Evangelicals Caught in the Matrix   The Tardis in the Matrix       OK, I agree, Dr. Who has nothing to do with the Evangelical party of the Anglican church. Mind you, as an old fan I still describe my eternal reign with Christ in Tardis terms. Anyway, here we have the Tardis in the Matrix and there is always the danger that it will get caught there, locked in time. This is the problem with the Anglican church, so they say. Not so, I say. The Matrix can't hold the Tardis. Our Time Lord transcend matter and time.

The powers-to-be have flogged off the beautiful little Anglican church in Stanwell Park, a beach-side community south of Sydney with a population of some 1,500. The mission church was built around 1914, and I was the minister there when we built the new church building behind the original one. For many years, the locals had purchased one shilling bricks for their new church and it was my privilege to see it built.       These small churches are built by the efforts of faithful believers to secure an ongoing Christian presence in their local community. They are often not able to fund a full-time minister themselves, so they are amalgamated with, or remain part of, a senior church. But low attendance numbers should not be a signal to the senior partner to do a cash grab. Although the justification is usually in the terms of gospel ministry, the money too often goes to further enhance the senior partners building complex. Even blind Freddie can spot the immorality of such a move. The eradication of small churches is soul destroying; it illustrates the destruction of the church-in-the-marketplace, a form of Christian association that will be impossible to replicate.   Introduction         I entered the ordained ministry in the 1970's when Evangelical Anglicanism still reigned supreme in Sydney. Those old Methodist-Anglicans were loyal to the Prayer Book and Anglican polity, and loyal to the gospel. They used the Anglican structure as a fishing-boat to reach out to their fellow Australians with the gospel, and as a sheep-fold to nurture the faithful. Yet, somewhere along the way we lost the plot.         Evangelical Anglicans, at the time of the Great Awakening in the 18th century, decided to stay in the Church of England while their fellow revivalists left to form the Methodist church. Most of the revivalists left because in their eyes, the gospel could not succeed in a church which happily accepted archaic ritual. The Evangelicals stayed because they believed that God is a sovereign God and that the gospel is not hindered by human constructs, certainly not in a Grand Old Lady grounded on Biblical truth. The Evangelicals were loyal to the gospel and Jesus' instruction to make it known, and loyal to the Prayer Book and Anglican polity. They worked to shape within the Anglican frame a church of the Way, a fishing-boat to reach out to their local community with the gospel, and a sheep-fold to nurture the faithful in the Word.       To this end, Evangelical clergy developed a church in the marketplace methodology, baptising and marrying all and sundry, running youth clubs, women's and men's groups, fairs and the like, special services, constantly reaching out with the gospel. In my early years in Sydney, Parish Papers were the favoured means of providing the gospel in printed format. Nearly every church had their Parish Paper, some published monthly and widely distributed. These publications contained the usual parish-pump gossip, articles and above all, a gospel presentation. And so it was that they communicated the gospel to their wider community and created a spiritual enclave open to everyone.       During the 1970's this methodology started to fall out of favour with the new generation of Evangelical clergy. The trigger was societal change, both the arrival of the Charismatic movement and the drift toward secularism in the Western World (from Jesus to Marx, that's Karl not Groucho, although sometimes I wonder!). This caused a consequent loss of committed and nominal adherents, eg., Sunday school died a slow death - from attendance of hundreds in the 1950's to nothing. So, Evangelical clergy looked for answers to the problem, initially finding them in doctrinaire piety / purity - community / the holy-huddle - and then Church Growth accessing / management / marketing / pragmatics - growth.       I would argue that these ideological moves were nothing more than a move to the fringe with the social justice cause, liberal cause, sacramental cause, etc. The main game has always been the communication of the gospel and the nurture of those who respond, Matt.28:18-20.   The nub of the problem - a theological shift     i] Pietism - sanctification by obedience         Pietism is an ever present virus, and over the last 60 years, Evangelical Anglicans have increasingly been infected with it. The infection has to do with an understanding of the sovereign grace of God, or as the Wesleyans called it, "a full understanding of the doctrine of justification." We have moved, ever so slightly, from the notion that justification and sanctification / holiness are appropriated by the same mechanism, namely a gift of God's grace through the instrument of faith in the faithfulness of Christ.       