The main thrust of this post is a letter I
wrote just a few days ago to the Editor of the online magazine Church in Vancouver (CiV) about the state of the church in Vancouver. A gentleman by
the name of Jason Byassee recently moved into town to teach at the Vancouver School
of Theology on the UBC campus. He has quite a distinguished career behind him
already, including publications. We have every reason to welcome him into our
community and to expect much from him in terms of creative Christian leadership.
He wrote an article in the January 7/2016
edition of CiV with the title “Vancouver’s Stony Soil: The Church in the Secular City”
that I found very interesting, at least partially because he confirmed a
long-standing opinion/suspicion I’ve held on the subject. He gave a partial
explanation as to why Vancouver is such a secular non-Christian or, at best, a
semi-Christian place. I agree with much of what he wrote and recommend his
article to you.
I responded to welcome him to
our city, to express my appreciation for his input, to enlarge a bit on that
topic, while, at the end, I gave a soft critique of an issue peripheral to the
main discussion. Here’s that letter, slightly edited for this context:
I welcome Byassee to Vancouver. I expect he
will become a great asset to our community.
I agree with Byassee and have long realized
that the losses Canada's mainline churches are suffering, especially the United
Church, is due to their Christendom foundation. Such a foundation is similar to
sand and is bound to fall apart in due time. Of course, they can be revived and
get a fresh start. I never accept the term "post-Christian," for we do
not know the plans of the Holy Spirit for the future shape of the society or
the church. He has surprised us before.
It may be that, as Byassee writes, no one
quite knows why the entire church in Canada lost members. I was abroad for many
years, but as I observed the Canadian church from afar as it seemed to be
falling apart at the seams, I had a strong feeling that while the
"mainstream" churches with their Christendom foundation had little to
offer the people, most of the "other side" of Protestantism was too
fundamentalist and also had little to offer the nation. In recent decades, the
Evangelical "side" has woken up to some degree and now participates
more fully in national life with a distinctive voice, even having established
Christian post-graduate institutions like Trinity Western and the Institute for
Christian Studies in Toronto.
As to Vancouver being kind of a hick town
before Expo 1986, I was not here, but I find it hard to believe. The powers
that be would hardly have awarded the city the privilege of hosting Expo if it
were such a minor player.
End of Letter
In other words, both sides of the Protestant
movement were weak; people showed little interest in either. The one had bought
into the secular culture too far and had little left that was distinctive. The
other had largely withdrawn from the culture and retreated into the spiritual
world. Indeed, why should people join or
pay attention?
There is another aspect to the development of
some mainline churches, this time both the United Church and the Anglican
Church especially, that also contributes to what could be their slow demise. It
is that they allow their clergy deny the very core points of the Gospel. Some
deny the resurrection or, for that matter, the divinity of Christ, not to speak
of His miracles. I heard one lead a Christmas hymn sing during which he
referred to traditional Christmas songs as “songs we used to believe in.” And
this is not even to mention that some United Church ministers are atheists,
according to Douglas Todd of the Vancouver
Sun (July 4 and 11, 2015). Todd
wrote a hard-hitting column on that July 4 and courageous. In our Canada of
today we don’t often hear such sharp critique, for it is offensive to the
politically correct who seem to dominate our culture. But that is the state of some of the mainline
members of our Vancouver Church. Todd’s article deserves a good summary/review,
even though it’s already half a year old.
As to the “other” or Evangelical side of
things, the residue of that earlier spiritual retreat and cultural withdrawal
is still with us to varying degrees in different denominations. We’re not over
the hump yet, as we used to say in my mountainous teen home town, Port Alberni
on Vancouver Island, but when you pay attention to the involvement of the Evangelical
Fellowship of Canada in various central aspects of Canadian culture, then you
know Evangelicals are on the way. That’s why I have devoted some posts to their
work in the past and plan to do so again occasionally. However, their main
efforts are still focused too much on religious issues such as religious freedom.
There is little systemic work in the realm of economics and politics. And that
is precisely the point where the mainliners concentrate.
I am grateful the Lord has placed me in the
Reformed camp, where both the spiritual and the social receive attention, at
least, ideally! That’s what this blog is all about.
