America
What Is the “Post-Evangelical Wilderness”?
I asked myself the same question the other day when I read Chaplain Mike’s post My Post-Evangelical Wilderness.
Basically Mike is explaining what life is like as a Christian in an environment he feels is dysfunctional and theologically shallow.
This is how Mike put it:
“For years, I’d had a growing dissatisfaction with evangelicalism’s lack of tradition, historical perspective, reverence and order in worship. I resisted its programmed approach to spiritual growth, its bourgeois commitments that blatantly disregard the NT emphasis on sacrificial service and inclusion of the poor and disenfranchised, its “temple” mentality that has little sense of serving Christ in daily life and instead revolves around what happens in the institution and its programs.”
Can you relate? I can. But I didn’t at first.
Yes, his commentary splendidly sums up my feelings of the evangelical church. But I don’t really feel like I live in a “post-evangelical wilderness.” Let me explain.
A Problem with Independent, Local Churches
Mike’s angst isn’t rooted solely in his disappointment in the old evangelical order. He’s also a pastoral casualty of an independent church.
He mentions and I think rightly puts his finger on the ecclesiastical problem of independent, local, non-denominational churches: no overarching governing body to lend support when a church goes under or a pastor needs a job.
It’s a rough and lonely world, indeed. You are on your own.
Mike learned this lesson firsthand and found himself without a job–and a church home. No wonder Mike feels like a stranger in a strange land.
And at the end of his post Mike explains this is what living in the “post-evangelical wilderness” means to him. [By the way: He's since found a job he loves but not a church he loves.]
He then goes on to ask “What does it mean to you?” That’s when the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
My Harsh and Compassionate Response
Even though I relate to Mike now, at first I couldn’t. I knew he got one thing right: There is a generation parting. Call it “evangelical” if you must and I certainly feel like I live a wilderness…
But I wouldn’t identify it as “post-evangelical wilderness.” There’s just way too much going on to tie up our Christian life in this neat package.
Also, by saying “post-evangelical wilderness” we are implying there once was an “evangelical paradise,” a notion I think will make us all snicker.
Mike’s post was a bold one. He opened up. Became vulnerable. But you know what? I kind of thought Mike was whining.
So I mentally hashed out my response–I isolated his problems and presented the solutions in my patented curt approach.
So very man of me. And unregenerate.
But fortunately my conscience wouldn’t allow me to leave it at that. I knew God was nudging me to go further…to step into Mike’s shoes.
So I did my best at proposing a second, compassionate response. I can’t say I succeeded. You be the judge. Here are my original thoughts:
Couple things come to mind when I hear “post evangelical wilderness.” First, cop out. Second, phase of life.
Cop out: I think we’re all pretty much frustrated with the dysfunction of the human race. Paul’s approach to dealing with dysfunction in the church? Laying down the truth. Believers in persecuted nations would love to have a dysfunctional church to worship in. As you can probably tell, this is my harsher side coming out.
Phase of life: This is my softer side coming out. I can only imagine Paul got very, very disillusioned with the persistent dysfunction of the church, too. Indeed, you can sense that in his second letter to Timothy. And I imagine all of us go through phases in which we feel lost and let down by the “church.” But let’s not forget the invisible church. Elijah was reminded when he experienced his lonely, dark winter of spiritual discontent that God had preserved 7,000 others just like him. Fortunately we live in an age that allows us to connect with vibrant, merciful believers around the world who can encourage us when our own local church isn’t.
Chin up, Mike. God loves you and wants you to fight.
Don’t get me wrong: I love neat phrases like “post-evangelical wilderness.” And as cognitive beings who love solving problems, we have a bent for them.
[See this Dug Down Deep review for another example.]
But anytime we align ourselves with a movement–whether post-evangelical or Emergent or New Calvinism–we are in danger of becoming dogmatic, entrenched and ultimately dysfunctional in the eyes of the next generation…something I’d love to avoid…if possible.
Your Turn
So tell me…am I dead on? Or way off? Also, do you see yourself in a “post-evangelical wilderness”? And what does that mean to you? Also, got any solutions for the independent, local churh? I’m curious. Leave your thoughts–brutal and all–in the comments.
Subdue the Earth [Exploring the OTHER Great Commission]
It’s 33 A. D.
You’re on the side of a mountain in Galilee within earshot of the resurrected Jesus.
You hear him tells his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
Now, travel back in time to just after the creation of the world–give or take a few thousand years.
You’re in a garden. You see a man. A woman. You hear God tell that man and woman this:
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Genesis 1:28
That, my friend, is the OTHER great commission.
