Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984) is one of the more influential apologists of the past century. Many have wrestled with, affirmed, and even disagreed with his works charting the decline of Western culture. Further, many, while engaging with his apologetic methodology, have sought to categorize him in relation to other methodological approaches.[1]
Yet what may be helpful for many is Schaeffer’s committed focus on man’s participation in healthy community. Many of us are involved in a variety of communities: e.g., work, church, hobbies. Schaeffer didn’t offer a formulaic approach to community. Instead, he exemplified what transformative community could look like through his own personal ministry and through the ministry of L’Abri.
His flourishing community was marked by (1) an emphasis on human dignity rooted in the image of God, (2) grace-filled fellowship, and (3) the embracing and answering of doubts. Churches and organizations can take note of these principles. By implementing these important tenets, we too can promote and participate in a vision of community that is culturally compelling and spiritually nurturing.[2]
The Image of God and Human Dignity
Francis Schaeffer did not have an unrealistic, over-idealistic understanding of the nature of man. Instead, his theological anthropology was robustly biblical. He understood man to have inherent qualities, placed there by a personal God. Schaeffer also believed that man has responsibility in the world and that each person has the causal power to affect history. Thus, while Schaeffer affirmed the incredible worth and dignity of each person, he also understood the universality of man’s dilemma. Because of these compounded elements, Schaeffer would remind us that we must love each individual. For Schaeffer, these truths were not rooted in a dry doctrine but rather in the ever-compelling truth of God.[3]
Much of Schaeffer’s understanding of man is rooted in man’s relational nature. He states, “because I am made in the image of God and because God is personal, both a personal relationship with God and the concept of fellowship as fellowship has validity.”[4] Jerram Barrs writes, “The truth that we are the image of God, a truth that is at the heart of all his apologetic work, was for Schaeffer, a reason to worship God. This conviction of the innate dignity of all human persons had many consequences for Schaeffer. He believed, and he practiced the belief, that there are no little people.”[5]
Christian communities would do well to reflect this conviction: God has created “no little people” but rather has made all people with an innate dignity, no matter their background, station in life, or host of other factors. Instead, we should discharge with the sin of partiality and treat each person with incredible worth. True community is built not upon pride-filled power but upon humility and treating others better than ourselves (Phil. 2:3).
Grace-filled Fellowship
Schaeffer’s commitment to the practical truth of the imago Dei is demonstrated through his ministry and throughout his lifetime. He not only engaged each person in a loving, compassionate manner personally, but he also invited people into his home, consistently emphasizing and exemplifying grace-filled community. One of Schaeffer’s greatest legacies is his establishment of the L’Abri community. Originally started in Switzerland in 1955, L’Abri now has ministries in cities across the world. “L’Abri” comes from the French word for “shelter.” This image is precisely what Francis and his wife Edith hoped to offer visitors: a shelter from the tumultuous world in which they were living where one could be loved, cared for, shown worth and dignity, and ask difficult questions about life.
L’Abri wasn’t a commune or a seminary. Instead, it was and is a place where people from all walks of life can come, work, and engage in transformative discussion and fellowship. To note, it was Schaeffer’s emphasis on community and compassion that laid the foundation for L’Abri. As Barrs himself experienced, “He took a conversation with one damaged and needy young person as seriously as when he was talking with the president or lecturing before an audience of thousands.”[6] Schaeffer avoided the sin of partiality, understanding that the image of God in man is a reason to respect and dignify all people of every background.
