I have been working on the issue of evangelical dysfunction for some time now.  And for nearly all of that time my approach has been to describe the problem, argue for (and present examples of) its existence, and propose solutions.

Unfortunately, this approach was wrong.

My experience of attempting to bring this problem to light for Evangelicals and within the evangelical church over the past four years has shown me that beginning by addressing “the problem”–or even simply presenting evangelical dysfunction as a problem–is not the place to start.

Instead, as I noted in a previous post, the starting place is with the “question” of evangelical dysfunction rather than the problem or the “phenomenon” of evangelical dysfunction.  The difference is that when we begin with the “question” we do not start with the issue to be considered but can instead start with what it might means for a “potential investigator” to begin considering the matter.

The reason for doing this is that the very idea that evangelical Christianity is deeply dysfunctional is simply beyond the ability of most Christians even to conceive, let alone to discuss maturely and investigate effectively.  The notion, in other words, is overwhelming.

Beginning instead with the “question” of evangelical dysfunction means beginning by considering first what is at stake for Evangelicals with such a notion and what it may “cost” an evangelical Christian seriously even to consider the idea, let alone to investigate it in the context of their own church or their own lives.

To facilitate understanding what is “at stake” or what it may “cost” Evangelicals to engage with the notion that evangelical Christianity is broadly dysfunctional I propose that Evangelicals consider–and answer–the following questions:

1) What are your feelings and responses to such a claim and how strong are they?
2) What do you think these feelings indicate (and what might their strength or weakness indicate)?
3) How competent do you feel to consider or even know how to start considering such a claim? What might your perceived level of competence indicate?
4) What in your view would count as evidence either for or against such a claim?
5) How would you evaluate or “weigh up” such evidence and how competent do you feel to do so successfully?
6) What would be required for you to “trust” someone making such a claim?
7) What might it take to convince you that such a claim is possible (not true, but simply possible)?
8) What resources would you be able to access in your church or Christan community to help you with the above tasks?
9) How easy would it be to identify the right resources and / or adjudicate between the right resources if they offered various (or particularly, conflicting) perspectives?
10) How important on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being “least” and 5 being “most”) is it to you to determine whether dysfunction is widespread within the evangelical church?