Posted on 03/11/2009 6:47:32 AM PDT by raynearhood
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.
....
Why is this going to happen?
...
2. 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. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
He’s pleased with the decline of “mainline” Protestant churches, and is extending and forecasting that same decline for Protestantism as a whole. “Mainline” churches are declining because they’re politically correct and spiritually dead, for the most part, unlike the vibrant, unorthodox evangelical Protestant churches that are growing by leaps and bounds.
Say what you will, but politically correct is not a term that can be honestly applied to the vast majority of evangelical churches, Rick Warren’s Saddleback and the like notwithstanding.
The term politically correct can be easily applied to Fr. Spenser’s church, though. Rather than gloat about perceived decline in a sect that he views as competing, he should be more concerned about tending to the salvation of souls.
Speaking of politically correct, just where is the growth of Catholicism in the US coming from? Illegal immigration? I note that the southwest has displaced New England, as far as numbers go. Cardinal Mahoney knows which side his bread is buttered on.
Amazingly arrogant to try to predict how the Holy Spirit is going to move next.
It’s a daily read for me.
If one doesn't know Him, it's easy to dismiss Him.
“I’m not sure what you mean by “left Biblical interpretation,” but that is simply your assessment of the cause. In the end though, you are agreeing with the article that mainline American Evangelical Denominations are failing.”
I think you are confusing evanglical and protestant. Can you name a mainstream evangelical denomination for me? (hint, not of the following fall into that category: Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian.)
Baptists and Pentecostals would fall in that category, but they have been GROWING at a steady pace for several decades (and continue to do so) so they can’t be any of the denominations the author was talking about.
Which mainstream evangelical (not protestant) denominations are shrinking?
It’s really because PARENTS rely on the church to teach their children THEIR faith.
I’ve been guilty of it, I am now on a path to correct that. Luckily my 16 year old is well grounded in faith, as are my two boys 10 and 5. I will not however continue to rely on OTHERS to teach my children what I know they need to know. Nightly family bible study solves this.
Someone should spearhead a drive to setup parochial schools for evangelical kids...
I'm thankful that the church we attend fits that category. But I agree that the mainline Protestant churches (Lutheran, Methodist, etc) and drying up because they have embraced liberal theology. The true followers of Christ in those denominations are leaving and going elsewhere. I say let the purging continue.
Me too.
I agree. Of course, I'm also one of those local church only nuts who doesn't believe in denominations to begin with, but.... ;)
I do not believe that is true. He dscibes himself as "as a New Covenant, Reformation-loving Christian in search of a Jesus shaped spirituality. He has great appreciation for the ancient church, missions, Christian community and theological underdogs." He has been/is a pastor. There is nothing in his bio that suggests he is Catholic.
I think the replacement of congregations by “home churches” fits the article’s definition of the collapse. In the 1970s, people said, “I don’t need to church; I can stay home and pray.” They are today’s non-Christians. I think the home-church movement fixes certain problems with the 1970s attitude: by forming small groups, they make people accountable to each other for their worship, formation, etc. But they are not churches, they are not community worship.
Yes, the early Christians met in homes. But they met in the largest homes possible and everyone in an entire Christian community gathered at the same homes. This was possible because the Christian communities were small, very organized, and intensely ritualistic.
It wasn’t “Tuesday, we watch American Idol, here; Thursday, we pray here.” It was, “we have the real estate to do so, so our household is now the meeting place for the Christian Way.”
I don't. The home churches here have fled the protestant denominations and are starting evangelical/fundamental churches of their own....that are growing.
They sure are and around here they each have 4 or 5 people and they have just left the previous newly sprung up church because they don’t agree with them any longer.
I live in a small town and this has been going on for 36 yrs and I have witnessed it. It started with my parents and some friends from the Methodist church mainly. They wanted a vibrant evangelical church, they started up and did great, they even had a private school but then they splintered and the new ones seem to splinter every other year.
From what I have witnessed they have become cults of the leader, when the original leader dies, gets divorced or moves out of town, the church dies.
There are churches here that have 10 people max in their membership, they are all in different cycles, some growing, some dying, rarely stable.
Truth by stastics in my town would say that the 1st Baptists and the Bethel Baptists and both Catholic churches are thriving and stable. The Mormons are holding their own, the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Assembly of God and Methodists are slowly dying, literally, there is no-one there to replace them when they are gone. There is one evangelical church which has managed to survive for over 10 years and a pastor change but they are no where near as powerful of an entity as they were in the first 5.
Having gone to his site, he further is described as “post-evangelical” which is Emerging speak for “Emerging.”
Maybe those people need to meet Christ.
“This author is not exactly an unbiased observer. He has his own blog, called ‘NetMonk’ or some such. He’s Catholic.”
