I don’t know much about Andy Stanley. I know generally who he is and that he is the pastor of a huge church in the United States. I have read some of what he has written, but I don’t know a great deal about him. He made the news recently because he said that the evangelical church in the United States is in a state of emergency. This is interesting coming from someone who leads a church that has multiple campuses and draws almost 40,000 people per week. If Andy Stanley thinks that there is a state of emergency, then what about your average pastor helping to lead a church that has likely seen a major decline in church participation from pre-pandemic times to now?
The CNN article which includes an interview with Andy Stanley presents the emergency in the American context. Stanley, who sees himself as on the political right mentions the pandemic and politics as indicators and instigators of the emergency.
As someone who was a pastor for 25 years in an evangelical church, much of what Stanley says about the crisis resonates with me. The article mentions a new book that he has out which emphasizes that Christianity is actually about losing, not winning. That’s true. Jesus gave his life. Jesus was not about demanding his rightful place and he certainly does not present as nostalgic for a better time. By almost every measure of success that our society currently holds (including that of a huge congregation or following) Jesus was a failure.
And yet.
I am interested to hear what you think about the state of evangelical Christianity.
Is it in a state of emergency?
Is it dead?
Are there fewer people attending your church than used to?
Do you attend church?
Do you miss it?
Is it upsetting to you that the evangelical church is/seems to be dying?
Or, do you see hope and opportunity in this demise?
Every day I find myself praying for pastors and leaders in the church, evangelical and non-evangelical. It was hard enough to try to hold a church together and help give direction before the pandemic. Now it appears almost impossible.
There is much more to talk about, to hear about on this topic, for now I offer a few brief points of reflection:
The Christian church has always been about death and resurrection
Only with the old thing dying can the new be born
The renewal and re-birth required for the church is theological renewal, not a re-design of programme and decoration. It certainly will not find its life in political power and influence.
This theological renewal will be about belief, not about skepticism.
This last point could use some explanation. When things are coming apart it is easy to assume that this splintering and questioning is either entirely bad or entirely good. It becomes easy to identify yourself as someone who is still a “true believer” or as someone who has rejected the faith. Even as much of the work that I do is unafraid to point to things that should likely be rejected, I see the way forward as having to do with belief, not with disbelief.
This is what I mean when I say that hopeful theological renewal will be about belief (or to use a misunderstood and abused word, “dogmatics”) not about skepticism. I am by nature a skeptical person. I think that much about church is ridiculous, and I believe that saying so is okay, even helpful. Skepticism can actually serve us well. Many of you reading this can find great freedom in being skeptical about what you were taught about Christian faith. However, skepticism is not great at enlivening hope. Good belief can do that. Good belief can bring hope.
It’s been a cool spring here in Vancouver. There has been plentiful commentary on the rain and the cold. Today, however, it is beautiful and sunny and I am sitting on my back deck as I write this. I have had in my mind, as I hear birds and see flowers finally blooming, a brief scriptural declaration;
“The whole earth is full of God’s glory.”
Amen. I believe that. I don’t see it is a divisive statement. You don’t have to believe it. I don’t see it as an anti-science statement, either. I have seen a beautiful wonder about nature in the writing of some people who identify as atheist. My wonder at the earth being full of God’s glory does not feel entirely different than that. Maybe such things can bring us together rather than apart. That’s a small piece of what I mean when I say that renewal will be about belief, not skepticism.
We ought to be skeptical, there is much to be skeptical about. However, in most areas that matter, including politics and faith, hope and life will be found in following the positives of belief.
Perhaps the state of emergency, though upsetting to many, can open the space for more positive, hopeful and even loving faith.
I was answering your questions in my head. Emergency? Hasn’t it always been? It’s not dead, but fewer people attending (including me) and I don’t really miss it (I worked in the church pre-pandemic and burnt out myself and my family). What I was missing was having friends I could confide in, and people asking questions that not only interested me, but mattered to the life I was living. When church started again live, I missed the small groups that gathered in our home before to watch together, and spent from 10am to 10pm in conversation and life with all our kids, and snacks, and bottles of wine. You don’t get that deep connection staring at a pulpit. But around a dinner table, or picnic table, or bbq, or campfire…with a glass of sparkling water or whiskey… that is when the real conversion conversations begin for me. I don’t know how that will “evangelize” anyone but my literal neighbours, but maybe that is exactly where God is asking me to begin.
For me, the Christian church has mostly been about sin…the church telling me that I am a sinner. Period. That could have led me to believe that there was not much good in this world.
I could not live that way. I see so much good in the world. I honestly don’t think much about sin.
My focus is on my Saviour.
I am not a skeptic, rather, I am ever hopeful. There has to be something to believe in. There has to be meaning…and I can always find it.
As for the weather I am actually glad that it has been cool. Maybe we won’t have devastating fires or heat domes.
Maybe the church is “in the state of emergency”. I don’t see it in the church I am attending.
It is a good thing if an “emergency” brings about change.
Some things need to change.
Some things need to be renewed.