The Essential Church

Introduction

The Essential Church is a 2023 documentary directed by Shannon Halliday. The film looks specifically at the persecution of three pastors during the Covid lockdowns that took place during 2020. I didn’t watch this film when it immediately came out, having lived through the Covid crazy and everything that occurred, and having a front row seat for it all having never shutdown our church. I thought there is no way I can watch this film without getting lit. And sure enough, the film didn’t disappoint.

Most of the film is a bunch of sanctimonious crap with the attempt to put a positive spin on something that we shouldn’t, with the attempt to rewrite history. Like the kid who got into the van that was offering them candy but then later jumped out of the van two miles down the road. Instead of coming to the determination that one should have never ever gotten into the van in the first place they pat themselves on the back for being so brave and jumping out the van later. The reason they jumped out of the van wasn’t on principled grounds, or because they realized how stupid it was. They jumped out because the van was uncomfortably hot.

The film presents these men as being the modern-day equivalent to the Scottish covenanters, and hails them as great successes in leadership. I have come the exact opposite conclusion. The way these men responded early helped to create the environment of what transpired later. What happened during Covid was a complete failure of church leadership, and I think this film inadvertently helps to prove that while tooting its own horn. Though there is some good content and people in the film, the fact that it looks at these events as great stands and successes for the church is evidence to me that we have learned absolutely nothing, and that there are miles of bad road ahead for the people of God.

We’ve Learned Nothing

At the time I believed that many, if not most in church leadership were playing politics. Which is to say they were weighing pros and cons and thinking to themselves how their responses to the shutdowns were going to make them look, or what the legal ramifications might be if they stayed open, and whether or not those were hills to die on given the circumstances. I believed that then and I believe that now and the way people reflect upon these things and justify decisions that were made is evidence to me that this is so.

The film begins with the narration, that it is the little things in history that often go unnoticed that turn out be the little sparks that inspire people to do big things and make big changes. It then goes on to give an illustration of this happening in church history with this little three-legged stool and Jenny Geddes who was just a little market trader trying to eek out a living (I always love the way these guys portray the working class).

Anyway, the King of Scotland decided he was going to make the churches read from the Book of Common Prayer, flexing his muscles in the church. On July 23 rd 1637, while Jenny Geddes was attending church, the Dean of St. Giles read from the Book of Common Prayer. Jenny, seeing this as leaderships compromise with the state stood up in the middle of service and chucked the stool that she was sitting on at the dean.

One of the points that the film makers make is that God often uses the weak things of the world to shame the strong. To which we would add a hardy amen. God often raises up the most unlikely people to accomplish his causes. It wasn’t the leaders in the Scottish church nor the Scottish nobility that flexed against the King, but rather the people who had enough. This is a sentiment I agree with, however, they use this point as a means to exalt three pastors in the film, when in fact, I think it is the most damning point of the film regarding not only these men, but also the cluelessness of the film makers, and broader evangelicalism by-in-large.

We then fast forward to March 12, 2020. This is a time I remember vividly. I don’t just

remember this date, but this time period and much of the chatter leading up to March. Tucker Carlson had done multiple stories on the Wuhan virus starting as early as in November, and many had already been talking about restricting travel to the area, but that had not happened. Any thinking person, and anyone who had been paying attention knew this virus didn’t just appear out of nowhere. Nor was it a surprise to anyone that the protests in China stopped at about the same time the mass graves began. Which were dug for those who had died of Covid, of course – weird!

I remember when Washington state, which is a liberal run hellhole, started to report deaths in their nursing homes due to Covid. The Coronavirus had been around for a long time, but this seemed to hit the elderly population harder than most. At this point in time, politicians were all over the place telling people to go to public events and that they had nothing to worry about. Within a very short period of time Covid began being marketed as the bubonic plague, and the only way we could fight such a virus was to shut down the economy and quarantine for two-weeks.

Again, it was a virus that had already been circulating through the population, it didn’t just arrive, however, we did begin testing for it. When we had one positive case reported in

Michigan, the Governor imposed shutdowns for two-weeks. Now, it didn’t take a rocket

scientist to figure out that if it was the most highly contagious virus ever in the history of

humanity, that people had already been exposed to it and that the justification for quarantining, if in fact were justified, would always be justified.

