Those concerned that ministers in their denomination were involved in Revoice and who believe that they have thereby crossed theological and ethical boundaries have a duty to prove that in an ecclesiastical context and not simply offer critical tweets or mint new hastags. They should look at their books of church order and, if the evidence warrants it, they should file disciplinary charges in accordance with the processes outlined therein. Blogs, articles, and alternative conferences may all have their legitimate place in helping the laity think through the matters Revoice and its critics have raised. But every minister has the right to due process. 

With moving job and house in the last two months, I was only vaguely aware of theRevoice Conference until a few weeks ago.  Then suddenly my phone started to light up as friends forwarded me tweets and blog posts and interviews, pro and con.  Finally, at the weekend a whole pile of very disturbing soundbites landed in my inbox from various sources.  I have yet to listen to the talks so cannot offer anycriticism of them but I have noticed that, in all the critiques I have seen, a couple of key dots have not been connected: those between Revoice and the general culture of Big Eva.  (For new readers, if any such exist, Big Eva is not a large German who works in border control for theBundesrepublik but my term for the network of large evangelical organizations and conferences that seeks to shape the thinking and strategy of the American evangelical churches.  She used to be a regular in this column but has been away on an “extended furlough” for a couple of years).

What Big Eva has done is create an economy of power, people, and indeed money which is non-ecclesiastical but highly influential within evangelical churches.  It is a populist movement of tremendous influence and minimal accountability.  It provides an identity for its most passionate acolytes.  And because it promises rewards to individuals and organizations – influence, students, platform – it is both very hard to criticize and functionally unaccountable to any but its own. The Trinity controversy of two years ago was a case in point: no church creed had ever taught the nonsense that had become so pervasive in evangelicalism.  Quite the contrary – the creedal history of the church was arguably constructed to exclude precisely the kindof views that were being espoused.  But key conferences and key organizations had a vested interest in sidestepping orthodoxy and demonizing any who pointed thatout. 

There is an important distinction to be made here.   Discussion of matters of note in the public square is a good thing, whether by books, articles, blogs or, for those who prefer their arguments unencumbered by polysyllabic words, long sentences and, well, argument, Twitter.  But provoking people to think about issues by offering forthright opinions is one thing.  Aspiring to be a movement, to direct and shape the policies and testimony of the church is quite another.   That should be done through the appropriate ecclesiastical bodies – whether sessions, consistories, elder boards, presbyteries, synods etc.  

And this brings me to Revoice. Setting aside the content and specific intention of the conference, it is surely unexceptional on one level: it is just another example of that culture whereby a non-ecclesiastical movement incarnated in an online network and now a conference strives to speak to the church in a very directive manner and thereby to drive the church’s confession. The big question for Big Eva then becomes ‘How can we respond to these people when the kind of non-ecclesiastical, populist, celebrity ecology of power and influence we have created and harnessed is the same in principle as that which makes them so significant and potentially influential?’  Or perhaps more bluntly ‘What have we done?’

Read More