Managerialism in the Church is rooted in the very character of Reformation
theology. The letter's understanding of salvation as imputation and its
reduction of the importance for salvation of belonging to the Church encourages
the idea that there is a religious 'product' which can be managed and marketed.
Modern evangelicalism consummates this tendency and uniquely allows a combining
of the capitalist product with the capitalist actor. 'Fresh Expressions' in the
Church of England fuses this trend with a liberal ideology of choice and the
assumption that parish life must inevitably decline. The new modes of Church
which it sponsors deny the very idea of the need to encounter different others
in a specific locality which is crucial to the Pauline notion of the Body of
Christ. It is hence a misconstrual of Christianity as such.
