A friend of mine just forwarded me the link to this fascinating article entitled, The Coming Evangelical Collapse. If the writer is even close to the truth (which I suspect he is), the current topic on this blog becomes all the more urgent.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0310/p09s01-coop.html
Read it and let me know what you think.
Blessings,
Shu
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From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday
1 month ago
3 comments:
"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 ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it."
and
"Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith."
My question, then, is what is the cause of this.
I think, perhaps, it may come down to the American philosophy of individualism. We are so ingrained with this philosophy, we have lost sight of how it affects even our view of Christianity.
We get this idea that every person is able to choose what he wants to believe. Every person can learn what he wants and make himself what he wants to be. However, I think Scripture makes it clear that the faith once delivered to the saints needs to be passed down. It needs to be taught. For how can one believe in a faith that he has not heard? How can he hear it unless someone preach it to him?
Even fundamentalists, I believe, have failed to fully hand down the faith once delivered to the saints.
Why do believers have to attend Bible colleges and seminaries to learn Biblical Theology and to gain an understanding of that faith? Should not the church be teaching these things?
I can tell you, my understanding of my faith comes from my Bible college education and not so much from my church.
Our world is full of methods of feeding desires for feelings. If the church simply sees itself as the "right place" for getting feelings, it fails in its God-given mission. Christianity is not about feelings. Unfortunately, that seems to be all that most churches are feeding people.
Tim,
I think you have a good point. The church has failed--perhaps in part because of its desire to be relevant and trendy. Further, I think we have somehow believed the lie that solid doctrine is somehow contrary to spiritual growth.
I think that puts the burden back on the Church to teach the Scriptures in a compelling, life-changing way.
blessings,
shu
Dwy's first quote was the biggest thing that I pulled from this article. I think we've either held to the Gospel while alienating anyone who might listen to use because of our views of separation and holiness or we've decided to opt for relavancy and comprimised the Scriptures. Neither approach has succeeded and Americans are figuring out that both are a load of crap.
I think what we need is relavancy to the current culture, but an unwaivering focus on the doctrine of Scripture, not our impressions about what the text should say. The more we read into it and form unbiblical doctrines and proport them in non-loving ways, the more the world shakes its head and slips right through our fingers. They want something real and genuine. Jesus offers that, if we'd take time to listen.
Thanks for the reminder Shu,
-Joe
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