The Coming Evangelical Collapse

Article

I have to admit that after reading this article, I was shaken. I had to remind myself that this is a prediction and predictions are prone to failure. The reason this was scary is some of it was things I've been thinking and saying and seeing on my own. It was weird to see someone else seeing the same things. I would like to comment on some of the observations that the author made.

"...they (Protestants) will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century."

It seems that polls on even the most conservative news sites are seeing the growing rise of secularism and the dropping numbers of those who claim a religion. The Catholic Church has been diving for years. The Southern Baptists have seen dropping numbers for the first time in their history. The reason could be one of a million different things. From the moral stands of religion, to the belief in absolute truth, to the scandals that rock the church. Most don't like being told that their opinions are wrong and in an era of political correctness, they don't want a church to tell them how to live.

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.

This isn't the first time this has happened. In Ancient Rome, the Christians were seen as ones that were causing political problems with Roman leadership. They were accused of being cannibals, atheists and rebels. Also in the French Revolution, Christianity was seen as something that caused war and violence and led to the rise of secularism in response. Religion was the enemy of peace and logic. Both of these were overcome. There is no reason that this won't be overcome in time.

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.

The current economic decline is beginning to usher this in. There are calls for donations from Christian radio, churches, schools, seminaries, etc. Honestly, the modern church tends to be obsessed with building projects and top notch staff and technology. This may prove to be a good thing. Maybe the church will get back to the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of their church and megachurch.

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.

Wow! GREAT line. We've been so content putting on Sunday morning theater and doing feel-good talks that we have fled from discipleship and the majority of attendees in our churches don't know what they are supposed to believe. We have incredibly weak believers in our church because we've abandoned discipleship for "evangelism" and large membership. It's easier to win them than to commit to a life commitment of mentoring and discipleship.

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.

Wow again! I'm a youth pastor. I've been too many youth pastor conferences and heard the latest ideas in youth ministry. What did I come away with? "We have to compete with MTV. Entertain first, relationships second, Jesus third." The worship explosion is evidence of the emotional based faith that is being taught. Our kids know more lyrics to worship songs than verses from the Word of God. As I've been writing previously, we DESPERATELY need to return to intense discipleship of students. Our numbers may drop because we aren't entertaining anymore. So be it.

...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.

I've been talking about my bane- the consumer driven church- for a year now. They will keep having to top themselves with entertainment and services to the point the message will be lost as to why we are doing it. I don't necessarily agree with the denomination going away. I think they will just look different. The satellite church and video venue church are the new denomination. They are church brands rather than doctrinal fellowships.

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.

AMEN. We stopped challenging our churches and pastors on THEOLOGY and replaced it with BUSINESS STRATEGY! Most of our pastors don't know how to think deeply. I am just getting better at this myself. We do not compete because we do not engage.

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.

As I've been reading in my Church Planting class, One of two groups that is still experiencing great success in church planting and evangelism is the Pentecostal movement. I can't really explain it other than their intentionality of planting churches. They are to be praised for this. Some of the newer movements have been the rise of the Charismatic Reformed movement (Mark Driscoll, Sovereign Grace). They are charismatic with a seat belt, and have a high emphasis on doctrine and theology. I am completely behind this movement even if I don't agree with every detail.

This article is scary and yet a wake up call for the church. Like it or not, some of this is already beginning to happen. The last election proves this. The church must get back to discipleship and get over the business/consumer church.