Micro-Christendoms

Years
ago, members of a Boulder, Colorado, ministers’ association determined that they
were responsible for Boulder’s civic health. Taking a cue from the early
chapters of John’s Apocalypse, they resolved to serve as the guardian angels of
the city.

They began
to invite civil officials to address the pastoral association. Heads of city
bureaus, the district attorney and police chief, and officials at the University
of Colorado all visited. Each time, the pastors made the same offer: “Tell us,”
they would say, “the problems you face for which there are no human solutions.
We want to pray for solutions.” A pastor friend of mine who has been intimately
involved with the group says that no one ever refused. No matter how secular or
post-Christian, the politician sat tight as the pastors scrummed round to lay
hands and pray.

My
friend has countless accounts of answered prayer. Out of the meetings, the
pastors developed close personal relationships with Boulder’s leaders. When
crises hit, as they always do, city officials turned to the pastors for
guidance, advice, prayer, encouragement, and friendship. Some of these
officials converted or recommitted to their earlier faith. The pastors became,
as my friend likes to put it, “advisors to the king,” prophet-pastors like
Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar—and this in one of the most secular cities in the U.S.

At a
conference in Florida a few years ago, my friend demonstrated how easy it is to
replicate his work in Boulder. Before the end of the conference week, he had made
contact with several local pastors, met city officials, and had a friendly chat
with the mayor.

Every
time I tell my friend’s story, someone comes back with a similar story about
another part of the country.

During
the 1990s, the murder rate in Aurora, Illinois, was higher than in Chicago.
There was a murder every month in Aurora as recently as 2007. In 2012, there
were no murders in the city. Police crackdowns on gangs have played an
important role, as have efforts by community groups that work with troubled
youth, but churches have also been a visible player. Beginning in the mid-90s,
the ecumenical Aurora Coalition for Reconciliation, founded by David Haas of
the Aurora Community Church and David Engbarth of St. Nicholas Catholic Church,
began holding a prayer vigil at each murder site. Vineyard Pastor Robby Dawkins
was recently recognized by the city for his work with gangs.

It’s not
just happening in the U.S. Another friend has been a missionary in northern Peru
since 2000. With the blessing of the Catholic bishop, his missionary team took
pastoral responsibility for a sector of his city. They built their first church
in a depressed part of town on a piece of ground donated by the city. They run a
medical clinic, provide micro-financing for small business startups, and train
woodworkers at one of the local churches. They offer seminary training for
Peruvian pastors and plan to start Christian schools.

There
are two constants in the stories I hear. First, churches from different
denominations minister together, and, second, churches cooperate with
political leaders on projects that benefit the entire community. Here’s a
project for an enterprising religion reporter looking for a big scoop, the hidden
story of twenty-first-century American Christianity: Christendom is
being rebuilt on a human scale in town after town across America.

It’s a
model of ministry suited to our historical moment. As the Yoderites and
Hauerwasites have been telling us for some time, Christendom is dead. The
religious right was its last, long susperation. Though there are millions of Christians
in the U.S. and Europe, Christian faith no longer provides the moral compass,
the sacred symbolism, or the telos for Western institutions. America’s
Protestant establishment has collapsed. Neither evangelical Protestants nor
Catholics nor a coalition of the two are poised to replace it. Christian
America was real, but, whatever its great virtues and great flaws, it is gone, and
the slightly frantic experiments have failed to revive the corpse. It’s past
time to issue a death certificate.

That’s a
sobering conclusion, and it’s tempting for Christians to slink back to our
churches. For innovative, visionary pastors and civic leaders, though, there
are hundreds of realistic, locally based, ecumenically charged opportunities to
foster experiments in Christian social and political renewal.

Christendom
is dead! Long live the micro-Christendoms!

Peter J. Leithart is president of Trinity House . He is the author most recently of Gratitude: An Intellectual History . His previous articles can be found here .

Become a fan of First Things on Facebook , subscribe to First Things via RSS , and follow First Things on Twitter .