Resisting the temptation of the moment

A realigned American Protestantism must avoid the pitfalls of its dying predecessors

In response to overwhelmingly negative feedback, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) has cancelled a planned forum at its upcoming General Assembly that would have featured David French and several less controversial speakers discussing “How to Be Supportive of Your Pastor and Church Leaders in a Polarized Political Year.” Once the bellyaching dies down, it will be a good idea for the ostensibly like-minded community of realigned American Protestantism to step back and consider how many of its public statements and actions of late are beginning to mirror the stale and rancid mainline from which they thought they had freed themselves.

The rising prominence of the newly minted Global Methodist Church (GMC), following the disastrous General Conference of the now all but dead United Methodist Church, is a timely reminder that smoldering embers can once again be fanned into flame. The PCA needs that kind of shot in the arm right now, as does my own tribe, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

The now cancelled PCA forum was ill-advised not because it featured a controversial speaker but because its stated topic was ludicrous to begin with. Politics can be “polarizing,” particularly during an election year, but the faithful pastor is called to lay down his life for the sheep over matters of far more eternal significance than who will occupy the White House over the next four years. Politics will only “polarize” a congregation when made out to be of more than mere temporal significance. Carl Trueman observes today in First Things how routine the life of faithful Christian ministry ought to be.

The faithful Christian ministry is not very glamorous. It consists of baptizing, preaching, and celebrating the Lord’s Supper. It is about pointing people to a God on a cross whose strength, like that of his followers, is made perfect in weakness. Of course, none of this quite compares to engaging in an apocalyptic culture war or crushing one’s opponents or seizing worldly power by worldly means. So weak is it that it’s not even as glamorous as fantasizing about such things online. But that’s the problem with Christianity. It is routine. It is by turns foolish and offensive to those who look on from outside. Its weapons look ridiculously weak to the watching world. To repeat: The sun also rises and life continues for ordinary people at the local level, with all of its joys and its sorrows. People are born, marry, grow old, and die. And the gospel remains the answer. 

This is not to say that faithfulness in Christian ministry does not sometimes call us to make provocative statements or take risky actions. It reminds us, rather, that such extraordinary measures must always be taken within the framework of fidelity to one’s calling as a servant of Christ, anchored in the Word of God, empowered by the Spirit of truth. Appeasing the wrath of our cultured despisers through virtue signaling is the temptation of the moment for those seeking to serve faithfully within the realigned framework of American Protestantism. It is a temptation we must resist and, when faithfulness requires it, gently nudge those who have succumbed to it.