A ‘We’ Problem

Why unity is the key to regaining our voice in society

By Andy Stanley

Tough times expose tough truths. The political, social, economic and health crises of 2020 revealed a disturbing reality about evangelicals in America: What we say is most important is not actually what we consider most important.

For all our talk of revival and reaching the lost, our actions and reactions tell a different story. For a long time now, our words, thoughts and values have not aligned with what we claim we’re about. If there’s any doubt, consider the reactions of prominent pastors, Christian podcasters, television personalities and nonprofit leaders to the events that defined 2020. Their reactions—our reactions—made what we most value abundantly and embarrassingly clear.

Once you scratch the veneer off our Bible-laced rhetoric and faith claims, our sermons and songs, we value what everybody else does: Winning.

What do we fear? Losing.

But not winning or losing souls. I’m talking about how we systematically alienated people in America through our un-Christlike rhetoric and fear-based posturing. And make no mistake, people were watching. They were listening. Folks who don’t embrace our faith—the very folks we propose to “save”—found out what’s most important to us. And it wasn’t them.

If it were, we would not have let ourselves be dragged into and embroiled in far less noble conflicts with far less noble goals. If evangelism and discipleship were truly most important, we would not have so easily surrendered influence with those outside the church. We would not have permitted ourselves to be reduced to a voting bloc.

Tragically, because of our misplaced, un-Christlike value system, we were not prepared or positioned to take advantage of what, in hindsight, may have been the greatest opportunity for the church in our lifetime. We had a chance, to borrow the apostle Paul’s words, to shine like stars in the heavens. We could have lived like “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation” (Phil. 2:15).

Instead, we grumbled and argued. With one another. With our neighbors. With local and state governments.

“Unity will become the priority only if we are willing to acknowledge that a lack of unity signals an emergency.”

We squandered a chance, in Jesus’ words, to let our “light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). We hid our light under a bushel. We lined up behind our party of choice and leveraged our sacred text to validate our political talking points.

Toward the end of 2020, as some felt the prospects of winning politically and culturally slipping away, many high-profile evangelical church leaders behaved as rudely and as un-Christlike as their secular counterparts. In some instances, worse. In their attempt to save America from the “other” political party, they threw away their opportunity to save half the American population from their sin. Consequently, we all lost influence. We all lost credibility. Read More

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