The shift involves a move toward the notion that sanctification is progressed by obedience, rather than faith. Instead of seeing our sanctification, our holiness, as wholly a work of God's sovereign grace appropriated through faith, we have moved toward a reliance on effort - doing rather than receiving. We have tended toward the view that effort applied to the law (the moral law and the law of Christ), both confirms our standing in the sight of God and progresses our sanctification. So, whereas both our actual state (justification: just-if-I'd never sinned; standing perfect in the sight of God in Christ) and the process of becoming holy (sanctification: the progressive realisation of the person we are in Christ) are integrally linked by grace through faith, the pietist tends to shift the process from faith to that of obedience, while limiting their state / standing, with respect to holiness, to conversion, and possibly an arbitrary holiness throughout life (eg., Wesley's "moment-by-moment non-transgression of the known will of God").       The inevitable result of a sanctification by works approach is a tendency toward guilt-dissipating piety (pietism, legalism, pharisaism). Evangelical clergy affected by this virus began to view Anglican liturgical tradition as tainted and unreformed - unholy. Whereas an Anglican minister was once expected to seek out the unbaptised and baptise them, increasingly the new breed of Evangelical clergy would only baptise the children of church attenders - their own holiness was at stake. Christian symbols (eg., the cross) began to disappear from church buildings, and liturgical Prayer Book services were slowly run down, disrespected, and finally killed off. By the late 90's, the majority of Low Church Evangelical parishes had relegated their liturgical Prayer Book service to a single early Sunday morning service. Reforming zeal has even seen many of these services killed off. The covid shutdowns provided cover to this end.       Devising paradigms of purity, at the expense of the sovereign grace of God, has undermined trust in the worship traditions and polity of the Anglican church.     ii] Church Growth - arminianism *         As we shifted from "full justification", from receiving to doing, the new breed of Evangelicals, now facing the structural problems associated with the decline in nominal adherence, exposed themselves to the Arminian virus.       Old Evangelical clergy were by inclination Calvinist - as of course, is the Prayer Book and the Book of Homilies. Yet, within Evangelical ranks there was a move from the all-encompassing notion of the sovereign grace of God - more a pragmatic move than a theological one. When it came to gathering the lost, technique, innovation, and methodology began to subsume the clear communication of a Word from God. Relevance become the master and everything the subject of change.       The most noticeable consequence of this theological shift was the move away from a straightforward communication of the gospel, toward a reliance on technique - the application of socialising methodology, management, marketing - the building of bridges... Where once Evangelicals simply communicated the gospel through a Parish Paper, articles in the local paper, occasional and special services, youth clubs, visitation ...., the main Sunday service now became the focus of evangelism (the evening service for youth evangelism). The methodology employed involves providing a form of religious cabaret, a crafted dynamic environment where the gospel can be bannered to those attending. This format provides a bridge for the inclusion of outsiders and then, going forward, a means of deepening their commitment to the church.       This Church Growth methodology, often called gospel ministry, is all about growth, and in the end, that comes down to numbers. Of course, Jesus didn't command his disciples to grow the church, he commanded them to proclaim the gospel - irrespective of results / growth. The fact that Church Growth methodology gets more bums-on-seats than a straightforward communication of the gospel, should fill us with fear.       Our Evangelical forebears ministered in the Anglican church, remaining loyal to its peculiar "reformed catholic" traditions, because they believed in the sovereign grace of God. They understood that the "Kingdom of God is not of this world" and therefore human structures, relevant or not, are neither here nor there. The "gospel is the power of God unto salvation", not robes or civies, Prayer Book or extempore prayer, organ or band, hymn book or power-point presentation,..... They understood that the Kingdom of God is realised through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, for it is "not by might, nor by strength, but by my Spirit says the Lord Almighty." They understood that marketing, management, human dynamics and all the other paraphernalia of the secular city, does not grow the church, for Christ grows his church by grace through the confession of a true faith, such that "the gates of Hades will not overcome it". The stuff of the secular city only grows Babel. This they knew well, but do we now know it today?       Communicating the gospel is the business we Evangelicals are in - the frame is a minor matter. Devising paradigms of relevance to gather the lost is surely nothing less than heresy. Such ignores the power of the gospel, and will inevitably foster goats instead of sheep.   