“The way that leaders have loosened their ties to churches in their own communities–in the places where they live and work–is deeply troubling. It signals the loss of one of the few social settings where the average “Joes” used to rub shoulders with the powerful, and where the powerful kept in touch with the concerns of average folks.” - Michael Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite.
A recent op ed piece in USA Today by Mchael Lindsay laments the departure of evangelical elites from local churches.
Lindsay spent five years interviewing some of the country’s top leaders. These included two former U.S. presidents, 100 CEOs and business executives, Hollywood icons, accomplished artists and renowned athletes, all of whom openly identify as Christians of the evangelical variety.
During the course of these interviews, Lindsay discovered that some 60% of these cultural leaders were not involved with a congregation in any meaningful way. Some of them were members, a designation that often did not translate into meaningful participation in the life of the community of faith. Others had actively disengaged from church life and sought spiritual development through other means.
Several CEOs, for example, noted their frustration that churches seemed intent on maximizing inefficiency. Churches, some claim, are “unproductive,” and “focused on the wrong things.” A substitute for such a frustrating experience can be service on the board of an organization such as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the very zenith of evangelical groups. Why mess around with a church when you can function in the boardroom of a global organization?
In some ways this is a natural expression of the evangelical impulse that favors efficiency and also of our preoccupation with impact. To many evangelicals small is irrelevant and local is vanilla. We prefer our leaders to be icons who inspire global movements with strong brands and multiple spin-off products for our niche market. A church, after all, may only be able to reach a community, but a satellite broadcast can reach millions around the globe.
That this is a natural expression, however, makes it neither helpful nor right. And this development shows that the (already weakened) fabric of evangelical ecclesiology may be at the point of unraveling.
Evangelicals have launched hundreds of invitation-only programs and organizations for everybody from business leaders in Manhattan to diplomats in Washington. This is a good thing, a means of seeking to contextualize the Gospel and Kingdom values to a specific place or profession. It’s my job, after all, to help do just this at Wake Forest so I’m not knocking it. However, these innovations mean nothing should they serve to sunder individual believers from the community of the church. The very robustness of these groups is based on the bedrock of a visibly community of people united to Christ through baptism and sharing life together as they follow Christ.
Let’s face it, Following Christ 2008 is a conference for people who may well one day fit into the constituencies outlined above. And certainly if and when you find yourself working in DC or on Wall Street, you will want some time of fellowship with others similarly situated. But that fellowship, as helpful as it may be, will fail to meet the full scope of our spiritual needs.
For the purpose of meeting these needs, God instituted the church. That evangelical elites are abandoning the church is worrisome not only in that it perpetuates the divorce between average Joes and elites, but more so in that it is a trend toward the abandoning of God’s primary redemptive vehicle. Does the church do some silly things? Sure. Does it sometimes seem like we’re trying very hard to show people the door? Yes. However, all of this doesn’t change the fact that the church is foundational.
John Calvin notes:
“[L]et us learn, from her single title of Mother, how useful, nay, how necessary the knowledge of her is, since there is no other means of entering into life unless she conceive us in the womb and give us birth, unless she nourish us at her breasts, and, in short, keep us under her charge and government, until, divested of mortal flesh, we become like angels. For our weakness does not permit us to leave the school until we gave spent our whole lives as scholars. Moreover, beyond the pale of the Church no forgiveness of sins, no salvation, can be hoped for….” Institutes 1: 4
There is nothing wrong with being involved with a myriad of evangelical organizations that relate to your specific vocation. However, it can never be a substitute for your membership and participation in that new community called church.