Thursday, March 15, 2018

On the Imminent Collapse of Evangelical Christianity


Every month or so, I come across a news article or a new book that claims the evangelical movement is falling apart. We’re on the precipice of complete collapse, some say. “The Church in America is dying, dying I tell you!” We’re witnessing the last gasps of evangelical Christianity. The “nones” are on the rise, secularism is the future, and Christianity will soon be powerless.

Now, I would be the last person to deny the serious and persistent problems within the evangelical movement. It is true that many denominations (including my own) are in statistical decline. It’s also true that much of what passes for Christianity today is just a spiritualized version of moralistic therapeutic deism. And sadly, the sociological and political connotations to the word “evangelical” often engulf the significance of this renewal movement, inserting a wedge between its cultural and aspirational definitions.

Do we face significant challenges? Yes. And that’s been true of the Church in every generation.

Are we on the verge of immediate collapse? No. And the older I get, the more tiresome these predictions become. Read More

Related:
What Is Evangelicalism?

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