Whatever Happened to Subduing the Earth?
Unfortunately that commission has been nearly abandoned by Christians.
Listen. We are no longer dominating culture. We are copying it. Mimicking it. Shadowing it.
In fact, our culture–not Christ–is dominating us.
That’s why you have long-standing biblical doctrines like hell shoved into the basement.
That’s why you have gaudy knock-offs in “Christian” bookstores.
It’s as if we are afraid to be bold. Courageous. Risk takers. And God forbid we offend a culturally-savvy skeptic.
This is what it boils down to: We are not being obedient to God’s original commission. We’ve become followers–in every sector–not leaders.
Yet this is simply not about being a visionary. It’s something all of us can do.
What Does Subduing the Earth Look Like?
What do we do to roll back this tide and overwhelm our culture–the world–with a Christ-centered, God-exalting mandate to create?
For me, as a writer, subduing the earth looks something like this: Write wide and write often.
1. Write novels.
2. Write blog posts.
3. Write articles.
4. Give lectures.
5. Write poems.
Mind you, the point behind this exercise is not to exalt self. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m done with exalting self.
What I want to do is exalt God. To give glory to Christ. And to take some outlandish risks along the way in my reckless pursuit to proclaim the gospel.
That means much more than simply sharing the gospel. Nor does it mean this civilization-creation stuff is reserved for creative types like musicians, illustrators or writers.
Subjugating the earth includes all types.
Who Can Subdue the Earth?
It includes software engineers. Political negotiators. Produce buyers. Librarians. CEOs. Automakers.
You name it. We need people in those fields subduing the earth for Christ.
God blessed us so we could build civilizations complete with governments, businesses, technology, schools and museums.
And then fill them.
Now, on the outside, these institutions may look strangely like pagan institutions.
But they’re not.
Look on the inside and you see a soul transformed by Christ.
You see a utility company worker bent on providing ample water to surrounding communities. And charging a fair price.
You see a pharmaceutical company designing affordable anti–convulsant drugs for children in developing countries.
You see a blogger reporting on the financial investment world. And telling the truth–no matter how much it costs him.
That’s subduing the earth.
One benefit of subduing the earth is it offers an enticing haven to unbelievers. Who wouldn’t want to live in a community where selfless cooperation, beautiful creativity and honest communication were in abundant supply?
We have the means to build a moral, just world. And the love to fill it.
So what about you: What can you do to build a civilization that honors Christ? Who do you consider to be Christian visionaries subduing the earth? Looking forward to your thoughts.
An Open Letter to the American Church
**Guest post by Rob Powell**
The Christian church in America is confusing to me. But I’m not alone. It’s confusing to most Americans.
Let me explain.
The church in China is like a two year old hitting a growth spurt.
There are pains with such quick growth but the power of the gospel is undeniable and attractive in that area of the world.
The church in Europe, on the other hand, is like a 99-year-old paralytic with Alzheimer’s.
Its impotence and slow death means people don’t have to pay it any attention.
The church in America is mixed bag of both, which is the worst case scenario for the people in its pews.
Two Kinds of Churches in America
There are churches of all sizes and flavors in America, but in reality it boils down to two types.
In the one, God is worshipped, sin is revealed, repentant faith is called for, and Christ is glorified in redeemed lives.
In the other, there are churches of all sizes and flavors where God is never mentioned directly, sin is marginalized, Jesus may or may not have had some good things to say, and people never hear the good news.
We could argue about degree, but that’s not the point of this post. Stick with me.
Eh, Is This a Church?
For the later, take the steeple off the roof and put up a Rotary emblem because, in the end, it’s a nice social club that does some good things for the community but it’s not the church Christ died for.
The problem is it’s hard to tell where on the continuum between the two your church lies without some outside perspective.
Both can feel good and provide community but one is showing you ultimate reality while the other is blinding you to it.
Living in the first notch of the Bible belt we have a term for cultural Christians–or CINO’s to borrow a page from politics…
They are “vaccinated against the gospel”…
They have just enough Jesus to know what to say and keep real faith at bay but have never placed their faith in Him.
They are being misled to believe they’re okay with God when they are not. That in turn misleads others, which in turn misleads others, which in turn…well, confuses you and me and the American church.
What the American Church Needs
America needs a big fat dose of spiritual clarity. Why? Because it will help us determine what we need to do with the Gospel.
Do I need to witness to Sara in accounting even though she’s a deacon at Elm St. Methodist?
Does Gary the mailman believe he’s justified by his faith in Christ or because he spends an hour Sunday mornings in a particular building?
