The Dangers of the Institutionalized Church

An institution exists to establish a structure, a system, a process around a cause, to make it efficient. And this is needed, and good - to provide a smooth run, to be fair, to provide accountability. However the idea of an institution works best when the cause, the goal - is tangible, is measurable.

And here-in lie the dangers in institutionalized religion. The Church for example, is in the business, not of running a glorified club in the most efficient manner possible, but is in the business of saving souls. This is a very intangible goal. Our values, our focus, our energies need to be always geared towards this. That is why the Church was established not with constitution and laws (these came much later, it might surprise many how we functioned without any of these till very very recently) but by the unshakable rock of faith in Christ the Son of God, as expressed on our behalf by St. Peter.

Some dangers I see in overly institutionalizing the Church :

1. The tendency to overrule the spiritual: We are Christians first -- followers of a simple uneducated man raised in a carpenter's family -- who taught us to love and forgive. In our quest for efficiency in the process, we overrule the spiritual, we throw away humility -- we lose the human element -- and so we lose Christ -- so we feel it is ok to insult and belittle each other, as long as a clause in the constitution is upheld. We forget that without the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit brooding over our works and our words like He brooded over the waters before Creation, the entire Constitution is worthless.
2. Failing to appreciate the volunteer: An institution in the secular world is run by professionals. Professionals are paid for their work. On the contrary, the bulk of the "institutions" in the Church are run by volunteers. The volunteers are motivated by their own drive and passion towards the cause. They sacrifice their time, money and resources for the cause. This drive of the volunteer gets killed when there is unfair criticism directed towards his\her work. Everyone tries to give their best, but failing to see the good in the volunteer can be disastrous. In a secular institution it is not a big deal as the pay somewhat compensates -- however in the institutional Church, this becomes very quite relevant (and often ignored causing chaos)
3. The tendency to lose the personal: There is a goodness in wanting a professional approach to everything we do in Church, especially the administrative matters. When we see everything "officially" though, we lose the personal touch so much needed at the core in every aspect of the Church. There is a fine balance needed really. This is true in the secular institutions as well. The personal relationship really compliments the professional. But especially so in the Church. If there is no real personal connection with the priest and the parishioners or between parishioners, this shows in the quality of the work they do "officially" in the parish.
4. Failure to be welcoming: The Church needs to be looking constantly to "make disciples of all nations". This means we ought to be perceived as welcoming, to say the least, to those around us. We often fail in this aspect while applying the the laws and canons we have been given. An institution in the secular world really does not have this as its highest priorities. There in lies the conflict of interest, which we need to understand.
5. Failure to reach out: The Institutionalized Church is happy with "reaching out" once or twice a year to the society around with some charity checks, or some token activities, just enough to add a couple lines in its annual report. This is because the Institution in the Church has several other "activities" to cater to in the calendar year -- like the picnic, the family night, the outings, cruises, the Perunnals, Harvest festivals, the carols etc. etc. While most other activities in the Church other than worship can be clubbed together mostly as team building exercises or fund raisers for sustainability, which have their significance, reaching out to the society around should become the core of the life of the parish and should be a natural result of the faith in Christ worn by the Church. Your Christ was with the afflicted always, how can you find comfort in your coffee hour alone?   Connected to this is a false notion among us, that we are building the Church "for our children". Our children will probably never stay with us when they grow. The parish needs to reach out and invite the locals, adapt and be welcoming to them, become relevant to them and become their Church. That is the real purpose of the "parish Church" -- to become the local Church, the community Church, the locality Church. The Constitution and the by-laws alone will not help us reach there.
6. Loss of the servant leader: "For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (St, Mark 10:45) This is the basis of the call to serve(diakonia) in the Church. From Christ's example, we model the idea of the servant leader, the leader who serves (and even gives up his life for the others). This is generally opposed to the model of hierarchy and its functioning in the secular institutions where the manager at the top orders and the others follow. This concept of service by the leader, so fundamental to the Church and useful to society gets lost when the idea of an institution is applied rigidly for the Church.