That is, if you conceded that shutting down the economy and quarantining were justified in principle because Covid was so serious, when there was only a few reported cases and that the harm caused from Covid would always be worse than the harm caused from shutdowns than shutdowns would always be justified, because Covid cases would most definitely increase no matter what we do and it will never go away. I also, remember telling people, at the time, that if public health (as defined by the government) was warrant for the government to do whatever they wanted than we would be forever screwed.

I remember when the shutdowns started. We had a homeschool event at our church and several families had canceled that morning. At that point the universities and public schools had just shut down, and businesses were starting to close and the governor was recommending everything shut down including churches. I went home from the event and saw church statement after church statement saying that they were shutting down in person services, but that they would be doing online services (whatever that is), and of course, their justification across the board was love for neighbor and obedience to Caesar.

Theologically, I had taught on Romans 13 and I had read much Kuyper, and I thought the state was over stepping. I also thought this would be a wonderful time, for the church to not only flex, but to minister to people who were freaked out for no good reason. When I saw how the church was responding, I was disgusted. I went to social media and said something along the lines that we would never be shutting down, nor would we be kow-towing to the government on this issue.

We took so much crap for this, the majority of it coming from other churches. I won’t repeat the things that were said, but the cops were called on me and my church multiple times. There were no other local churches that came to our defense, however, the local magistrate did. The local sheriff told me he would just ignore the complaints, and was thankful that we were open and to let him know if the harassment became to unbearable or of any legitimate threats against my person and family.

The reason I share that is because I don’t think that leaders who shut down their churches and later reopened are heroes. Although, I do respect those who have come out and repented of that decision. I say all of this because none of the men in this video do that, in fact, they still justify their decision to shut down. And so does Doug Wilson for that matter, as far as I know.

Though Wilson’s church shut down, and held services outside for a much shorter time, they still shut down. The reason I bring up about Wilson isn’t because he was in the film. I bring him up for a few reasons. First, he seems to have profited the most from all of the Covid crazy. A success that I would say is well deserved, but I do think it’s important to not whitewash history. Second, I bring up Wilson because he is a man I have followed for a long time and am greatly indebted too and am incredibly thankful for. There is no doubt in my mind, that he knew the play that was being run at the time, and he knew the people running it were not to be trusted.

He had a developed political theology and had proven the will to stand, and yet he chose to play the game, and go along with the circus, albeit for a short time, he still did, and has never changed his position. Again, as far as I know. I personally think this decision was based on optics. Even though he knew it was complete garbage, he could say that they were obedient and tried to work with the state until things no longer passed the smell test. Some may say this was a smart strategic play, and the success of everything Moscow would certainly back that up. For me, it was just more of the same, but the edgier version of it. I am thankful that Knox, and the later covenanters, didn’t play games with the state. And I do not believe playing games is a strategy for success.

Also, the Lord has blessed many of these men with tremendous gifts and minds and platforms, and I am very thankful for that and have profited much as a result, but when they all shut down, it had a ripple effect all the way down. This either gave many the warrant they needed to shut their churches down or to blast guys like me that refused.

The film begins with MacArthur and Grace Community Church. MacArthur said that the

shutdowns seemed reasonable on the front end because he saw it as the equivalent of being told that a hurricane was coming at you. If this was the case certainly you wouldn’t have church. But this doesn’t take into account the reality of the situation. MacArthur and Grace were well aware that Newsom and the local magistrates in L.A. were not people to be trusted, especially regarding the local church, not to mention that they were not being told that a hurricane was heading their way. They were being told to shut down for two weeks in order the flatten the curve. Going along with this, I think showed very little discernment.

I am so thoroughly convinced that church leadership went along with this not because they thought it was reasonable but rather because they didn’t want to appear to be unreasonable or unloving because of the play that was being run on them and because they thought they could get in front of this thing, or because they didn’t think that it could possibly last that long and that they could weather the storm. We do our documentaries after the fact and everyone is brave after the fact…

Then there were some sound bites from MacArthur and the two pastors in Canada that got arrested, talking about how hard it was preaching into a camera at that time (basically preaching without audience) and how much they missed their congregations. And, of course, all of this was filled with a bunch of sanctimonious language – to which I would respond, boo-frickin’- who…I don’t care about your feelings – these were self-inflicted wounds. How about telling us about how much your people suffered because you went along with all of this crap for a long time.

