A growing tribalism in evangelicalism has made a lot of Christian leaders and their followers skeptical of one another.
When I was a younger pastor, just coming out of seminary, movements like The Gospel Coalition and Together for the Gospel were just getting started. While they may have been a countermovement to the pragmatic conference and church movement of the time, they also celebrated the church’s togetherness and provided a place for guys serious about expositional preaching and theology to connect. We were together, we were a coalition, and it genuinely felt like we were for something rather than merely against something.
Over the last 20 years, and especially in the last decade, it seems togetherness has largely been replaced by a growing hypertribalism. The 2016 election accelerated these trends, making politics—which had largely been a unifying topic for evangelicals, at least since the early ’90s—now a topic of deep division.
Reformed Tribalism
But the tribalism doesn’t stop there. It’s almost as if these political divisions strengthened the muscle of division, which has led to a world of hypertribalism and a corresponding deep tribal loyalty.
I hear this kind of anxiety all the time from pastors and church leaders. Pastors who fall in the ecclesiological crowd feel the need to apologize if their church experiences great growth—“Don’t worry, I’m not one of those guys that has mass baptism services.”
On the other side, larger and fast-growing churches can have the same sort of condescending attitude toward churches that “really care about church discipline.”
“I heard this pastor is woke,” “I used to like that pastor, but I heard he voted for Kamala,” and “Can I still listen to John Piper sermons?” are all comments or questions I’ve heard or been asked.
I’m certainly not saying all our differences are unimportant. The problem is that our tribes have become so strong and determinative that we’re unable to learn from, celebrate, or even acknowledge other faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. All this can be disorienting and confusing for Christians and church leaders.
Sadly, much of this tribalism flows from a cult of personality. We can be so influenced by particular leaders that before freely learning from or acknowledging other believers, we ask questions like “Would my leader be OK with me listening to this sermon, reading this book, or befriending this pastor?”
It’s OK for you to have a tribe and to learn from people outside your tribe. It’s even OK to recognize that the Lord might use someone outside your tribe to do great things for his kingdom. And so I want to give you a framework—four helpful truths as we maneuver this hypertribal world while trying not to become hypertribal ourselves.
1. It’s OK to have a tribe.
One defining characteristic of evangelicalism the past 30 years has been the rise of nondenominational churches. I understand why this happened; people have become frustrated with the baggage that comes with traditional denominationalism in American evangelical life.
But there really is no such thing as nondenominationalism. There’s only macro or traditional denominations or microdenominations. When people are unconnected, they have a way of redenominating or refederating. Humans want to be a part of a federation, a group, a tribe, of other like-minded Christians and believers, and that’s a good thing.
So, understand you’re part of a tribe. You might love and embrace some things in the tribe, and you may be critical of others. The right posture is a willingness to both celebrate and critique your tribe.
2. You should be talking to people, reading books, and considering voices outside your tribe.
If you’re never listening to outsiders, or if your positions are never being challenged, you’ll become hypertribal. You’ll even become critical of what God is doing through other believers.
You need to engage in an open way with other voices. You need to attend conferences where not every speaker shares every one of your secondary convictions. And don’t attend so you can write a critical review but so you can learn and benefit from what other believers say.
Do this because God has given gifts to his whole church and because you believe that faithful brothers and sisters—who may not see everything exactly the same way that you do—can help you better understand who God is and how you can grow as a faithful disciple.
3. Learn to distinguish between heterodoxy and healthy disagreement.
If one of those outside voices is going beyond the lines of what’s orthodox or biblical, then obviously there’s room for critique and disassociation. As Jesus says, watch out for false teachers and beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15). This is the right impulse. Faithful Christians must exercise biblical discernment.
With that said, we need to admit that the world right now has overly embraced this impulse of separation and critique. Many of us are “trigger happy” when it comes to tearing down. If you’re a little too eager to log on to discernment ministry websites, if you’re a little too happy to see someone you disagree with fall morally, then you have a problem.
4. Be in a face-to-face community with different voices.
Are you regularly associating with and learning from ministry leaders from different gospel-centered denominations and tribes? Are friends pushing you and encouraging you?
I have a friend who recently became convinced of the second baptism of the Holy Spirit after reading Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s Joy Unspeakable. But after reading the book, the first step he took was to bring his new ideas into community.
He brought this topic to a group of trusted friends and pastors, and we had a dialogue about it. Lloyd-Jones certainly isn’t outside of Christian orthodoxy, but he does hold a view many of the people in this community didn’t hold. It was a helpful conversation that challenged some assumptions we’d made and hopefully led to our growth as Christian believers. While he didn’t persuade us to change our positions, he had the courage to work through something biblically and theologically with trusted fellow believers.
Who is doing that for you? Who is challenging you? Who has permission to question your assumptions? Who comes from a different tradition but still loves the same Savior? In some ways, we’ve lost something as the Christian conference world has declined. It’s not that we lack access to good preaching or thoughtful content. We have more of that than ever before. What we’ve lost is the opportunity to build friendships across our tribal lines.
Aim for Healthy Tribalism
The Christian instinct to learn from and celebrate people who share the basics of orthodoxy is good. One reason the early church was so concerned with orthodoxy was because Christians recognized there would always be secondary and tertiary differences within the church, but if there was orthodox agreement on the main things, those differences could strengthen the church.
The ability of Christians to push one another, learn from one another, and see Christ together from different perspectives has led to greater maturity, greater diversity, and greater glory to God. Of course, a slippery slope can lead to the loss of Christian orthodoxy, but a slippery slope can also lead to hypertribalism—and that’s one every Christian should hope to avoid.
The Gospel Coalition