Will the Evangelical World Collapse?

Michael Spencer iMonk

Today, I saw on the Yahoo News an interesting article by Michael Spencer, a post-modern evangelical who is also known for his blog, InternetMonk.com.

He wrote an interesting piece on how many mainstream denominations are suffering and are becoming more irrelevant to our western culture.

He pointed out some things that are very much right on the money.  Here are some samples of his article. There is  a lot more, but these are the points I found the most interesting.

Why Is This Going to Happen?

1. 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 ministries, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their faith except how they feel about it.

2. 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.

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

4.The Money will dry up.

What Will Be left?

1. Aggressively, evangelistic fundamentalists churches will begin to disappear.

2. 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.

3. 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?

So What Does All this Mean?

The article is expired on Yahoo News but you need to read the rest of the article on CSM, or you can go directly here and here and here.

After reading this article, I am convinced that if there were going to be some Evangelical collapse, it is due to the fact that the Christian community have created a sub-culture within media companies, businesses and churches that is seen as superior to the rest of our culture. I also believe that “The Church” has done a poor job in equipping the next generation in their walk with God as well as in their calling and destinies. When you go to youth groups, youth pastors entertain, instead of equip. When we go to church, we want our parishioners to feel comfortable in church instead of being challenged to grow spiritually.

One thing we need to remember is that Christian movements come and go. They last for season and then God sends a new wave of ministry that can impact the culture around us. Some trends of how we do church has run it’s course. I believe God is up to do a new thing in America today. But, He’s looking for leaders who are stuck on Him, not past church models.

Churches need to starting bringing their staff together and start giving their church a 360 degree evaluation and begin asking themselves the tough questions, like, “With our current ministry approach, style, and systems in place, will our church be able to last the next 10 years from now?”

But, I know one thing is for sure, “The Church” will last until Jesus comes for His Bride. The Church will be a bold and strong entity in the earth when the rapture comes. Because the truth of God’s Word will endure to all generations. However, your current methods of how you do ministry may NOT!

Your Thoughts?