The term ‘lanyard class’, apparently coined by Labour Peer Lord Glasman, has come into vogue. It describes the officious managers who dominate the civil service, public sector, and large corporations. They seem to live for red tape, drown people in DEI, and sneer at working-class common sense. Are churches immune from their groupthink, or has evangelicalism developed a lanyard class of its own?
Have you noticed the term ‘governance’ creeping into church life? The Charity Act (2006) overhauled the law, requiring churches to demonstrate public benefit and the Charity Commission ‘to promote compliance’. An ever-increasing number of churches must register individually and comply with an ever-increasing number of requirements, set out in their annual return.
Charities require that trustees and those stepping up often spend their working lives amid the left-leaning progressive bureaucracy. Many have significant public sector roles in health, education, or the civil service; others are corporate professionals. Their hands slip easily into the governance glove. They are natural trustees across the burgeoning number of evangelical charities. They sit comfortably around the board table.
Imagine we had no other church websites for ‘who’s who’ comparison, no world watching on, and no church shoppers to impress. How much more central would the Bible be in how our churches function?
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