As the film continues, they talk about the open and rank hypocrisy regarding the Floyd riots. How everything was shut down and churches were unable to meet under threat of law, but the authorities were doing nothing regarding the thousands of people in the streets, in fact, they were out there with them. They also recalled, the persecution of police officers in this time. In fact, it was police officers that began showing up to Grace in person because they needed to hear the word given all the real persecution that they were under. They were looking for someone to give them encouragement and hope. To Grace’s credit they didn’t turn them away, but for the love of God, think about that statement.

People began to hear that Grace wasn’t turning people away and began showing back up. It was the people that demanded the word. It was the people that demanded to be in fellowship with other believers. It was the people that demanded corporate worship. It was the people that began showing up and forced the leadership of Grace Community Church to pee or get off the pot. To Grace’s credit, they refused to turn people away, and decided that they had to officially reopen. Which they did, I believe in July, approximately five months later.

I remember when this happened and I was thankful that they reopened, and no doubt, this was encouraging to so many people. However, in this whole scenario, it was the people that were like Jenny Geddes and not the leadership of Grace, in fact, the leadership of Grace were the ones getting the stool chucked at them. They officially reopened because they had to make a decision between their people or the state, a decision that their people forced. Praise God they made the right decision, but they had put themselves in that position in the first place. They had been waiting for months for the government to tell them it was ok to officially hold services.

Now I love MacArthur, and I am thankful for him, but his political theology before this was a hot mess and still is in most Baptist churches. My intent is not to dump scorn on the guy, or the elders at Grace. They were faced with some difficult decisions as many were, but they flinched when they should have flexed, and I have absolutely no desire to whitewash history.

I am thoroughly convinced that the vast majority of people will continue driving in the wrong direction because it’s much easier than turning around. I don’t think the church is any exception to this rule, in fact we congratulate ourselves for it. The church got completely played during this time and the Overton window shifted greatly, and that’s not something that is shifting back without great expense and resolve.

Is the church willing to pay the price and does she have the resolve? Based on this film, I would say absolutely not. Our inability to not only repent, but just to honestly reflect upon the last three years is very troubling. This leads me to believe that we really haven’t learned anything, principally, because we’re still playing games, which means we’re probably going to get bulldozed by the next thing.

I fully realize that the Lord shakes things up to strengthen what remains. I realize this was just one film, and that many have learned much through the last three years, and that there is a lot of good work being done. Covid exposed much, and many have been hard at work to strengthen their churches to be prepared for the next round of crazy whatever that may look like. I know these things are happening and there is much to praise and to be thankful for. However, I do think that is still the minority of the church.

That coupled with peoples inability to honestly reflect upon the last few years and their incessant desire to avoid conflict at all costs except for when it involves other Christians leads me to believe that whatever shaking we may have experienced was not really a shaking at all, but simply that little ripple before the waves come.

Conclusion

Surprisingly, I would recommend watching this film. I strongly disagree with the self-

aggrandizing tone and don’t think it’s helpful or wise, but I definitely think it’s worth wrestling through. I understand that most won’t agree with my take on things, and I honestly could care less. Despite what some may think, I am very thankful for the men I specifically mentioned in this episode and freely confess that that have done more for the cause of Christ than I ever will, and I praise them for their work and their teaching. My goal is not to chuck stones, it’s to reflect and move forward.

However, I also believe that we are living through a paradigm shift in cultural thinking that is going to create a much further divide between the world and the people God, and this will most certainly continue to spill over into the church. The times have irrevocably changed. At some point, politics and gamesmanship has to end and the time of stool chucking begin. When that happens, it won’t come from the nobility, or the religious intelligentsia, or the old garb, or any of these guys that have built impressive movements, or schools, or publishing houses or whatever. They have too much to lose, and success does something to a man. When people get to the point to where they feel like they have nothing to lose then the shaking will really begin and we’ll all realize just how essential the church is.