DMcFadden
Puritanboard Commissioner
This morning, two of my adult children (both seminary grads) were arguing with me about the virtues of their broad evangelical congregations. Crying kids and a need to get back on the road truncated my screed. Here is what I sent them as my summary:
Crying kids and the pressure to get on the road cut my spiel short. Here it is in a nutshell:
Roman Catholicism has failed - works righteousness is a treadmill more exhausting than a Sears super big, industrial strength, treadmill. It may wear you out. But, it will not lead you to find God.
Liberal mainline Christianity has failed - intellectually vapid, Biblically empty; it has been subsisting on fumes and tradition for decades.
Traditionalist orthodox Christianity (e.g. confessional Reformed and Lutheran denominations, from micro to still really small) is probably never going to win the day in America. These groups (one of which I belong to!) are too insular and sectarian - both off-putting to outsiders and generally possessing little enthusiasm for outreach. Many of them are content to correctly worship, correctly preach, and to correctly observe the sacraments with little to no concern for a ministry footprint in their communities.
American Evangelicalism (aka broad evangelicalism) is in danger of failing for the following reasons:
1. No ecclesiology and little connection to the historical roots of the faith. Biblicism + Cruicicentrism + Conversionism + Activism (cf. Bebbington's famous quadrilateral) is too thin a set of ingredients to make a decently satisfying and sustaining meal. We need ecclesiology and eschatology too. And, what about the ecumenical/historical creeds and confessions?
2. Selling out to American consumerism (e.g., rampant materialism and a desire to be upwardly mobile both socially and economically). Remember that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Mega churches that spend obscene amounts of money on their "branding" and advertising do not teach a very consistent Christian discipleship.
3. A love affair with what Luther called the "devil's whore" = the glorification of human reason. in my opinion, Fuller failed (and Rob Bell exemplifies this in a contemporary way) due to a craving for the approval of the liberal secular establishment (i.e., the "academy"). Even conservative Moody Bible Institute found that John Walton got so intent on chasing the ideas of the academy that he abandoned the orthodox interpretation of Genesis 1-2, presented a hyper intellectualized and novel reading of the text presenting a glorified "temple," and took off for Evangelical "Harvard" . . . Wheaton. I know he moved to Wheaton to spare Moody the embarrassment. But, why would he adopt ideas that would prove embarrassing to Moody? The seductions of scholarship are a VERY difficult mistress to resist. Luther was correct when he spoke of autonomous reason as the "devil's whore."
4. A devotion to the uniquely "American" conceit of pragmatism (don't worry about what is true; devote yourself to what "works"). At this point a MBA (particularly in marketing) is probably much better preparation than a theological degree for church leadership in America. In Walmart this afternoon, I over heard a man on the phone speaking to a friend about a church in Fort Wayne: "Yeah, it is a really cool church. They sing a few modern sounding songs, the pastor tells a story about relationships, and the people laugh a lot. It's fun." If a camel would have an easier time getting through the eye of a needle than a rich man getting into heaven, then an average self-respecting atheist would have an easier time getting into heaven than the average complacent entertained church-goer in one of today's typical evangelical churches.
My lament is that the church in America is failing. That does not mean that there will be no Christians or that good and faithful churches will not flourish. It simply means that we are becoming a minority movement in a way that we have not seen in this country in a very long time. Jesus promised that the "gates of hell would not prevail" against his church. He did not, however, guarantee that the church would flourish in any particular locality. 500 years ago the heart of Christianity was in Europe (Roman Catholics in Rome; Reformed in Geneva; and Lutherans in Wittenberg). Today those same cities are virtually bereft of practicing Christians of any stripe. The same could be true of North America as the Holy Spirit acts where people still seem to believe with childlike faith (i.e., in the third world).
End of screed
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