“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.”

I did not write this. It comes from my friend Michael Spencer in his recently published article in the Christian Science Monitor. It is the introductory statement to a wonderfully provocative argument concerning, what Michael believes to be the coming fall of Evangelicalism.

While Michael and I share many of the same concerns (in fact, when I read his thoughts on this subject I wonder if we were not separated at birth), I am not quite as pessimistic about the future of Evangelicalism as he is.

I will add my contribution to this issue, hoping to give Michael’s propositions support while giving a slightly different perspective.

What is going to happen (Michael’s future “prophetic” vision for Evangelicalism):

Michael believes that “Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants” and that “This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West.” As well, “public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.” He goes on, “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.”

I will talk about this in a moment. Right now, I want bypass the “what”" and look at the “why?”

In a section entitled “Why this is going to happen?” Michael proceeds to give us the “State of the Nation” of Evangelicalism; seven reasons why Evangelicalism is in its current condition. I want to look at the first four.

1. First, Michael believes that Evangelicals have become too closely identified with the political right. Being identified as such, he believes that “Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.” Michael says that “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.”

It is a very sad fact that Evangelicals (taken from the root evangel which means “Gospel”) are almost universally hard pressed to articulate the Gospel in a way that represents the biblical and historic heritage of the message. Without the Gospel, all the social values we can muster amount to nothing. I have said this before: right practice without a foundation is rubbish. We have replaced the Gospel with a message that simply mourns over the statistics of social concerns. Mourning over the sins of our nation and political identification will come. Try as you might to completely separate them, Christians—evangelical Christians—will always support the political party that lines up most faithfully with our values. It is our duty to do so. But these values are not the Gospel. If you can defend these values more than you can the Person and Work of Christ, you have the cart before the horse.

2. Second, Michael says “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.” Not only have we failed to pass it on, we are at a point where those who are supposed to pass it on simply can’t because they never received it in the first place! We are two, maybe three, generations beyond this ability. We are simply running out of people who are even qualified in any sense to pass on “orthodoxy.” The faith “once for all delivered to the saints” somehow got lost in the mail. Those who suppose they are passing it on are passing on their own orthodoxy which they have created based upon the eternal value of their own opinions. There are not many, especially within Evangelicalism, who can trace the faith beyond their own conversion experience. A faith such as this, has no business surviving. Orthodoxy needs to be resent.

3. Third, Michael believes that “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.” I am not quite so pessimistic, but I do think he has his finger on the wrist area. Denominations need to survive, but their reasons for existence need to experience a philosophical overhaul. The divide and territorialism has become a stench for the church and this coming generation will have none of it. Evangelicalism as an idea is supposed to unite Christians of a variety of backgrounds under common essentials. Not only is this not being accomplished in pop-Church today, but it is not even an aspiration. Many don’t even know the name of the umbrella under which they find themselves and, frankly, they don’t seem to care. If the umbrella is anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and anti-Obama, then Michael is right . . . we are done for.

4. Michael says, “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.” If what he means by “product” is the beliefs and understanding of the average Evangelical, I agree. Most people are running scared from even the least threatening attacks from the outside. When they do respond, it amounts to pop and cliche apologetics, which often evidences a gross lack of understanding of the concerns of our generation. We have simply not discipled people in 50 years. We don’t even know what it means to disciple anymore, equating it with accountability groups and small group Purpose Driven Life studies. People need to be taught much more deeply and fundamentally.

Michael gives his evaluation at the end. To sum up, he believes that Evangelicalism is a hopeless cause and that we need to look for new life on new Gospel frontiers. I don’t really follow him here (at least in the way he is communicating). I also believe that CPR can be done as there is still a pulse to Evangelicalism. What Michael describes is pop-Evangelicalism which is defined by the masses and the media. “For they are not all Evangelical who have descended from Evangelical.” I believe that there is still a very strong representation of those who carry the dignity of what it truly means to be Evangelical.

What Do We Need to Do? My Evangelical Bailout Package:

  • We need to reform. There has to be stronger accountability from the top down and from the bottom up. The identity crisis that Evangelicals are going through can come to an end. I think that there needs to be some strong leadership that steps up and is ecumenically minded enough to include all those who proclaim the evangel, but wise enough to know where and when to draw lines of demarcation. This can start right now.
  • We need to be our own spokespeople. We cannot let the media define us. People such as James Dobson can keep applying the Gospel to social issues with great passion, but they need to be careful to not let the media manipulate the identity of Christianity with their narrower concerns (as important as many of us think they are). This can start right now.
  • People simply need to be discipled. Keep offering the Every Man’s Battle book studies and provide a contemporary service at 12pm. I don’t care. What I do care about is that we create a real and serious assumption that being a Christian presupposes a belief and identity with the historic Christian faith. Call it catechism, call it membership, call it whatever, but when people trust Christ they need to know and understand the faith they have accepted. There is content, assent, and trust to our faith. If people don’t like history, if people don’t like theology, if they are dyslexic, or ADD, I don’t care. There is no excuse for us birthing people and setting them out on the streets, ignorant as newborns. The Christian faith must be taken more seriously. Yes, this will mean less people—get used to it. This can start right now.
  • There needs to be a better ordination process within Evangelicalism. When any Joel, Benny, Brian, or Joyce can claim to be an Evangelical without qualification, we know that we have lost our identity. This ordination does not have to come from a specific united Evangelical institution, but from an assumed basis built upon the traditions we represent. This can start right now.
  • Denominations and traditions need to recognize the centrality of the Person and Work of Christ. Baptists, Presbytarians, Lutherans, Calvinists, Arminian, Reformed, Dispensational, and all other Protestant denominations and traditions need to identify with a revived Evangelical center all the while keeping their distinctives. We need an anchor, not boundaries. Church and denominational territorialism needs to come to an end. I have seen situations where most of the pastors in a city did not know each other and had never met. Some of them were right across the street from each other! Why all the peeing on trees? This is tragic. This represents a massive loss in focus on the evangel and is completely contrary to the spirit of Evangelicalism. There needs to be much more unity in our diversity. This can start right now.
  • There needs to be more focus on semi-official Evangelical para-Evangelical ministries. It would be the responsibility of these ministries to provide public relations support (including press releases), education, and church and school “approval” boards that accept applications to be included in a sort of “society of historic Evangelical churches and schools.” We already have these to some degree as separate organizations, but they don’t have much public light or legitimacy.  This can start right now.
  • We need to quit being so scared of becoming institutionalized. If we follow these principles, there are plenty of measures and check-and-balances that can be put into place which would prevent institutionalization and ensure that we still get things done. This can start right now.

This is my Evangelical Bailout Package. I think we can get it done. It can start right now.

What do you think? Is Evangelicalism hopeless?

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