Reflections on the ‘Transforming
Scotland - Tim Keller Event’ (Edinburgh, 25 Oct 18).
Over 100
church and ministry leaders attended the latest ‘Transforming Scotland’
gathering in Edinburgh. The ‘big draw’ on this occasion was the presence of Tim
Keller – whose analysis of the cultural and spiritual challenges facing the
contemporary church is always worth hearing.
Dr Keller
did not disappoint, he expertly described the huge shifts that have turned
Christianity from being the definer of Western culture into now being its very
antithesis in many areas. Thus Christianity has to contend with a domineering
worldview that sees the very ideas of divine authority, redemption, and
self-sacrifice as fundamentally oppressive.
Thinking hard about the future
Regarding
where this clash of worldviews would lead, Dr Keller was reluctant to predict
but outlined some key areas the church needs to think hard about. This
included: (1) Discipling people in a digital age, both in terms of the
overwhelming input of non-Christian views people now receive, but also in
overcoming the corrosive effects of social media in diminishing empathy and
in relentlessly promoting self. (2) How
we effectively share the Gospel with a generation who increasingly have no
concept of or agreement with the Biblical presentation of God and sin. (3) The
extent to which Western governments might seek to penalise Bible-believing
Christians?
However, the
gathering was more than a lecture; its intention was that leaders from across
Scotland would be able to consider these challenges together and to think collectively
about how they might be met. It’s a vision enabled by the generosity of the
Maclellan Foundation and its wider work supporting Gospel work in Scotland.
Among other things it funded Barna research in 2015, a helpful survey of current attitudes to Christianity and the state of the Scottish church.
A rare gathering
The
Transforming Scotland gatherings are in themselves rare occasions – pulling
together leaders from a wide range of evangelical constituencies along with
para-church representatives (who often work across those constituencies). Thus
there were leaders from more conservative groupings along with those from
charismatic and more open evangelical circles. While some might be uneasy at
the very notion of this; it is to the
credit of Transforming Scotland that they have this heart and are able to bring
together leaders who may otherwise have very little contact or knowledge of
each other.
The closing
section of the gathering was given over to discussion around tables – both to
chat about the implications of Dr Keller’s analysis but also how Scottish
churches might be more collegiate in meeting the challenges. The limited time
meant that any conclusions were roughly formed and sometimes lacked the benefit of a fuller
explanation.
Reflections
However, with
the benefit of more time to consider the event and its call for those present to
seek greater unity, here are some further reflections…
1. Scottish Tribalism: Dr Keller highlighted what he
perceived to be a high level of tribalism among Scottish Christians. Bearing in
mind his wide-ranging global experience that is an observation we need to take
seriously. At some levels there has been a lessening of congregational tribalism – for
example, the Regional Gospel Partnerships established in recent years have
brought together leaders from a range of denominational and non-denominational
churches. Likewise CLAN (Churches Linked Across the Nation) has brought
together people from different churches. However, the churches being brought
together in both these examples are typically of ‘a type’ – sharing a similar
ecclesiastical personality and theological flavour. Thus ‘tribalism’ (where it exists) tends to be between these groupings rather than individual churches.
2. Loving our Neighbours: among those tribes there are some
significant issues of difference – not least, the emphasis given to certain
aspects of the Gospel. Additionally there are also some real practical
obstacles to joint fellowship (let’s be real). These mean that partnerships are
not always going to be straightforward or even that feasible at times – that is
a shame, but it should not be an excuse for never doing anything or indeed for
a lack of love and respect. As someone has said, ‘We may not be able to live in
the same house but we can be good neighbours’.
In this regard the work of
Transforming Scotland & Maclellan is to be welcomed – if nothing else it brings the ‘neighbours’ together and in doing so helps break
down points of unnecessary suspicion and division.
3. Speaking Well of Each Other: bringing people together and putting
a human face on differences is almost always a helpful thing. It means that
having met others personally we are less likely to be dismissive or unkind
about them elsewhere. So even where significant differences exist, and formal
or structural partnerships are not possible we can at least ‘speak well of each
other’. We ought to be cheerleaders for the growth of the Gospel anywhere (Paul
was prepared to give thanks for Gospel work even when it was fuelled by low
motives, Php 1:15-17).
Evangelical Christians in Scotland are a tiny minority and we must
resist the temptation to become more obsessed about our factional interests
than the cause of Christ across the nation. So wherever in Scotland we see Christ
being preached and people are coming to saving faith we should bless it.
4. Brothers not Brands: one practical outworking of loving
each other is to resist competitiveness. This can work in two ways: firstly, we
must avoid a ‘brand building’ mentality. That is, seeking to expand our church
networks or planting regardless of the gospel work of others. We see this in
some of our cities – new churches being planted in areas already (relatively)
well-served by Bible-believing churches when other much more gospel needy areas
are by-passed. Conversely, we must avoid insecure or jealous reactions to the planting of new
churches. In a time of such overwhelming gospel our first reaction should be to
give thanks for the good efforts of others.
5. All shapes & sizes
Integrity
means each will rightly hold onto their convictions, and if we value the
pursuit of Biblical truth we can’t simply homogenise and give-up those beliefs.
However, humility equally accepts that no church grouping is without error and
blind-spots. No one church grouping is going to reach Scotland on its own – we
need, to borrow the Dunkirk analogy, ships and boats of all shapes and sizes
for this rescue mission. As Dr Keller noted, God in His wisdom has used a
surprising array of Christians and churches to extend His Kingdom over the
centuries – and praise be to Him that He does.
