Tim Keller on the middle-class culture of evangelicalism
by Tim Chester on Oct.18, 2010, under Church, Cultural
Here’s a good quote from Tim Keller on the middle-class culture of evangelical churches:
Most evangelical churches are middle-class in their corporate culture. People value privacy, safety, homogeneity, sentimentality, space, order, and control. In contrast, the city is filled with ironic, edgy, diversity-loving people who have a much higher tolerance for ambiguity and disorder. If a church’s ministers cannot function in an urban culture, but instead create a kind of non-urban “missionary compound” within it, they will discover they cannot reach out, convert, or incorporate many people in their neighbourhoods.
Tim Keller, ‘What Is God’s Global Urban Mission?’ The Lausanne Global Conversation, 2010.
October 18th, 2010 on 9:35 pm
Tim,
I feel guilty writing this … but after this I am done …
‘Most evangelical churches are middle-class in their corporate culture. People value privacy, safety, homogeneity, sentimentality, space, order, and control. ‘
Agreed …
‘the city is filled with ironic, edgy, diversity-loving people who have a much higher tolerance for ambiguity and disorder.’
These people sound like the children of those described in the first quote (or the children of their non Christian counterparts) who are returning to the city in part as a kick against their parents and life in the suburbs. ‘Hipsters’ I believe they are called.This description does not sound to me like the first, second, third generation ‘immigrants’ (for want of a better word) and what remains of the white working class in our multicultural (post colonial) inner cities or those who live in the out of town housing estates, who often appear to me to be more socially conservative in their own ways – and accept diversity rather than seek it.
Anthony Bradley speaking about ‘hipster’ churches in the US encapsulates my concerns saying ”What I’m noticing is that gentrifying whites moving in “the city” aren’t actually reaching the city but they are gathering other gentrifiers. ‘(http://bradley.chattablogs.com/archives/2009/11/whiteasian-vs-b.html#comments)
This I fear is the result of Keller’s model, despite it’s good intentions.
Keller’s point 2 in this article references the need for church leaders to be able to be culturally aware in their mission to cities, and point 4 for them to be able to exegete their neighbourhoods, but this is not enough. Carson makes a more helpful point ‘On the other hand, there are some – no matter what color they are, what background they’re from, or how much education they’ve had – who seem to be gifted by God with the ability to talk to anybody. And those are the people that I want in our cities. I want them to be pastored by people who are themselves able to talk to anybody.’
J Piper & J Taylor eds ‘The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World’ p177
Give me a pastor / evangelist who can talk to any one and is prepared to stay on their patch for 30 years and reach anyone who will listen …
With this current enthusiasm for church planting I am concerned that we will end up reaching those like us (who need to be reached no doubt), rather than those who are ‘under represented’ in our churches. This I know from listening to your ‘local church in a post christian context’ , and Steve Timmis’s recent ‘church under the radar’ that you are also concerned about.
PS I will not make any other comments on any keller quotes you may put up, but I’ll end with this quote –
‘If you admit … conservative evangelicals don’t know how to preach or how to minister in a way that reaches the working class or the poor then why in the world aren’t you talking about it, incessantly ….’
Tim Keller ‘what are the risks’ EMA 2007
This I know is something which you are seeking to remedy
God bless
December 21st, 2010 on 10:11 pm
Excellent quotes and comments. Great to see other people aware of this ‘problem’ if I can call it that. A problem that we will soon solve if we keep being honest with each other, challenging one another and asking ourselves how we got ourselves into the situation whereby Christians and those seemingly called into full-time ministry would rather avoid the poor and the working class and the inner-cities and council estates for the safety, security and familiarity of a typical evangelical church…