Assessing the Inside Strategy

The inside strategy is mentioned in the entry below by Brad Drell. It is also the strategy endorsed by Sarah Hey who is one of the Stand Firm crew, Neil Michell of the Diocese of Dallas and the ACI fellows. As I have said before, the inside strategy is dead. I think that those who cling to the hope that an inside strategy can work are deluded. While there are still pockets of orthodoxy within pecusa there is not an effective leadership to guide an inside strategy.

As the Rev. Dr. Paul Zahl said years ago, we've lost, let's admit it and move on. Sarah Hey can believe that stone bridges are important, but I believe that the salvation of souls is the primary work of the church. Brad Drell may believe that he occupies safe ground in his diocese. Most of the ACI fellows are either in academia or retired. Neil Michell and others in primarily orthodox diocese are also shielded from much of the evil of pecusa. Involvement with pecusa, particularly in parish ministry in dioceses hostile to biblical Christianity, makes the primary work of the Church more difficult for the reasons that the Apostle Paul enumerates in his epistles. Heresy divides the church and a divided church is less effective in offering the world a gospel witness. Secondly, for those in a heretical and apostate church like pecusa, they are fighting a battle on two fronts, within and without. This is both enervating and unproductive. The time spent on the inside strategy is time taken away from God's strategy to evangelize the world.

I believe that the New Testament and church history are clear that the right response to heresy and apostasy is for the church to put them outside the church. Given that pecusa is thoroughly saturated with heresy and apostasy, the right response is to join another province of the Anglican Communion as many of us have done. This brings into play a larger inside strategy. This inside strategy is about turning around the Anglican Communion. This happens as we embrace God's strategy to evangelize the world and support the bishops and archbishops who are working to cleanse the Anglican Communion from the sins and evils that have beset North American Anglicanism.