Friday 10 May 2013

What's wrong with the white middle class church?

According to poverty.org.uk, 13.5 million people in the UK (22%) live in low-income households. 'Low Income' is defined as 60% of the median average household income. In 2008/9 that equated to £119.00 per week for a single adult with no dependants, £206 for a couple with no dependants, £201 for a single with two dependants under 14 and £288 for a couple with 2 dependants under 14 (after tax).

Due to the fact that salary and benefit increases have not matched inflation these figure reflect a worse situation. This is an unjust distribution of wealth! 

The sad truth is the church is made up of the wealthier middle class that benefit from the exploitation of the poorest of the poor. That is not to say the middle classes found in our churches are themselves exploitative - but that they are the beneficiaries of a system that grinds the face of the poor into the dust. And 'poor' they are. The plight of people on my estate is heart-breaking. There really is a profound sense of hopelessness and despair, people's lives are characterised by 'struggle' on every front - but don't get me started on that!

There is no judgment of the middle classed church in the above statement, it is very difficult to do anything about the system we live in. I personally feel powerless against this injustice and imagine the same is true of my middle classed brothers and sisters in the church.

However, what really does bother me is the fact that in our church the 22% of low incomers are not reflected in our churches. In fact, most churches are almost 100% white middle class. Ok, that might be an exaggeration - but not much of one. Where are the poor to be found? Answer? Not in the church! This is just the truth. And what does this mean? It means this ...

Just as the world is guilty of unjust wealth distribution, so the church is guilty of unjust gospel distribution.

There are uncanny similarities common to wealth distribution in the world and gospel distribution from the church. Middle class people nepetously help each other out with job and carreer opportunities etc, eg, giving internships to friend's children etc. This trend is glaringly obvious among the upper classes and is manifest in politics - just look at Cameron's Etonian cabinet!

The gospel travels along the same kind of lines. So a white, middle class Christian says,

 "I know the gospel is for everyone, but of course I cannot preach it to everyone. So I will preach it to those who I am naturally connected to, and I won't really make any effort whatsoever, to preach the gospel to people different to me". 

Of course no-one would articulate it like that, but that is just what happens. The net result - middle class people share the gospel with middle class people.

The real issue with this form of evangelism is that it implies that the gospel is not for the poor. If it was, we would all do our best to get the gospel to the poor. 

And now for a rant. White middle class churches that reach white middle class people should stop calling themselves missional - THEY ARE NOT! Jesus called the first disciple to make disciples of all nations. That is mission, and you cannot do mission by just telling people who are like yourself the gospel. That is evangelism but not mission! Mission is when we begin to do the hard, sacrificial work of connecting with and evangelising people who are not like us. that is mission.

I believe it must grieve the Lord's heart as he sees the poorest of the poor not only being exploited by the world, but also left to their plight by the church. This is not a plea for social action, the church is not too bad at that - but a plea for cross cultural mission from the white middle class to the poor.

If we want to see our nation reached with the gospel, we might as well face it, we will never do it for as long as we continue to neglect  our estates!












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