I recently had a friend forward an article to me about the "The coming evangelical collapse". The article was basically stating that the current evangelical system of Christianity is going to vanish within 10 years – giving rise to a new type of Christianity.
At first I thought the author was arguing for the upcoming postmodern, emerging church. Yet in reflection, what the author is really doing is reacting to some of the political views/structure of the evangelical church.
Before going, it may be helpful to read the original article as the rest of this post is talking about the article and the upcoming emerging church (which was the main focus between me and my friend).
Currently I'm reading Dan Kimball's book "The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations". One very good comment Kimball makes is that the postmodern, emerging church is not about programs or doing church differently. It is about a mind set – a worldview that looks at the world differently then it's predecessor. This does not mean that the "old" worldview is wrong; it's just different.[@more@]
In reading the article in The Christian Science Monitor, some things really hit me:
a) The author has been hurt or burned in an evangelical church. As such, he is very hostile towards that branch of Christianity. While I have some differences with mainline evangelicalism (which I define as mainly conservative Baptism, Methodist, and other groups established on fundamentalism), it does not mean that they are all bad – nor do all engage in an "evangelical circus".
b) Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity – while the author admits that the worship movement from within the Charismatic-Pentecostal churches is good, he slams them with the statement that they must make “biblical authority, responsible leadership, and a reemergence of orthodoxy” a priority. This statement leads one to assume that Charismatic-Pentecostal churches today are not focused on “biblical authority”… which is not the case. There are some awesome Charismatic-Pentecostal theologians who are holding this branch to orthodoxy.
Shoot, if anything, the greater Christian church needs to learn to couple the movement of the Holy Spirit, as promoted by the Charismatic-Pentecostal, with the dedication to the Bible, as promoted by mainline evangelicalism, along with the love of justice and tradition, as promoted by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox groups.
This is where a focus on the Kingdom of God as defined by Kingdom Theology really comes into play. Kingdom Theology at it’s core allows for the mystery of God and His working in the world. We have received the blessings, gifts, and justice of the Age to Come; yet we also live in the present evil age with all the trials and struggles therein. Instead of focusing on one part of God as does most of Christianity (Charismatic/Pentecostal – gifts of the Holy Spirit; evangelicalism – justification and salvation; Roman Catholic – death of Christ, etc), Kingdom Theology looks to maintain the large view of God – which is very, very, very hard to do as it is easier to narrow your focus on one part of God and master that one part. However, I believe we are doing ourselves and the world a disservice by reducing God into “bite-size” pieces.
c) Megachurch – this is one of the things I have been wrestling with. As I’m looking into the emerging church, it seems to lean towards smaller, more personal congregations. On one hand that is good as it allows for more one-on-one mentoring and discipleship. However, there is a place for megachurches – just look at all the good the Vineyard Boise, Willow Creek and others have for the environment and social justice. If we didn’t have these churches – i.e. if all of our churches where small – would the message for a Christ like approach to these issues get out?
Going back to Dan Kimball’s comment about postmodern being a mindset, not a style. I think that we will see the rise of postmodern, emerging megachurches. Simple demographics states that in order to reach the number of people in the world, there will be both megachurches and small churches (along with a bunch of medium size churches).
d) “Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions” – Dan Kimball also holds this view to a certain degree. Kimball states that the emerging church likes old systems and styles of worship, as found in the “high” churches (ie. Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, etc). While I note that these old rites are cool and attractive, I do not agree that they are what the postmodern folks are looking for.
I think the postmodern people are searching for a spiritual experience; they want to feel and met God. They want to see that Christians are real people who really believe and act out what they are teaching. In other words, the only thing that matters is that people met the Lord one-on-one. This does not mean having a good sermon or worship gathering or program or building or whatever. If the Lord is real (and He is), then we need to met Him as a group of committed believers. Going back to the ancient traditions is just a quick fix (unless those churches are “real”as some of them are).
e) As I write this, I can’t help but think about the church in Latin America, Asia and Africa. The worldviews of these churches are pretty close to the postmodern worldview. The only difference is that they never bought into the whole “logic rules” way of thinking.
Therefore, as we look at what God is doing in the USA, I believe we need to look outside our borders to see what is happening. For example, there are huge megachurches through out developing world that value the same things the postmodern, emerging church values. Yes, I know that there are also a lot of churches in the developing world that look just like a USA church – and those…well…those are the ones having the same problems as the USA churches. 
d) Last comment – as I glance over this email, I noticed that it may sound like I’m defending the “modern”, traditional church. And in a way I am. Yet, at the same time I’m not. (how’s that for being a postmodern?)
God worked mightily through the church – warts and all. As things are changing, we need to be careful not to slander the Lord’s Anointed. This is not so say that we can’t talk about or discuss the mistakes of the church – but we need to be careful not to drive people away from the church today. God is still using it and there are still people who fit within that style of Christianity.
At the same time, I find myself drawn towar
ds the emerging church movement. I love the fact that it is reaching out to people who have no prior background with Christianity. This is a demographic that is largely being missed in the churches today. We are going to have figure out the balance between the old and new. Only the Lord knows how or what ‘church’ is going to look like in the next few years.
It is going to be a ride.
Hang on. 