the stultifying effect of systems

I'm not a fan of systems. It seems like systems always take a good thing - like spirituality or religion or business - and corrupt that thing. When some worthwhile endeavor is made into a system, the results are not just second-rate; the results are negative, destructive and even evil - the opposite of good.

Systems don't recognize the individual. It's especially problematic when you try to systematize everything - all aspects of life - as they do in some religious groups. Someone has a problem?.....OK, bring in a leader to counsel them. Then the leader listens just enough to make an assessment about the ideologically correct (according to the system) analysis of the problem. They do a kind of calculation and come up with a formulaic solution that would apply to anyone with this problem. That's all the person is to this leader: a problem to be solved. 

When the guys from the Sydney Church of Christ were studying the Bible with me, what I didn't realize at the time was that the studies and the things they said were part of a formula. This was a process with desired results at every stage. I got to know that process very well once I had joined the group. But, over time, I came to see the studies as a kind of blunt instrument. Exactly the same studies were done with everyone, with the same expected results. There's no real discovery or newness, just a list of expected results.

One day I said to them that what I would like to do is to go away and read the Bible for myself, and reflect on the issues that they were raising, and come to my own conclusions - generate my own convictions from what I read. Their response was that it was much better to continue with the studies (what they call 'guard the gospel') because they knew what verses to point out and what to say about them and they could get me ready to become a disciple much more quickly than if I just studied the Bible on my own. So, I continued with the studies and got baptized and remained a member of that group for 12 years. 

It occurred to me recently that my original idea of reading the Bible for myself and drawing insights from it that are my own, is what ended up happening. Through all my years with that group and all the years since, to this day, I read the Bible regularly and draw my own insights from it. I think that's really what it's all about. It's about your own personal connection with God and you drawing meaning from the Bible.