Years ago when I had responsibility for our company’s lab activities, the function was globalized to include sites in the UK and Germany. One of the sites in Germany had the nickname “Fortress Koblenz”. There were frequent complaints that our Koblenz site never cooperated with global initiatives or worked with other sites. Koblenz was a site to itself and always pursued its own path. To my surprise, my Koblenz team was surprisingly supportive. They weren’t stuck in the rut of having to do everything the way it always had been done.

A Tour of a German Kloster

A recent visit to Seligenstadt on the Main River in Germany brought this idea of “fortress evangelicalism” to mind. My wife and I were taking a friend there for a family reunion. He had promised to show us the “Altstadt” – the historic downtown of the city. The city is quite ancient, founded by the Romans with an well-preserved medieval downtown including an impressive cathedral and kloster (monastery).

It reminded me of my first exposure to a kloster in Germany. My wife and I were on a bike tour along the Donau river (the Danube) when we first stumbled upon a kloster in the middle of nowhere, in a forest along the Donau. It was quite old, dating from about the twelfth century. It was a walled complex for safety, though the surrounding stone wall was less than ten feet high. Klosters were often places of safety for travelers as inns were uncommon. They were also centers for caring for the poor.

But often Klosters had the purpose to provide a life of seclusion from the world. The kloster we encountered on the Donau could have served this purpose. The wall certainly separated the monks from those outside, but really didn’t afford much protection against marauding hordes.

It got me thinking. There are hundreds of klosters throughout Germany and thousands across Europe. Many are in the most remote locations, well removed from population centers. Their purpose is to seclude their members from the world, allowing those within to fully devote themselves to God.

But if so, one must question if their separation from the world really served the world, or for that matter God. Seclusion strongly stands in opposition to Christ’s example and His mandate to go into all the world, preach the Gospel and make disciples. It seems strange to me that so many people over so many centuries failed to see this lifestyle is contrary to Scripture.

What Does This Have to do With Evangelicalism Today?

A Growing Sense of Distance between our Pastors and those in Need

A number of years ago while serving on a church board, I learned that pastors typically don’t do counseling. They simply make referrals to qualified counselors. It was a bit of a surprise but not the last.

Our church was large and had a minister for visitation for the sick. At the time it seemed to make sense. It’s difficult to expect the head pastor of a large church to visit and attend to all the sick. But when my wife became life-threateningly ill, I came to realize that the head pastor is the face of the church. It wasn’t that a minister assigned visitation was wrong, only that there was an expectation the head pastor would care enough to visit.

My church had a terrific pastor with a great heart and super vision, adding substantially to our church and its campus. From a congregant’s perspective, it all seemed super. From a board-member’s perspective, I began to see a staff of ministers increasingly cut off from the real world. All their efforts were focused upon the church and all their work was accomplished on the church campus. It seemed there was considerable distance between the pastoral staff and the real world. Their focus was upon the church body.

After the death of my first wife, I joined a small group from our church that regularly went into the slums to feed the homeless. Initially I was uncomfortable, not knowing what to expect. What I found were terrific people whose live had come apart, estranged from their families, on the street, yet deeply grateful that we would serve them a meal. It was a great experience that I made an area of regular ministry.

Though an official church ministry, I rarely saw church leaders or pastors present. When so, it was typically a minister assigned oversight for that ministry. The balance of the pastoral staff was absent. It’s not reasonable to expect pastors to support the countless ministries of the church with their personal presence. But their consistent absence said something. They seemed isolated from those in greatest need. There was a disconnect.

If pastors’ entire week is spent on the church campus preparing for a 90 minute Sunday service primarily for believers, who interacts with those on the streets, the addicts, alcoholics, troubled teens or broken families? If our pastors are not taking these steps, can we really expect it from the congregants?

If We Build it, They will Come. There’s no Need to Go.

Jesus didn’t say “if you build it, they will come”. Yet that seems to be today’s model among many evangelical leaders. How big can be build our church? How many can we attract with our worship? How can we make our campus warm and friendly to visitors? We even have professional sermon resources with “killer” sermons and canned jokes to make us feel good. It’s like a TV dinner. Just warm and serve it – warm the audience and serve a fun sermon that makes everyone feel good about themselves.

Our friend that we took on the family reunion is part of a Christian charity that helps homeless, drug and alcohol dependent and asylum-seekers from foreign lands. We frequently find ourselves interacting with the most needy in our community and often the hardest to reach with the Gospel.

My wife and I entered this ministry with some discomfort. It was not our world. But as we served their needs, it built relationships and brought awareness of how deeply the world needs Christ. It’s also shown how powerless we are to change them. Only God can bring release and freedom from their addictions, abuse, broken families and war-torn lives. But God has shown how He can powerfully move their hearts when we take a simple step of faith and reach out in love. It’s not that the church isn’t a helpful resource. It’s just that the church will never reach these people as long as we choose to remain safely within its walls. We can build it, but they won’t come. We must go.

The Reality TV Show that is Televangelism

My point is that the church looks increasingly isolated and our pastors increasingly secluded from the real world. Consider televangelism. It’s pastors often have strange hairstyles and their wives wear so much make-up they don’t look real. At times it seems like a freak-show.

The topics of discussion are often equally strange, inwardly focused upon blessing for believers – which you can “name and claim” with the appropriate-sized monetary gift. Evangelism came to be understood as reaching the lost through mass media. We don’t need to go. They will come to us.

We just need big name evangelists to attract an audience, stars of Christian programming. These were reality TV programs before there was reality TV! Its stars were deeply disconnected from reality. But oh how Christians loved these programs!

A Challenge to Re-Connect

What all this evidence points toward is a church increasingly secluded from those it’s tasked to win to Christ. It is not the mighty, powerful or rich we are to evangelize, but the poor, the outcast, the downtrodden, the least in our world.

When I first moved to Germany, it was in the latter stages of an immigration crisis. Germany had extended asylum to a million Syrians in less than two years. These were people being butchered by Assad’s regime. Some churches graciously assisted the effort, but most did not. They simply continued to hold services as they always had. They didn’t see the crisis as their responsibility nor did they perceive that God had placed a million souls at their doorstep to win to Christ. For the church, life went on as it always had.

Two years later came the outbreak of Corona virus. It brought death to many and isolation to those at risk. Again, most churches here didn’t seem to see an opportunity to minister to those at risk. We are now in the fourth wave and even early in the outbreak, it’s worse than the prior three.

If God is attempting to prod us to ministry to those on the margins, we don’t seem to be getting the message. Every Sunday is exactly like the prior Sundays. There’s always a great sermon that is safely disconnected from the tragedies on the ground. Life in the church goes on as it always has. Our priorities have not changed. Ministry is church centric.

Which begs the question. What will it take to shake up the church, to change us from practicing church the way we always have? What will it take to break-out of “fortress evangelicalism” and into the streets? The answer it seems, will not come from our leadership. They have always seen their job as church centric. Everything in ministry revolves around the church and its institutions.

If we are to change, it must come from the congregants. We must take up the challenge. We must see the senseless deaths, the suffering and oppression of the weaker members of our communities and decide that it’s not acceptable. Like Christ, we must speak against our leaders, demand accountability and take to the streets. The fate of the world is in our hands.