Promise Keepers & Christian Unity
by Kevin Offner
It was a hot and humid first week of October here in Washington, D.C., and my wife and I had kept the windows of our Capitol Hill row house open as we went to sleep Friday night. We were awakened at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 4, by the sound of the loud voices of men from the sidewalk outside. We are used to hearing obscenities and shouting from our street, but these voices weren’t angry—they were cheerful and enthusiastic, punctuated with occasional bursts of laughter.
The Promise Keepers had arrived! Dozens and dozens of them were pouring out of busses all along our Maryland Avenue, and they were making their way by foot to the Mall, that long grassy area between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. There was a sense of excitement and anticipation in their faces and voices as they walked. My wife enthusiastically ran to the window and shouted, “Go-o-o-o-o-o-o Guys!”
There was no way that I was not going to be a part of that noon-to-six-p.m. assembly. I had never attended a Promise Keepers event before, and this one was the Big One—and right in my own backyard! I decided not to go with men from my church, however, because I wanted the freedom to raise my hands, cry, fall prostrate, or whatever (things we Baptists aren’t known for doing). I went partly out of curiosity but primarily because I longed to be touched by God, and be a part of what he is doing in men’s lives across the country.
It was an overwhelming experience. Everywhere I ran into men huddled together for prayer, singing, or encouragement. I was deeply moved by the number of father-son duos I witnessed that afternoon—young boys who looked up admiringly at their dads, and fathers who unashamedly hugged and cried with their sons. And I was impressed by the earnestness of these men: they came to do serious business with God about the state of their souls.
One thing characterized the sacred assembly and was not faked: Christian men of many denominations and traditions, thousands and thousands of them were seeking and receiving personal renewal. We were individually and corporately crying out to the Lord for forgiveness for our prayerlessness, neglect of Bible study, and sexual lust. We were repenting over our racism and our failure as husbands and fathers. And we were promising that, by God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s help, we would be different men from this day forward. The October assembly in Washington was not about politics but personal repentance.
But Promise Keepers is about more than male bonding and repentance. Promise Keepers brings with it, quite self-consciously, a perspective on Christian unity. No Promise Keeper event (so I am told) fails to address this topic directly, and of course the rallies themselves by their very existence speak indirectly to this issue.
So what is the Promise Keepers’ view of Christian unity? Despite the attendance of some Orthodox and not a few Roman Catholics (including at least one of the plenary speakers), the ecclesiology presented at the Washington rally was unquestionably Protestant evangelical. We were repeatedly exhorted not to let denominations and tradition get in the way of the true unity all Christians share because of our being brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. All the men were asked to sing: “Have we not one Father; have we not one faith; have we not one calling; to be God’s holy race?” One speaker, in a burst of emotion, exuded, “We are the Church, we are the Body of Christ. Where is the Church? Right here! Just look around you: we are the Church!” And again, “No denominations or traditions can get in the way of our ultimate unity in Jesus Christ. God is perfecting His Church.” And once more, “We belong not to a church but to the Church of Jesus Christ. Say to someone next to you, ‘I am the Church, you are the Church, we are the Church.’”
To drive this point home, the speaker had each man, on the count of three, say out loud the denomination or tradition to which he belonged. We did this, and the words “Catholic,” “Orthodox,” “Pentecostal,” “Baptist,” “Methodist,” “Presbyterian,” etc, were indecipherable in the wild cacophony that ensued. But then we were instructed simply to say in unison the name “Jesus Christ,” which was easily heard in powerful unison.
Surely this clearly reflects the evangelical Protestant understanding of the Church which they (we) have held throughout this century, and arguably since the Great Awakening of the 1730s, when Evangelicals intentionally prioritized personal conversion over ecclesiology. What it the Church for Evangelicals? It is the gathering of Christians. Period. If you know Jesus as your personal Savior, and if I know Jesus as my personal Savior, then you and I are members of Christ’s Body, which is his Church. That’s it! Why get bogged down with sacraments, tradition, creeds, doctrines, liturgy and church authorities—as long as you know Jesus personally, that’s all that matters. This view of Christian unity, which used to characterize only the Protestant parachurch groups, is now becoming the predominant one held by most evangelical churches.
So what are we to make of this ecclesiology? Two things, I think, need to be said, and each needs to be said strongly.
Kevin Offner is on the staff of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He has written for Re:Generation Quarterly, Critique, Student Leadership Journal, and First Things. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife Amy. They are members of the Presbyterian Church in America. He is a contributing editor for Touchstone.
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