Spiritual clarity would show us that both Sara and Gary are targets for the Gospel. Here’s why.
Even though my parents and I are non-CINOs, we attend churches on differing ends of this spectrum.
Her church presents a wishy-washy, impotent, feel good, inoffensive gospel.
I told mom it would be better for her fellow congregants to stay home Sunday mornings and watch the NFL pre-game show than stay in that church and be misled as to their status in Christ.
At least at home with Pat Summerall they will know they AREN’T following Jesus.
Hopefully that knowledge will give them reason to pause when someone does bring up Jesus instead of allowing them to dismiss Him as already checked off the list.
They won’t be vaccinated.
What this doesn’t mean is that people should leave the church if they have doubts or theological disagreements.
Thomas doubted and disagreed with the disciples about the resurrection of Jesus (John 20:25) but if they had ostracized him he wouldn’t have been in the room to put his fingers in the scars and believe (v27).
Here’s Where the Rubber Meets the Road
The bride of Christ must first and foremost love, honor, and obey her groom.
If genuine Christians would allow the Holy Spirit to fill them with grace, love, patience, mercy, humility, and forgiveness the rest of the world, churched or unchurched, would sit up and take notice.
If we really believed the way to gain life was to lose it and we lived zealously for the things Jesus died for, cultural Christians would see we have something that they don’t…
Then they would either be drawn to it or disgusted by it–but there’d be no room for lukewarmness.
Here’s the Hard Part
I’m not only part of the solution, but I’m also part of the problem, too!
I love my cushy life and I don’t want to really give it away. I’m okay with who I am and don’t feel the weight of my sin.
In fact, I’m afraid the ocean of God’s love won’t be as grand as this mud puddle the world lets me play in. That’s why I need your help.
What I Need from You
So here’s what I need from the church (that’s all of us, not just the paid professionals) and I think it’s the same thing the unbelieving world needs: I need you to preach the gospel to me.
See, the gospel is not something even my mature Christian brothers and sisters graduates from.
I need daily, hourly, moment by moment reminders of the glorious love of Jesus…I need you to show me the planks in my eye and call me again and again to repentance.
I need you to tell me this world has nothing for me and to put my hope in the next.
And do it with zeal!
So, easy enough? Now what do you need from me? Looking forward to your thoughts.
Revising the American Religion
Did you know that most of what you and I know about Christianity in American today is scarcely Christian in any traditional sense?
Over 100 years ago, William James said the American sense of religion is almost wholly experiential.
Today, it’s much the same.
American religion is dominated by solitude, individuality and the pragmatism of feelings, acts and experiences over thoughts, desires and memories.
Faith for the typical American is the awareness centered on self. Each American makes up his own sect. Individualism marks the American spiritual life.
American Religion and Gnosticism
In The American Religion, Harold Bloom argued that our national faith is like the ancient religious movement gnosticism. We don’t believe or trust. We just know. Though we want always to know more.
That makes the American religion like information anxiety…and an improved infancy.
That means salvation for the American then comes through solitude and isolation…not community or congregation.
Experience is king. Loneliness is king. Freedom is king. Self is king.
American Religion and Revivalism
It can be seen in our hell-bent natures towards revivalism, which, in America, Bloom notes, tends to be the perpetual shock of the individual discovering yet again what he always have known: God loves him on an absolutely personal, and indeed, intimate basis.
At this point I hear some of you objecting. But before you bail, hear me out.
It’s interesting to note that our national religion flourished along side Emerson, Whitman, Melville and Hawthorn. That’s why you find a severely self-reliant and internalized romance dimension to our American religion.
Think Barton Stone and the Cane Ridge crusades. Todd Bently and the Lakeland revival. Clearly those involved were persuaded by the sincerity and authenticity of these seizures. Indeed, they retain a grotesque power.
You can trace this enthusiasm, emotionalism and fanaticism from the second century down to John Wesley and his followers to the American shore.
This can be seen in wholly American religious inventions like the Mormons, Southern Baptists and Pentecostals…creed less Christian sects. You can see it in events like Woodstock.
The American religion, paradoxically, is a doctrine of experience. An almost intoxicating, sexual individualism. It’s an unrestrained triumphalism that even shows up in our politics. But what’s missing in all this private, enthusiastic luminosity is most of historic Christianity.
The Problem with American Religion
Enthusiastic religion has few resources to protect itself from itself. This purely personal, violently emotional, totally experiential mode of salvation is appropriate for the exploitation of people.
Machen mourned this 100 years ago. Horton grieves today. [Bloom, as a Jewish gnostic, celebrated it.]
