples by offering classes and a slick Sunday morning production is akin to the Great Oz giving token gifts to the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow with the hope that they’ll believe they’ve actually changed.

The “institution” leaves people deceived in believing they’re a committed follower of Jesus when in actuality they’ve given up nothing and worship themselves as they indulge in safety, comfort, security and convenience.

Lastly, the Scarecrow speaks up and says, “hey, what about Dorothy.” The Great Oz says the only way for him to get Dorothy back to Kansas is to take her there himself.

Funny, that’s exactly what Jesus understood his mission was; to take a few men to himself and teach them how to be like he was and is. That’s The Church, The Bride of Christ, the very thing he died for.

Is Jamal crazy? I don’t think so, I think he’s just pulled back “the curtain” and is looking for Oreos.