From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Mon Mar 30 2009 - 21:42:15 EST
The Coming Evangelical Collapse
By Michael Spencer, Christian Science Monitor
Posted on March 20, 2009, Printed on March 30, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/132550/
Editor’s note: Over the years, we've run dozens of pieces dissecting the
influence of the evangelical Christian movement on American political
culture. Most have been critical of its influence -- its leaders' desire to
destroy the wall between church and state and turn the U.S. into a
"Christian state" -- and virtually all have been written by analysts
outside the movement. The piece that follows is a departure. Written by
Michael Spencer, who describes himself as "a postevangelical reformation
Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality," this essay, which was
adapted from a series on his blog, InternetMonk.com, is from the
perspective of an insider, a "true believer." We hope you’ll find
Spencer’s take informative.
We are on the verge -- within 10 years -- of a major collapse of
evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of
the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious
and cultural environment in the West.
Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its
occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.)
In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will
soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.
This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the
post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many
of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will
become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent
of the common good.
Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end.
Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools
will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will
reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it
is close.
Why is this going to happen?
1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and
with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake.
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.
The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has
depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. 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.
2. 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.
3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven
megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile.
Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical
churches will survive and thrive.
4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years,
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.
5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core
of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching. We will soon
see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many,
and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a
less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.
6. 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.
7. The money will dry up.
What will be left?
• Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic,
church-growth oriented megachurches that have defined success. Emphasis
will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success --
resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to
pass on the faith.
• Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox
communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent
decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the
"conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.
• A small band will work hard to rescue the movement from its demise
through theological renewal. This is an attractive, innovative, and
tireless community with outstanding media, publishing, and leadership
development. Nonetheless, I believe the coming evangelical collapse will
not result in a second reformation, though it may result in benefits for
many churches and the beginnings of new churches.
• The emerging church will largely vanish from the evangelical landscape,
becoming part of the small segment of progressive mainline Protestants that
remain true to the liberal vision.
• Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to
disappear.
• Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity will become the majority report in
evangelicalism. Can this community withstand heresy, relativism, and
confusion? To do so, it must make a priority of biblical authority,
responsible leadership, and a reemergence of orthodoxy.
• Evangelicalism needs a "rescue mission" from the world Christian
community. It is time for missionaries to come to America from Asia and
Africa. Will they come? Will they be able to bring to our culture a more
vital form of Christianity?
• Expect a fragmented response to the culture war. 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.
Is all of this a bad thing?
Evangelicalism doesn't need a bailout. Much of it needs a funeral. But what
about what remains?
Is it a good thing that denominations are going to become largely
irrelevant? Only if the networks that replace them are able to marshal
resources, training, and vision to the mission field and into the planting
and equipping of churches.
Is it a good thing that many marginal believers will depart? Possibly, if
churches begin and continue the work of renewing serious church membership.
We must change the conversation from the maintenance of traditional
churches to developing new and culturally appropriate ones.
The ascendency of Charismatic-Pentecostal-influenced worship around the
world can be a major positive for the evangelical movement if reformation
can reach those churches and if it is joined with the calling, training,
and mentoring of leaders. If American churches come under more of the
influence of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Africa and Asia, this will
be a good thing.
Will the evangelicalizing of Catholic and Orthodox communions be a good
development? One can hope for greater unity and appreciation, but the
history of these developments seems to be much more about a renewed vigor
to "evangelize" Protestantism in the name of unity.
Will the coming collapse get Evangelicals past the pragmatism and
shallowness that has brought about the loss of substance and power?
Probably not. The purveyors of the evangelical circus will be in fine form,
selling their wares as the promised solution to every church's problems. I
expect the landscape of megachurch vacuity to be around for a very long
time.
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.
The loss of their political clout may impel many Evangelicals to reconsider
the wisdom of trying to create a "godly society." That doesn't mean they'll
focus solely on saving souls, but the increasing concern will be how to
keep secularism out of church, not stop it altogether. The integrity of the
church as a countercultural movement with a message of "empire subversion"
will increasingly replace a message of cultural and political entitlement.
Despite all of these challenges, it is impossible not to be hopeful. As one
commenter has already said, "Christianity loves a crumbling empire."
We can rejoice that in the ruins, new forms of Christian vitality and
ministry will be born. I expect to see a vital and growing house church
movement. This cannot help but be good for an evangelicalism that has made
buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century.
We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more
carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a
powerful, idolatrous culture.
I'm not a prophet. My view of evangelicalism is not authoritative or
infallible. I am certainly wrong in some of these predictions. But is there
anyone who is observing evangelicalism in these times who does not sense
that the future of our movement holds many dangers and much potential?
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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