“They were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.” – Hebrews 11:16

“True evangelical faith, cannot lie dormant, it clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters the destitute, it serves those that harm it, it binds up that which is wounded, it has become all things to all creatures.” – Menno Simons

Even though I’m an ordained Mennonite minister, it is not often that the particulars of my Anabaptist perspectives have been perceptible in my writings for Coracle. That is because Anabaptists are deeply evangelical and therefore are often quite at home within the larger evangelical church. Yet, as I find myself having conversation after conversation with my more mainstream evangelical friends who are distraught with the current witness of the church, I find myself with a simple refrain ringing in my ears “what will it profit you if you gain the world, and yet lose your own soul. Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

For the church, like Adam and Eve before her, there have always been many good trees in the garden, the fruit of which we are invited to enjoy. And, like Adam and Eve, there has always been one tree, the fruit of which the church has been forbidden to grasp. Namely worldly power. After all, Jesus was crucified as a king, who when asked about the nature of his Kingdom stated plainly, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight… but now My kingdom is not from here.”

What we are witnessing is the exchange of an evangelical church in America for an evangelical church of America. What precisely is being exchanged? The soul of evangelicalism for access to the levers of worldly power.

Many will ask “Are we simply supposed to allow the woke, neo-pagan, socialist, queer theorist rule? Just think what will happen to our public schools and institutions.” And echoing in our ears ought to be the words “When Eve saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and ate.”

If the story of Adam and Eve’s fall teaches us anything, is it not that there will be times when something seems good, beautiful, and true, yet is forbidden by God? At which point we face a choice wherein if we grasp for what was never given, we will lose what was.

By grasping after the political power of America, the church has forsaken the gospel power of evangelicalism in America. While the popular evangelical truism to “be in the world but not of it” is not a direct passage of scripture, it is profoundly biblical in that it is clearly based on Jesus’ prayer for his disciples in John ch 17.

So what is a Christian, distraught by the current state of the Evangelical church in America to do? No, do not move to a better country. Canada for instance has often functioned as an idealized alternative to more liberal-leaning Americans. However, as a Canadian citizen, I’d caution you not to be surprised if you find a nasty ditch on both sides of the straight and narrow.

Rather than move to a better country, the invitation right here and now, in America, is to become a better country. Or more specifically to join the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11 who, as pilgrims in, but not of, the culture around them longed for, and lived as though they were citizens of a better country.

“For we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.” – Philippians 3:20

“The point is to live, at the moment, as agents of the civilization of heaven here on earth. That is central to what Paul is teaching the Philippians to do” – N.T Wright.

As a part of Coracle’s larger Resilience, Response, and Rest initiative we’d like to invite you to explore what it means to be of a better country, via a Conversation at Corhaven on Friday, April 25th. Beginning with dinner and inter-personal conversation we will then move into a more formal conversation together on becoming a Better Country. Join us on Friday, April 25th from 5-9PM – you can RSVP here.

And, while you are at it, why not stay the night and join us the following Saturday for the Corhaven Spring Garden Workday? April 26th, 10 AM – 5 PM at Corhaven.