Schaeffer himself wrote,
There must be communion and community among the people of God: not a false community that is set up as though human community were an end in itself. . . . This is the real Church of the Lord Jesus Christ—not merely an organization, but a group of people, individually the people of God, drawn together by the Holy Spirit for a particular task. . . . The Church of the Lord Jesus should be a group of those who are redeemed and bound together on the basis of true doctrine. But subsequently they should show a substantial ‘sociological healing’ of the breaches between men which have come about because of the results of man’s sin.[7]
After all, the purpose of L’Abri was not primarily for apologetics; it was to “show forth by demonstration, in our life and work, the existence of God.”[8] In doing so, the Schaeffers sought to open their home to those in need and “whomever God drew to them.”[9] Jake Meador summarizes L’Abri’s beauty well, “The feeling at L’Abri is of coming home; it is the kind of place where a person can be fully seen and fully loved. It is, in other words, a place that encourages people to see one another as God sees them through Christ.”[10]
Embracing and Answering Doubts in Community
While the Schaeffers’ community at L’Abri began in demonstrating grace and expressing dignity to all people, it also engaged the mind of those who attended. It was a “mission to intellectuals.” Doubts and questions would be engaged through rigorous discussion.[11] “Because Christianity is the truth, people should be encouraged to ask the questions that trouble them,” Barr notes. “God has made truth known in his Word, and so we may urge the unbeliever and the believer to come to Scripture with their questions. There will always be good and sufficient answers available for those who seek with an open heart and mind.”[12]
Again, the Schaeffers lived out this biblical truth. Even more, they did exactly what L’Abri was named for—they offered a “shelter” to those who needed one. For those with intellectual obstacles, they offered answers. But for others, L’Abri offered a recalibrating of their spiritual life, focusing on the means of grace and the centrality of Christ. One attendee of L’Abri noted that part of its success was that “truth mattered and people mattered.”[13]
This emphasis on caring for all people is why, for Schaeffer, love was the “final apologetic.” He was committed to exemplifying both tangible compassion and community. This final apologetic was grounded in an ethic and practice of love not only for fellow believers but also for fellow human beings. According to Schaeffer, each person comes to the gospel within their own unique context, feeling the weight of man’s universal dilemma. As Colin Duriez mentioned, Schaeffer’s approach “was shaped in . . . context and hence was person-centered.”[14] Each person is unique, and yet all of mankind shares the same inescapable questions of life.[15] This “situatedness” is precisely where this Schaefferean vision for community begins, by embracing people in their own contexts with grace and dignity.
Conclusion
No doubt more could be added to a truly robust Schafferean vision for community. Yet the inclusion of these three tenets may be transformative enough to work profound change within the various communities in which Christians find themselves. As believers participate in community, especially for those in leadership, radical transformation can result as we treat each individual with incredible worth and dignity, rooted in their creation in the image of God.
Moreover, as we interact, care for, and engage with both believers and non-believers, we must remember that we are dealing with people who are affected by sin—both their own and the sin of others.[16] Therefore, we need grace. We need and should extend a grace-filled, grace-overflowing community. Lastly, we must engage honestly and compassionately with the doubts and difficulties various individuals are facing. We do these things not through formulas or rehearsed arguments but by meeting people in their specific situations. In doing so, we may see the kind of community that not only set L’Abri apart but also the kind of community that can change lives.
[1]For various taxonomies, see: Kenneth Dale Boa, “A Comparative Study of Four Christian Apologetic Systems” (Ph.D., New York University, 1985); Kenneth Boa and Robert M. Bowman, Faith Has Its Reasons: Integrative Approaches to Defending the Christian Faith (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2005); Steven B. Cowan, ed., Five Views on Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2000); Gordon R. Lewis, Testing Christianity’s Truth Claims: Approaches to Christian Apologetics (New York: University Press of America, 1990); Brian K. Morley, Mapping Apologetics: Comparing Contemporary Approaches (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2015); Bernard L. Ramm, Varieties of Christian Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976); and Bernard Ramm, Types of Apologetic Systems: An Introductory Study to the Christian Philosophy of Religion (Wheaton: Van Kampen Press, 1953).
[2]Jerram Barrs outlines eight points that he considers to be the central components of L’Abri and the Schaeffers. See Jerram Barrs, “Francis Schaeffer: His Legacy and His Influence on Evangelicalism,” in Francis Schaeffer: A Mind and Heart for God,ed. Bruce A. Little, (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2010).
[3]Bryan A. Follis, Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer (Wheaton: Crossway, 2006), 53.
[4]Francis Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time, in The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, 2nd ed., 5 vols. (Wheaton: Crossway, 1985), 2:32.
[5]Jerram Barrs, “Francis Schaeffer: His Apologetics,” 36
[6]Barrs, “Francis Schaeffer: His Apologetics,” 36
[7]Schaeffer, The God Who Is There, 166.
[8]Edith Schaefffer, L’Abri (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1969), 15–16.
[9]Follis, Truth with Love, 54.
[10]Jake Meador, “Family and Friends: Francis Schaeffer and L’Abri,” Plough, 23 October 2020, https://www.plough.com/en/topics/community/church-community/family-and-friends-issue-25; accessed February 1, 2021; Internet.
[11]Follis, Truth with Love, 56.
[12]Barrs, “Francis Schaeffer: His Legacy and His Influence on Evangelicalism,” 86.
[13]Christopher Catherwood, Five Evangelical Leaders (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1984), 130; as cited in Follis, Truth with Love, 57.
[14]Colin Duriez, Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015), 246.
[15]Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There in The Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer, 1:177.
[16]Contrary to more reductionistic understandings of man’s sin, Schaeffer understood man’s sin to have personal, psychological, sexual, physical, sociological, and even ecological implications—all because of the primary division between God and man due to the Fall.
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