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The coming evangelical collapse

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Highlighted by yamje1

on 2009-03-11 by yamje1

An anit-Christian chapter has in fact long BEGUN in the 'West' -- the USA is not all of the West!

on 2009-03-14 by ldminteractive

Agreed. But I've had enough of this doom and gloom coming from Christians. Where's the church triumphant? Where's St. Augustine's City of God when you need it?

public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Highlighted by robertkamper

Millions of Evangelicals will quit

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Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated

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the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

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Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

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Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism.

Highlighted by rmaguir

Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith

Highlighted by robertkamper

Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

Highlighted by rmaguir

Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

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There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile

Highlighted by robertkamper

Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.

Highlighted by robertkamper

We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.

Highlighted by rmaguir

The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching

Highlighted by robertkamper

Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible

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The money will dry up

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There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile.

Highlighted by rmaguir

Emphasis will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success

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Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.

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Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions

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attractive, innovative, and tireless community with outstanding media, publishing, and leadership development

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Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith

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Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to disappear.

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Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to disappear.

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American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success.

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Some Evangelicals will work to create their own countercultures, rather than try to change the culture at large. Some will continue to see conservatism and Christianity through one lens and will engage the culture war much as before – a status quo the media will be all too happy to perpetuate. A significant number, however, may give up political engagement for a discipleship of deeper impact.

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Michael Spencer is a writer and communicator living and working in a Christian community in Kentucky. He describes himself as "a postevangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality." This essay is adapted from a series on his blog, InternetMonk.com

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Will it shake lose the prosperity Gospel from its parasitical place on the evangelical body of Christ? Evidence from similar periods is not encouraging. American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success.

Highlighted by rmaguir

Michael Spencer is a writer and communicator living and working in a Christian community in Kentucky. He describes himself as "a postevangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality." This essay is adapted from a series on his blog, InternetMonk.com .

Highlighted by rmaguir