Recently a good friend of mine embroiled in a denominational\u00a0 split said, \u201ctheology is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother\u2019s maiden name was Mullins, recently I traced the ancestry of that name back to its entry point into the colonies in the late 1600s.\u00a0 The name had originally been des Moulines (French) and belonged to a family of Hugenots who had fled France to England (and then on to the Americas) to avoid Catholic persecution.\u00a0 They came to America, like so many, seeking religious freedom, having failed to convince French and broader Catholicism to reform its theology.\u00a0 They had at one point had a voice in attempting to reform the European church (along with the earliest Reformers), but had finally found that their voice was no tot be heard, and in fact their voice was repressed.\u00a0 This of course has been the history of much of Christianity, a constant ebb and tide of reformers, heretics, \u201crepressions,\u201d and adjustments of theology.\u00a0 Theology is everything.<\/p>\n
Albert O. Hirschman\u2019s Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States<\/em> proposes the economic model of exit and voice as ways of correcting discontent of buyers and receivers of services against the flailing abilities to produce of firms and organizations.\u00a0 Traditional economics has proposed often a survival of the fittest mentality in terms of exit.\u00a0 If a company cannot meet the quality standards or demand of its customers in a free market, said customers will exit and seek those goods or service elsewhere.\u00a0 Of course, the beginning stages of exit may in fact signal the organization that something is wrong, and they may be able to address the issues, improving their organization and retain and regain customers.\u00a0 Hirschman sees exit as valid, but as potentially, especially in the cases of governments and organization, limiting in its effectiveness.\u00a0 Here Hirschman proposes voice as a more viable option as it allows for avoiding deterioration and collapse in society. Voice is \u201cfor the customer or member to make an attempt at changing the practices, policies, and outputs of the firm from which one buys from or of the organization of which one belongs (30).\u201d\u00a0 That is voice can stave off the negative effects of exit, and help firms and organizations be more successful and useful, avoiding an unending cycle of collapse.\u00a0 Voice is productive and creative. \u00a0Hirschman however stresses that voice is also more difficult of an option, not guaranteed to succeed, and that ultimately exit must be retained as the final solution.<\/p>\n One can see the tension between exit and voice magnified in the Arab Spring and its subsequent spasms of revolution and war.\u00a0 People want their voices to be heard, to change the system, but when the voices are not considered (at the nation state and ethnic level) there is an almost nihilistic exit choice, as the only options become fleeing one\u2019s geographical identity, or to exterminate those who oppose you.<\/p>\n As the church, what are we to make of this?\u00a0 Certainly, in a corporate sense, theological exit, voice, and loyalty have been in play for thousands of years.\u00a0 We need only to witness the monastics, Cathars, Hussites, Hugenots, Waldensians, the Reformers, and the constant spinning off and dividing since.\u00a0 This compared with Christ\u2019s call for the unity of his body creates a serious tension for the church.\u00a0 At a theological, or even an organizational impasse, is exit ever really an option?\u00a0 Obviously as a Protestant, I owe almost all of my spiritual heritage (or at least the last 500 years or so) to the option of exit.\u00a0 Much of America was settled on the principal of exit from organizations and systems that people had been trying to influence for change for quite some time.\u00a0 I come from a long line of leavers.\u00a0 But, it seems to me that voice must always be the first option, and the most longsuffering.\u00a0 We have to fight long and hard for our theological voice to be heard, and for the work of the Holy Spirit to evoke organizational change.\u00a0 Still, after much grace, prayer, attempts at expressing voice that can lead to change, there must sometimes come a time when in graciousness and compassion, we decide that our theology no longer fits with the wider organization, and in deep grief exit.<\/p>\n The evangelical churches of my current denomination are currently facing this very crisis.\u00a0 After over 20 years of attempting to be an orthodox theological voice in the denomination to affect change, most of the evangelical leaders and churches have come to the same conclusion.\u00a0 The denomination continues to drift away from its historic roots, away from its call to preach the gospel in word and deed, and is increasingly becoming more antagonistic towards the evangelical wing.\u00a0 Pep talks on the importance of theological tolerance and diversity in unity, ring hollow when certain churches are blocked from ordaining certain potential clergy because their seminaries are blacklisted.\u00a0 What is more, in some cases area leadership has attempted to remove pastors and leadership (elected and called by the local congregation) that they have viewed as in contradiction to the national church\u2019s wishes.\u00a0 There are a hundred talking points and issues, but the core problem stems from a massive divergence of theology, down to the core question and imposition of what the church \u201cought\u201d to be.\u00a0 Theology is everything.<\/p>\n For me, and many of my friends, the exit option is clear.\u00a0 The voice option has failed to change the organization, and what is more, the national church is no longer serving in the interests of many local congregations.\u00a0 Organizational exit and disassociation seem to be the quickest and safest route to preserving the theological and organizational integrity of my and many other\u2019s churches.<\/p>\n Do you believe in theological exit, and if so, what is deciding factor in taking that option?<\/p>\n My prayer is that the option of theological exit will bring renewal and new opportunities for growth, creativity, and mission.\u00a0 That in the face of nihilistic exit, God can resurrect both sides to his glory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently a good friend of mine embroiled in a denominational\u00a0 split said, \u201ctheology is everything.\u201d My mother\u2019s maiden name was Mullins, recently I traced the ancestry of that name back to its entry point into the colonies in the late 1600s.\u00a0 The name had originally been des Moulines (French) and belonged to a family of 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