Author: John Stonestreet and Andrew Carico
In the early 1830s, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville came to America under the guise of studying America’s prison system. What he really wanted to know, to help his own country, was how America thrived as a democratic society without falling into tyranny. He documented his observations in his classic work Democracy in America.
One area he famously highlighted was how Americans spontaneously cultivated civil associations:
Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds constantly unite. Not only do they have commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small.
Through these associations, Tocqueville believed, Americans learned to practice and thus protect their freedoms. Even more, as he put it, a key result of living out freedom in this way is that “the heart is enlarged, and the human mind is developed.” This way of life was, in other words, formative.
Had this visit happened today, Tocqueville may have been struck by the loss of strategic associations. As Catherina Gioino recently wrote in Fortune Magazine, America is seeing a massive number of closures of what sociologists call “third places,” places outside of home and work, such as coffee shops, movie theaters, libraries, museums, recreation centers, and restaurants. Certainly, the rise of online shopping and streaming, along with residual effects of COVID-19, are reasons for these closures, as well as the popularity of “virtual reality.” Altogether, the result is that fewer people want to leave their homes.
However, this trend dates before the pandemic or even the internet. Nearly 25 years ago, Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam noted in his book Bowling Alone, that more people were bowling, but alone instead of in bowling leagues. His concern was not for the future of the sport but for the future of America’s civic engagement. As one scholar put it, reflecting on Putnam’s work,
Have our capacities for joining with others been eroded by forces of modern society and technology? Are we becoming more and more a nation of solitaries and couch potatoes?
In her piece, Gioino also pointed to the health effects related to the decline of “third places.” One study found that chronic loneliness carries the same mortality rate as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The U.S. Surgeon General has also advised that “people who are socially disconnected face up to a 29% higher risk of premature death.” As psychologist Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad said in the article, “We have designed our world, our society, for efficiency and economic benefit, and not necessarily for the thriving and well-being of humans.”
These trends provide yet another opportunity for the Church to offer something true, good, and better to the world. The Greek word for “Church” is ekklesia, which means “assembly.” It refers to a gathering of saints who worship the Lord together, localized in worship and community. Hence, Paul could write “to the church of God that is in Corinth” (1 Corinthians 1:2).
Part of the Church’s calling is precipitated on the truth that faith is personal but not private. It is to be lived out, together, working to extend Christ’s Kingdom over every square inch of reality. The Church then has a special responsibility in the cultivation of true “human flourishing.” As Colson Center Dean Michael Craven has explained:
When believers are deeply formed by Scripture, when Christ is exalted in every sphere of life, and when the gospel is proclaimed and embodied, everything—including communities, families, institutions, and cultures—changes. Not because cultural transformation is the mission, but because it is often the fruit of the mission.
This vision of the Church goes beyond gimmicks and giveaways, coffee shops and performances. When true discipleship and formation take place and when lives are transformed in community, the result is nothing less than the hands and feet of Christ extending beyond the Church walls and restoring what is broken, in His name and under the reign.
Even as the Church battles its own challenges with attendance, it is to be a place where we meet together and encourage one another in love and good works (1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 10:25). The Church is a vital source of life, not only to Christians but also to the wider culture, especially one that is progressively acting in non-human ways. Quite simply, the health and future of the Church is tied to the well-being of humanity.