Carl Trueman has been an insightful even if biting critic of the current cult of celebrity and managerial rule among Evangelical Christians. This threat has made its way into the “Young, Restless, and Reformed” subcultures and even the more traditional Reformed ecclesiastical world. Having apparently not been warmly received in the past, Dr. Trueman here tries a different approach to highlight the problem.
Creation of new markets would therefore play a large part in determining what issues are addressed and which are ignored. For example, everyday problems would be subject to mystification so as to place them beyond the competence of the minister and elders and deacons (and thus beyond the church as Paul envisaged it) and therefore to require specialized training and help. And guess who is there to provide the quasi-Gnostic knowledge necessary? It can be purchased, of course, from the members of the Evangelical Industrial Complex. And this would in turn feed into further marginalization of biblical polity and ordained office.
Imagine, it’s easy if you try.
