“Gospel-Centered” Pitfalls Part 4- Eggheadism

This is part 4 of an ongoing series. Be sure to catch up on the previous posts!

Intro

Part 1- Defining “Gospel Centrality”

Part 2- Everything is Justification

Part 3- Jesus?

Eggheadism

Eggheadism is a danger in many Christian circles, not just the “Gospel-centered” ones. I can name a few circles of Evangelicalism where I don’t think this will ever be a danger, but they carry their own forms of elitism. Eggheadism is a by-default class system where those smart and bookish enough to catch onto the vocabulary of the movement are separated from the normal people who don’t. It often isn’t intentional, but one of the inevitable consequences that comes from a movement being both young and educated.

I think Gospel-centered movements tend towards eggheadism for a few reasons:

1. We are people of the Book. Can’t really do much here. Literacy will always be a part of the Church and discipleship simply because we believe God has reveals Himself to us through the pages of Scripture. But being people of the book doesn’t mean we have to be bookish to be disciples. We need to acknowledge the need for discipling that occurs in minimally-literate environments, whether this is among the urban poor, rural poor, or immigrant communities. One of the questions which those teaching Gospel-centrality should ask themselves is “Would this translate to a new believer from Iran and would he/she be able to easily share it with others?” or “Would a single, working mother who didn’t finish high school keep up with what I’m teaching or would she need years of specialized, Christian education to do so?” Those kinds of questions will keep our Gospel-centrality truly centered on the wonderful Gospel of Jesus and away from abstraction and over-complication.

2. Most church leaders have a book-centered education from an academic institution. Once again, you can’t undo your past education. I loved my time at college and seminary. But we need to remember that many Christians, including some leaders, throughout history were unable to read (and more were unable to write). As Tim Chester and Steve Timmis discuss in their book Total Church, one of the biggest reasons most churches reach middleclass people is because our trained (graduate degree-wielding!) leaders are middleclass. Which means that for the future, we need to look at finding ways to develop leaders and disciplers who wouldn’ t fit the bill for a traditional academic education but who can share their faith, lead, and train others to follow Jesus. A sweeping gospel-centered movement will need both leaders with DMins and leaders with GEDs.

3. Reading or philosophizing about Gospel-centrality is easier than living Gospel-centered. Sometimes our Christian discussions, books, Bible studies, and conferences serve as a numbing agent we use to keep ourselves feeling spiritual while being able to live much of our lives without following Christ. We can blog about the Gospel or read the newest “Gospel-centered” book without doing the dirty legwork of making application to our lives or sharing it with others.

4. We enjoy being part of the “in crowd.” Ironically, the Gospel-centrality should humble us and give us outward eyes for loving others and including the weak and marginalized, but instead we can take it and make it another personal distinction for ourselves or our group. We know the vocabulary, we know how to see the Gospel all over the Scriptures, we know the right books for parenting, marriage, etc. It would be a shame that a focus on the Gospel would turn us into Gnostics! But our pride knows no bounds and can twist any good thing into a source of personal accomplishment and worth.

Eggheadism is a pitfall in the path of Gospel-centrality. Let’s take caution so that a good desire to “study to show yourself approved” does not become a source of division and elitism.