An Englishman in New York (and other US states)

I’m on my first trip to the US, and I’ve been spending lots of time with Christians here—pastors, elders and more “ordinary” believers. And it’s so interesting to observe how as brothers and sisters we are in many ways alike—in faith, in language, in (some) history. And yet we are in some ways so very different, too.

So, from my massively scientific research of eight days on this side of the Atlantic, taking in one small group, one pastors’ conference, two church services and a heap of meetings, I am not-so-confidently making these generalizations:

• US pastors are confident. They expect the gospel to work, so they plan for church growth.
• US Christians are positive. They say what they appreciate about something first, and are quick to see the good in a talk or a resource.
• US evangelism focuses on reaching church-goers. There is a huge job of "inreach" to do, because there are a lot of people in church on Sundays who think they’re Christians, but are probably not.
• Bible-teaching evangelicals are much more cautious with their forms of gathered worship.
• Evangelical reformed preaching is not always as clearly expositional as in the UK, working through a passage and getting hearers’ heads stuck into Scripture. But it is usually pretty passionate.
• US Christians seem very open about their Christian lives—quick to share their struggles and failures, and ask for prayer and help in their Christian lives.

With each of these observations, I want instinctively to follow with a value judgement: to say “US Christians are better than UK Christians for this reason”, or “British believers do this or that better than them”.

But I’ve been struck that actually it’s far more helpful to ask: How are the characteristics of this Christian culture likely to help their growth in godliness and bring glory to Christ, and how are they likely to hinder it?

We all have characteristics, national traits and different ways of doing things. But because we are sinful, they can be used in self-service, rather in serving the Lord.

You’ve probably seen a church which is great at getting doctrine clear (helpful), but the same impulse means it can be quite dry (hindering). Or a church which engages everyone emotionally (helpful), but which therefore struggles to be rigorous in its handling of Scripture (hindering).

So as I experience America, rather than a clear “This is great” or “This is not great” black-and-white view of what I am experiencing, the question I’m trying to ask of the churches I’m seeing and the Christian culture I’m observing is: how do their characteristics help them glorify Christ, and how might they hinder them in glorifying Christ?

And then comes the harder part for anyone: to look at each of the characteristics of our own Christian culture, our own church family, and ourselves, and say: What are we like? Are we prepared to let others tell us what we are like? How does what we’re like help us glorify our Lord? And how do we need to be watchful for the ways in which it might stop us glorifying Him?