David McAllister-Wilson, 56, knows that too many mainline Protestant churches are failing. As president of Wesley Theological Seminary in Northwest D.C., he is working to renew them, one pastor at a time. By his own measure, success will mean that the students his school prepares, and the churches and communities they lead, will look more and more like the Kingdom of God. He spoke with The Washington Examiner about his faith and the need for Christian leadership to encourage its fruition. Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
I am a Christian. More specifically, I am a United Methodist pastor, and that makes me what I would call a “progressive evangelical.” I believe the Gospel is good news for the world, but I believe that what God is trying to do in the world is heal the sick, comfort the afflicted, welcome the stranger, give release to the captives — that’s the good news. I’ve always been a Methodist because at our best, we’re very methodical about doing that work in the world. We don’t ask what we’re saved from, but what we’re saved for.
If Jesus were to observe mainline Protestant churches today, how do you think he’d react?
He would weep again. I think we as a church are a very tiny fraction of what we’re called to be — we’ve become a member services organization. When there are more empty bedrooms in Christian homes than there are homeless people, then there’s something wrong with the church.
If you were to take all of the Americans who reported not just that they are Christians, but that their faith matters a lot to them, and then you were to take the difference between how much they give to the church, and how much they’d give if they actually tithed, that difference would be enough to feed, clothe and house all of the refugees, everywhere in the world, for a year.
I hear things like that, and I see a great opportunity for church leadership.
What does a great church leader look like?
Faithful churches welcome people, help them to experience God’s love in their lives, and send them into the world as disciples of Christ, to be agents of God’s love in the world. That takes good preaching, a warm heart, and a passion not just to do good, but to do good well. Churches that experience vital worship, that study the Scripture, that care for one another — these are the kinds of communities that are fruitful.
Generally, the lives Christians live are much more comfortable than the lives we think we’re called to live. It takes incredible courage to live as we feel called. So, a reason for churches to exist is because courage is a group virtue — it is fostered in community. An effective church leader also is one who helps to foster the virtue of courage.
What are the dangers facing Christian congregations today?
Americans in general are very good about feeling good about themselves, and churches can play into that. A lot of congregations are thriving and doing good works, but the danger for any one church is to become self-congratulatory. In the glare of the light of success, we can be blinded to the vision that God would have for us.
Also, American churches have to face how to engage people of other faiths, and people of no faith, with confidence, and grace, and humility. Mainline Protestants’ great success is that we’re easy to be around — and that’s not a bad thing at all. But the question is how to be both confident and passionate about who you are and what you believe in a way that’s not devaluing of others.
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
I believe that the Kingdom of God is all that Jesus said it was — a promise that one day there will be no more suffering, no more war, and that even the power of death will be defeated. But it’s not just a promise of something that will happen some day far away, it’s a way of life. It’s a beckoning to those of us who would call ourselves by Christ’s name to be invested in realizing that promise in the world today.
– Leah Fabel
