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Today at The Gospel Coalition I have an essay arguing that we can and should renew evangelicalism. The first thing we must do is acknowledge that it is decadent. Evangelical Christianity in the US is fractured and stagnant, and languishes over intramural purity tests where it should be marked by dynamic confrontation of the age.
Here’s an excerpt:
Over the past few years, it’s been difficult for me to avoid thinking that decadence accurately describes many elements of contemporary evangelicalism. While evangelical churches are certainly discipling and evangelizing with Spirit-filled power throughout America and the world, the feeling among many major evangelical institutions and groups has been increasing frustration and uncertainty. Pressed in multiple directions by crises unthinkable only a decade ago, a distressing number of evangelical pastors are leaving the ministry or thinking strongly about it.
To be sure, the last two years in particular have been punishing on many evangelicals. An unprecedented global pandemic has permanently reshaped economies and cultures around the world. The intersection of the pandemic with a national presidential election in 2020 created almost indescribable complexities for churches and evangelical groups trying to chart a way forward. And all the while, secular culture continues pressing on the very nature and identity of the church through spiritually malformative technologies, attacks on religious liberty, and rising resentment and distrust in a fractured public square.
These are extraordinarily difficult challenges, but they’re challenges that evangelicals have the resources to answer. And yet it’s difficult to feel energized and hopeful about the evangelical efforts to answer them thus far.
Evangelicalism is Decadent. So Now What?
Great article. Just read Packer’s “Decadence Á La Mode” (Thanks for the recommendation). We should be encouraged that those connected to the historical confessional faith are recognizing this decadence but at the same time they are recognizing it because they’ve found a strong antidote to it. Keep the antidote flowing.
Couldn’t agree more! It seems that all churches care about any more is being the next “big thing,” being more exciting than the church across the street, and attracting influential people to their congregation. Just when you find a good, God-honoring church, they are suddenly changing their name, painting their churches black, investing in expensive technology, and swapping out the pulpit for a stage for the cool band. And the hunt for a new church starts again. Modern evangelicalism has become synonymous with entertainment for the unsaved and churches that focus heavily on it are leaving Christians wading in the murky runoff, having to fend for themselves, often poorly, rather than flourishing under biblical teaching that equips them to be true salt and light in this broken world.