Platos Cave

Another interesting article at Christianity Today about black families and black churches fleeing the inner cities. I am tempted to use this story as evidence that the so-called “white flight” never had much to do with racism and was always about people wanting nicer houses in safer neighborhoods. I also am tempted to use this story as evidence that the system is not rigged against black people. But I won’t.

What I’d like to talk about is one of Christianity’s oldest traditions: the bishopric or diocesan ecclesiastical structure. When the church was organized according to city and province (as it still is in the Catholic church), you did not have to worry about your church disappearing, any more than a city has to worry about its police precinct vanishing.

Many Protestant (and especially independent megachurches) do not operate this way. If they did, the middle class black families leaving the cities would be encouraged to join a new congregation, and their previous church would then be free to focus on attracting new local parishioners.

In today’s disjointed, disunited Christian community, the parish system isn’t always feasible. As a result, a board of elders is more likely to behave like a secular business seeking the prime location to attract the most customers. I hesitate to make a blanket judgment about churches moving to the suburbs. In many respects, the change is a reasonable one, for the safety, convenience, and gas mileage of the congregation.

On the other hand, the church has never shied away from dangerous, inconvenient, and uncomfortable places. The inner city might have more gangstas than churchgoers, but somebody needs to be willing to bring the Gospel to those people. The task would be risky, and it would not be self-sustaining, which means that the megachurch in Pleasant Valley would have to subsidize the ministry … and that, of course, is where the plan falls apart in fragmented Christianity.

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