:: In.a.Mirror.Dimly ::

There has been quite a bit written lately about the coming collapse of evangelicalism in America, and the possible turn of society against evangelicals (see Michael Spencer’s 1, 2, 3, and the summary on CS Monitor). I understand where he’s coming from, and I think we can agree about the observations.  I’d like to share a little bit of what I’ve observed among evangelicals over the past fifteen years in light of his articles.

Thanks to facebook I’ve been keeping in touch with friends from high school youth group, college, and seminary. These are mostly conservative evangelicals. I grew up in a conservative Baptist church where conservative politics were just part of the atmosphere (our pastors never made political endorsements from the pulpit), attended an evangelical university where drinking and dancing were taboo, and a seminary that is essentially conservative, though it has made some exciting movements toward missional approaches to ministry.

So there you have it, a league of conservative institutions. What have I observed?

I know one young woman we’ll call Jess from high school/church who attended an even more conservative college who eschews the mixing of Christianity with the political right and holds to a theology that finds plenty of room for social justice and creation care.

A good friend from youth group attended both a conservative college and seminary, and yet in his conservations with evangelical college students he encourages them to look at issues beyond abortion and same sex marriage. His theology may be reformed and conservative, but he gets the importance of not marrying Christianity to the conservative right.

A group of guys from my college traveled to southeast Asia and run several small orphanages for victims of human traffiking and sexual abuse.

Another friend from college travels the world with Operation Mobilization and regularly shares the lessons he’s learning from church planters all over the world.

Several friends from youth group and college are planting churches in economically disadvantaged sections of large cities. These are people who grew up in well-to-do middle class conservative Christian families in the suburbs, but answered the call to serve among the poor. There are many other friends from seminary and college that I don’t know quite as well doing the exact same thing.

Two friends from seminary have planted churches in the suburbs who are committed to ministering to their communities rather than giving in to consumer-church. They are committed to using their resources for spreading the Gospel and serving those outside of their congregations. Even established churches I know of have begun rethinking how they use their time and money.

So perhaps we are in for a crash.

In many parts of the nation I’m sure there will be declines among evangelicals, but to a certain degree I wonder how significant this will be save for the abandonment of many church buildings. While 35% of Americans ID themselves as evangelicals in more general polls, Barna’s more stringent criteria end up placing the evangelical number closer to 10%.

In a sense the collapse has already happened theologically, while a renewal of evangelicalism is also already in full swing as well. Many who self-identify as evangelicals subscribe to a hollow prosperity gospel and are more enamored with a particular kind of politics and society than a truly evangelical, Gospel-shaped community. Where the gospel of sin-management prevails (see Dallas Willard), there are shallow roots. Where there the prosperity gospel prevails there are weeds and vines choking out the life.

However, completely independent from one another, many of my friends are picking up on the same movements of God’s Spirit and are rediscovering the Gospel message of Jesus that the Kingdom of God has come, repent and believe the Good News. The commands of Jesus to love God and one another are taking their rightful place as the two most important teachings of Jesus. The thought of theological knowledge without love being a chaotic clanging gong is sticking.

Evangelical Christianity will certainly look different in the future, though many of the trends I have observed over the years leaves me feeling more optimistic than anything else. I think many of Spencer’s observations have something to them and even some of his predictions may come to pass. However, evangelicals historically began with a focus on the Gospel message of new life in Christ and so long as we have that in place, we can lose many of the other evangelical trappings that have accumulated over the years.

For another response see Grace and Mark Galli.