The Coming Collapse of Evangelicalism

I read a very interesting post over on the Culture Campaign's blog regarding a book by Michael Spencer called The Coming Evangelical Collapse.

Here's the snippet from their post:

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.

-- From "The coming evangelical collapse" by Michael Spencer, posted on The Christian Science Monitor 3/10/09 edition

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?

* 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. . . .

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Also available is the full (original) writing by Michael Spencer

Even as pointed (and accurate) as this assessment is, it is still missing a critical piece – namely that not only are the majority of Evangelicals no longer able to articulate the gospel, but also that for some time we (especially whites) have put comfort over power and security over radical faith, and so we are both powerless and irrelevant to lost people.

For those of you who might be wondering what I’m thinking (… is the theology the problem?) I would say definitely not – essential Evangelical theology is very biblical, in my humble opinion. Besides, Mainline Protestants (of the conservative variety) as well as Catholics are experiencing many of the same problems.

We lost our way long ago when we began to love our lives here too much. The best doctrinal statement in the world is useless if at the end of the day we’re living for ourselves. Prosperity breeds complacency far too often. Loving my life is the death stroke of healthy discipleship and powerful witness.

The lesson in this is that the gospel itself is what once defined Evangelicals, and we have muddied it and co-opted the mission of spreading it so much in the last three generations that we no longer have either an identity or a mission.

There was a time when Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Mennonites, Baptists, Evangelical Free members, Wesleyans, and many others would work together for the gospel despite their differences on other issues. Diffusing our energy to various causes and focusing on filling pews rather than preaching the gospel has done untold harm.

Fortunately, the gates of Hell will, in the end, not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church will continue to advance, but the once-great Evangelical movement may no longer be a part of that advance. It is a shame that so many will miss out on all God intended because we were not faithful.

BTW - there are more than three kinds of Evangelical churches. There are the ones who are faithful to the gospel. The problem is that they are the exception, it seems.