Everyday obstacles, Part 5: A classless society? Some stories
/It is not uncommon to hear people say that Australia is a ‘classless society’.
We like to think we are egalitarian – that everyone gets a ‘fair go’, and we are not bound by class distinctions as some other countries are.
But ask an everyday person in Australia whether we have a classless society, and in all likelihood, they’ll laugh or scoff.
It’s only those who have ‘succeeded’ in our system who think everyone is given a fair go.
Those who struggled to ‘succeed’ at school and didn’t go on to university can feel like second-class citizens – and to be honest, they are often treated that way.
In many instances, their jobs don’t pay well – so their houses are more modest, their cars are older, they can’t afford to send their kids to private schools, and they don’t go on expensive holidays.
And because of this, some everyday people can experience resentment. After all, they are no less intelligent or gifted; the ways they learn were just not well catered for at school.
If an everyday person already feels resentful or looked down on by university-educated people, they are not likely to feel comfortable going into an environment dominated by them … like a Reformed evangelical church service or Bible study group. And they may find it even more difficult to get involved in leadership there.
Steve’s story
Steve is a Presbyterian minister in country Australia. As a young adult, Steve worked in a job that required no formal qualifications.
Steve told me about his first experience of going to a Bible study at an Anglican church in Western Sydney.
He quickly realised that just about everyone else in the group had a university degree. They also all seemed to have their life together: a solid family life, career, their own house, a car …
Steve did not have a degree. His life wasn’t ‘together’ like theirs. And it made him so uncomfortable that he excused himself halfway through the Bible study and walked home (even though he’d been planning to get a lift home with someone in the group).
The walk took him four hours.
So great was Steve’s discomfort about his educational background and his personal circumstances that he would rather walk for four hours than stay until the end of the Bible study.
University-educated Christians are often oblivious to the way everyday people like Steve feel around us. We need to accept the fact that class distinctions do exist, and seek to understand the impact they can have on the everyday people we meet.
Even if everyday people make it to the end of a Reformed evangelical church service without leaving early, churches often struggle to keep them around for morning tea. Like Steve, many will be driven by their discomfort to leave, rather than stick around for morning tea with a bunch of latte-sipping, overprivileged professionals.
(Okay, I know I’m playing on stereotypes here. I don’t mean to be offensive; I’m just trying to help you imagine just how conscious of class differences everyday people may be.)
Chris’s story
Ten years ago, when I first realised the importance of having everyday Christians up-front in our church, I asked Chris, who had occasionally led prayer, whether he would be willing to lead a service.
Chris was in his fifties, had been a Christian for about a decade, loved the Lord, and regularly mowed the grounds of our church. He was authentic, gentle, generous and honest about the struggles and joys of his walk with Jesus.
Chris was an experienced mechanic who managed an engine repair shop. But he didn’t think he was the sort of guy to lead a church service. There were no other ‘people like him’ leading or preaching in church.
I told Chris that was exactly why he was the sort of person we needed to lead services! He laughed and thanked me for the invitation but declined.
I met with Chris fortnightly to read the Bible and pray for the next two-and-a-half years before he finally agreed to lead a service.
What was the clincher? Why did he finally agree to have a go? It was after another everyday Christian guy, Brian, also in his fifties, led a service at our church. Chris thought, ‘If Brian could have a go then maybe I could, too.’
And Chris’s authenticity, openness and honesty was extremely refreshing and edifying for everyone in our congregation – no matter what their background.
Bruce’s story
The fear of not being good enough to lead others runs deep in many everyday Christians. It’s a significant obstacle to getting them involved in up-front ministry and leadership in our churches. And for many, it’s a fear they’ve carried their entire lives.
Bruce grew up on a farm. His dad often encouraged him to miss school and help with the farm work. His parents did not value education like many university-educated parents do. He wasn’t encouraged to go to university. He did a carpentry apprenticeship after school.
After serving as a lay leader for many years in his local church, Bruce was convicted to train as a pastor. He headed to Sydney to go to theological college. He said it was very intimidating to be surrounded by a group of students who had all been to university.
Twenty years later, he has a degree in theology and leads a church of over 800 people; but put him in a room full of pastors who came from university-educated backgrounds, and he still hesitates to speak.
Even after all that he has accomplished, Bruce still feels ‘second-class’ around his professional peers – as if he is in some way less capable than them.
So what can we do to overcome class barriers?
Of course, it’s simply not true that everyday people are not as capable as others of being leaders and teachers.
We see great leadership and training skills in the captain of a rugby league team who leads his team to victory; in the salon owner who runs the business and educates multiple hairdressing trainees; and in the warehouse foreperson who motivates and trains the workers to do their job well.
If Reformed evangelical churches are prepared to take the time to patiently disciple everyday people, encouraging them to use their gifts even if they feel different within a church predominantly made of university-educated people, eventually one of them will be willing to have a go – and others will follow.
What a wonderful way for our churches to display the power of the gospel to destroy division, resentment and suspicion between different educational, social and cultural groups, bringing a unity that results in praise and glory being given to God (Ephesians 2:14–3:11).
But as long as Reformed evangelical churches keep being dominated and led only by university-educated Christians, they will fail to reach everyday people. And that’s why we need everyday people in all the roles in our churches.
This article is one of a series that I’ve written about making disciples of ‘everyday people’.
It can be read on its own, but if you’d like to gain a greater understanding of how my thoughts around this important topic have developed, you may wish to read the full series of articles in order.
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