There is a Michael Spencer with a blog called “Internet Monk.” He appears to be the author of the essay presented in this thread.
Here's a link:
As best as I can tell, he is not a Catholic. Here's what he says about himself:
“He describes himself as a New Covenant, Reformation-loving Christian in search of a Jesus shaped spirituality. He has great appreciation for the ancient church, missions, Christian community and theological underdogs.”
He also cites as influences:
“He owes a lot to Baptists, the Apostles’ Creed, Raymond Brown, Ed Beavins, Eugene Peterson, Robert Capon, C.S. Lewis, the Gospel of Mark, Michael Horton, N.T. Wright, Shakespeare, his Dad, several pastors and always Martin Luther.”
He discusses his religious journey from the days of his adolescence accepting Christ in his uncle's Baptist church, to his generally Protestant higher education, his involvement in Protestant youth ministry. He recounts his attendance at a Southern Baptist seminary. As he says that he has been a pastor since 1988, it appears that he accepted Protestant ordination to the ministry.
Hardly a Catholic.
sitetest
from bio on his website (http://www.internetmonk.com/):
Michael was born in 1956 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, where he was voted the cutest baby in town. By the time he was four, his parents moved to Kentucky, where he’s lived ever since.
Michael attended public schools in Owensboro, Kentucky. At age 15, he made a profession of faith in Christ at the Hall Street Baptist Church where his uncle, Rev. W.O. Spencer, pastored for many years. Later that same year, he started preaching in churches, and has been preaching ever since. This is his thirty-sixth year of preaching the Gospel.
In 1974 he graduated from Owensboro High School. He attended Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky for one year, then moved back home to Owensboro, worked in retail and in churches, then returned to school and graduated from Kentucky Wesleyan College, where he was greatly influenced by Old Testament scholar Dr. Edward Beavin. He graduated with a degree in Philosophy, Religion and English in 1978. The same year he married Denise Day, and they celebrated 30 years together this year.
Michael started working with students in 1976, and worked as a youth ministry specialist in four different Southern Baptist churches over a period of thirteen years. In the same time, he graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1984 with a Master’s degree in Theology. He took every philosophy course available and is much indebted to his time with Drs. Richard Cunningham and Timothy George. He returned for post-graduate study in 1987.
Michael and Denise have two wonderful, talented and funny children. Noel Spencer Cordle, 24, and Clay, 21. Noel, an Ohio State University graduate, married Ryan Cordle and they live and work as teachers in southeastern Kentucky. Clay and his wife Taylor live in Lexington, where Clay is finishing a degree in English at the University of Kentucky.
In 1988, Michael left youth ministry and became a pastor. Michael enjoyed preaching, but the rest of the pastorate wasn’t his game, so he soon figured out that God had something else in store. In 1992 the Spencers moved to Southeastern Kentucky, where they live and work in ministry today.
Michael started Internet Monk right after the November 2000 elections, and has been blogging ever since. Internet Monk is consistently rated in the top twenty Christian blogs in the world. It was recently voted the number 12 blog read by Christian leaders. His work has been noted on blogs around the world and published in newspapers and magazines, such as The Christian Science Monitor and Modern Reformation. He was featured in the September 21, 2006 edition of Time Magazine for his blogging on Joel Osteen and was chosen as a featured blogger by the Dallas Morning News. He has been cited and linked by Glenn Beck, CBN, GetReligion, Out of Ur, Yahoo News, Andrew Sullivan, Daily Kos, Rod Dreher,National Review Online and Real Clear Politics, among many others.
In 2008 Michael was awarded a sabbatical grant from the Louisville Institute to pursue his interest in “Contemplation and Balance in Life and Ministry.” He has been a seminar presenter and panel moderator at Cornerstone ‘08 and ‘09. He is a regular guest at Steve Brown, Etc. He has been interviewed on numerous radio programs and magazines. He also podcasts the popular Internet Monk Radio podcast.
Michael is much more opinionated on paper than in person. He describes himself as a New Covenant, Reformation-loving Christian in search of a Jesus shaped spirituality. He has great appreciation for the ancient church, missions, Christian community and theological underdogs.
Michael could be described as a libertarian-leaning conservative politically and an adventurous pilgrim theologically. He owes a lot to Baptists, the Apostles’ Creed, Raymond Brown, Ed Beavins, Eugene Peterson, Robert Capon, C.S. Lewis, the Gospel of Mark, Michael Horton, N.T. Wright, Shakespeare, his Dad, several pastors and always Martin Luther. Now that his kids are out of the house, he would love to move to a little church near a good uh….coffeeshop and a minor league ball park, work with university students and cook Italian food for the mob.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.