So, where do we go from here?       I remember in the late 1950's learning how to pull all the leavers to get young people along to youth fellowship. And what I learnt was that this art-form is ephemeral - youthful religious enthusiasm quickly waned when they hit the secular world, with only a few remaining true to the faith. In the 60's through to 70's, these groups met before and after the liturgical Evening Prayer service. By the 90's, the evening service had became the youth fellowship meeting, shaped in the form of a religious cabaret. Of course, this meant that the young people were no longer churched in liturgy and so were unable to adapt to a liturgical Morning Prayer service when they got married. So, by the 00's, the only liturgical service found in Evangelical Anglican churches was the 8am Holy Communion, and even these are on the wane.       Of course, I do find it rather comical watching the same levers being pulled to build the Sunday Morning Cabaret, a model which is now commonly adopted by most protestant denominations (except the Uniting church which has gone liturgical - how weird is that! Mind you, they get it wrong. Liturgy only works when repeated, eg., The Lord's Prayer). I do love it when the cabaret model finally throws out the pews and puts in coffee tables and chairs. And here's the rub, this is nothing more than an ephemeral art-form (sociological manipulation through group dynamics).       Believe it or not, I am not suggesting that Evangelical Anglicans should become all liturgical again. That horse has long bolted. I'm actually not that fussed on liturgy. For ten years, while living on The Comboyne, I attended the Union Church and quite enjoyed the three-hymn sandwich. Nor am I suggesting that the nominal Anglican frame is superior to the church growth frame, although I certainly would argue that, when it comes to gospel outreach, a church in the marketplace model is far superior to the Sunday cabaret model. I'm simply making the point that Evangelical methodology transcends whatever frame it sits within because, given the sovereign grace of God, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Art-forms are in themselves ephemeral. That's why Evangelicals were happy to operate within an archaic church model. Whatever frame you find yourself in, you work within it, rather than be deceived by the notion that the kingdom of God is progressed by a new and improved frame - "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain".       I well remember a Sydney saint, long passed to the Lord, Rev. Herb Roby. He served some years before me at Helensburgh. He was a true blue Evangelical, serving many years in North Queensland. I met him on my Sabbatical in Braidwood, appointed as a locum for a month. Braidwood is High Church, and there was Herb dressed like Elvis with every bit of ecclesiastic garb he could find. And what did he preach on over those four services? A four step gospel presentation. The "gospel is the power of God unto salvation", not robes or civies, Prayer Book or extempore prayer, organ or band, hymn book or power-point presentation,.....   Conclusion       There is no evidence that our destruction of the Grand Old Lady has improved gospel effectiveness. The drive for purity, under the reformed banner, is anything but reformed. For many, grace has become a word rather than a gift. The drive for relevance, under the banner of gospel ministry, is anything but gospel ministry. It is little more than pragmatic number-crunching. In fact, we may just be growing weeds. As far as the wider Anglican communion is concerned, our drive for change has isolated Evangelicals. Few bishops trust Evangelicals to serve under the Anglican banner these days - the worship tradition of the church would be killed off in a week and branch churches sold to fund a cabaret-style redevelopment of the main church. Worse still, we may be damning ourselves and our congregations; "After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" Gal.3:3.   Image: St.George's Anglican Church, Stanwell Park, Centenary service, 2014. *       Bill Hull in an essay on Church Growth writes, "The evangelical Church seems to have become like the child with a new toy. As Churches and pastors expect more clever gadgetry from the marketing wizards, the latter are encouraged to become increasingly creative until the methods eventually bury the message in obscurity. For that reason, Church Growth should not be a primer for building effective Churches; it has a sociological base, it is data-driven, and it worships at the altar of pragmatism. It esteems that which works above all and defines success in worldly and short-sighted terms. It offers models that cannot be reproduced and leaders who cannot be imitated. The principles of modern business are revered more than doctrine; the latter, in fact, often being perceived as a detriment or at least a distraction to church growth. Yet churches are supposed to be driven by scriptural teachings, not by the latest marketing surveys or consumer trends. In short, theology before sociology, please."

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