On Critiquing the Church

A lot of energy has been expended on the internet over the past couple of weeks relating to the present state of the church in the UK. Much of this has stemmed from a radio interview given by a prominent and (let's say) controversial American pastor on a (let's say) variable Christian media outlet. It really is remarkable how worked up people can get when someone is seen to be throwing stones into their back garden. There have been a variety of contributions frm a variety of sources, but we should perhaps be careful lest the waters be muddied by reputations, personal defence or some other such vain contribution.

I say that by way of preamble while looking out of my window to see if anyone out there cares either. The reality is that the online obsession with 'he said, she said' is a level of woosiness that matters little to me. Here is what does matter though:

The church is in poor health in Scotland (and in the wider UK). There are, of course exceptions to that. There are cities where a handful of churches are being faithful (but it tends to be five or six churches doing the work of fifty or sixty churches). There is a proximity of city and a smallness of geography which has a tendency to make things feel more cohesive than they often are. Given our propensity to push against the mega church phenomenon in the UK it is ironic to see a level of optimism about the state of the church which would require those five or six churches to become mega churches to reach the cities they are seeeking to serve so faithfully.

These efforts at faithfulness are hampered significantly by denominations that are so broad as to cause any present doctrinal controversies to pale into insignificance. Ministry training is happening in colleges heavily influenced by liberal theology. The idea that God's Word is without error and that Jesus death was centrally for our sins to save us from God's right and just anger are less indulged than scoffed at. That's not even to mention a less than Biblically solid approach to matters of God's sovereignty and the nature of our justification in Christ. Such as the training colleges go the pastors, such as the pastors go the churches. Without question there are people taking a stand in these denominations, but the question may be are they ruining their best years of ministry trying to rescue organisations that are so broad and unwieldy as to make retrieval like trying to lassoo the moon. The reality is that much of the brave work going on now has been necessitated by a lack of decisiveness, clarity and well-intentioned naivete among previous generations. What has happened has been an incremental degeneration with a concession here and a concession there leading to the present climate. Courage is costly, it may mean a fresh start with nothing but that is better than another false start which doesn't achieve anything. The thing about having the courage of your convictions is that at some point it requires... eh... courage.

Part of the critique that was offered by our American friend was that there are no young UK pastors that everyone listens to. People have decried that as a typical American peddling their cult of personality. Should we maybe pause for a moment and consider that maybe he is onto something. No, I'm not going to start pushing that my sermon's are available online... or that I have some very Biblically capable friends who you might like to listen to. Instead, supposing he shot a target close to but not actually the real target. Part of the challenge of leading churches in the UK is that much of the sentiment can be of the 'you in your small corner and I in mine' variety.

Christianity in the UK is often partisan and parochial. The puritans used to use the word winsomeness. There is as far as I see an increasing winsomeness towards those who do not know Jesus which is exciting to observe. The lack of winsomeness is found more in our demeanour with one another, and we should be careful. Where the US enjoy the tendency of celebrating the All-American, we tend to view such a person as an overachiever. We love the underdog and, in true tabloid fashion look for chinks in the armour of those who (and we should bear this heavily in our souls) may have been granted a particularly fruitful ministry by the grace of God, and that may just be for a season of ministry according to the purposes of God. We ought to beware the idea that fruitfulness has necessitated something Faustian.

The lack of an itunes hero or two is not so damaging as the lack of something that brings a focal point to churches who are convictionally similar.In the US this is often accompanied by some figurehead preachers. I'm not advocating that for here, but nor would I necessarily see it as a negative. The reality is that we already have these prominent preachers- they happen to oftenest be American and not British- whose names can often become a shibboleth to our legitimacy. The reality is that a church facing the kind of challenges that the UK church is right now could do with a rallying point, a tangible place (or even people) around whom to launch a counter offensive.

I don't think that the critique is actually that far removed from what is already being identified nationally- perhaps we don't like someone saying it out loud. If the increasingly used term 'church resuscitation' doesn't speak to the environment we labour in then I'm not sure we are listening to ourselves well enough to start throwing the rocks in our back garden back at those who propelled them there in the first place. People may not like what was said, and may, for whatever reason, like even less the one who said it but here's the thing... How might God use this critique to help us if we humbly ask, what can we do to move things in a better direction? Just because we don't like it, doesn't mean it won't be good for us. How about we expend our energy getting worked up for God's glory rather than working up a repetitive strain injury venting our spleen via the blogs. There is much to do, God has granted us time to do it, and a nation that needs it- ready? GO!