In the end, the reason I find this so intriguing is because so much of what unbelievers attack today is far removed from classical–even European–Christianity.
This makes for a steadfast, earnest defense of classical Christianity. Do you agree or disagree? I’m curious to know what you think. Brutal and all.
**Part of the Quick Facts on Christian Cults series.**
Trevin Wax on Abortion, Anarchy and Antinomianism
If you’ve spent a lot of time around the Christian blog scene in the last year or two, chances are you’ve run into Trevin Wax.
Trevin Wax serves the people at First Baptist Church in Shelbyville, TN as Associate Pastor for Education and Missions.
He’s also a contributor to Christianity Today and the author of the forthcoming book Holy Subversion: Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals. Read excerpts.
But I know him through his blog Kingdom People.
At Kingdom People Trevin tackles theology, church issues and he’s among the best Christian book reviewers out there. All you have to do is read a couple of his reviews and you’ll understand.
Without a doubt, Trevin has the pedigree and chops to articulate our Gospel faith clearly, concisely and compellingly.
That’s why I decided to approach him and nail him down on three issues I think are fracturing Christianity: anarchy, abortion and antinomianism.
Are you ready?
Trevin Wax on Anarchy
Demian: Do you think the American church is a cohesive or a chaotic body?
Trevin: The American Church seems to me quite fragmented at the present hour, which is one of the side effects of living in a fragmented culture.
But we’re not only seeing fragmentation at the denominational level. You also have a breakdown of church unity even at the local level, and that should always give us cause for concern.
Many churches are dividing up their congregation based on age or musical preference. These new developments are an indication that we have brought the consumerist mindset into the church, and though evangelical churches may experience a measure of initial success, consumerism becomes deadly down the road.
Demian: Do you think there are persons or groups or movements who are trying to systematically undermine orthodox Christianity?
Trevin: I’m sure there are some people who are intentionally seeking to undermine the church. Many people are hurting. They’ve been bruised by the church in some form or fashion.
Demian: What do you think about The Shack?
Trevin: A book like The Shack demonstrates what is good and bad about evangelicalism today.
The good? We emphasize personal experience. A personal relationship with God is still on the forefront of our imagination and at the center of our heart’s desire. And God himself provides the answer to our suffering and sin.
But The Shack’s popularity also demonstrates the bad of evangelicalism. Too few evangelicals have the doctrinal foundation to clearly recognize what is wrong with The Shack – in its portrayal of God, in its blatantly anti-Church mindset, and its individualistic streak (just me and God, no other community necessary).
Trevin Wax on Abortion
Demian: Do you have no, mild or strong feelings on abortion?
Trevin: I have always been pro-life. Ever since I was a child, I remember having a deep understanding that abortion is morally wrong.
About three or four years ago, I began to be cynical about the way in which abortion was used by the Republican party…an issue dangled before our eyes every four years and then put away until the next election cycle.
Bush made some progress for the pro-life movement and deserves our praise and gratitude. But much of his good work will probably be erased by Obama. And then we will be back where we were during the Clinton years.
Demian: Do you wish people would stop talking about abortion?
Trevin: In the past couple of years, I have become less convinced that seeking to change laws is the only way forward. Instead, we need to work on a number of levels at eliminating abortion.
I am convinced that abortion is the greatest single issue of justice in our culture today. It goes to the heart of what we believe about human dignity.
I understand that some evangelicals want to broaden the scope of political issues. But let us not deemphasize abortion. It must be prioritized. We are talking about innocent human life.
So… I wish people would talk about abortion more. Not on blogs or in the media necessarily, but on the street.
I wish people would be discussing this in Starbucks, at Borders, at theaters and plays. I wish people would watch an abortion on the internet and see the horror of dismembering a baby.
Demian: Do you agree that abortion is equal to child sacrifice?
In many ways, abortion is our culture’s version of child-sacrifice. Most abortions take place because the mother decides the baby should be sacrificed instead of her emotional health, her career path, or her financial stability. In other words, something else is more valuable than human life.
Demian: Will abortion ever go away?
Trevin: But I am optimistic. If our country can turn the corner in race relations in forty years and elect an African American president, who’s to say we can’t turn a corner on the abortion issue in forty years? I hope that my grandkids will not only live in a world where abortion is illegal, but unthinkable.
Trevin Wax on Antinomianism
Demian: Do you think we are overwhelmed by people who latch onto grace but ignore the law and run wild in sin?
Trevin: I don’t think that we have an epidemic of grace in our country. I think we have too little grace actually.
Those who latch onto grace and then ignore the law haven’t actually latched onto grace. The grace of God meets you where you are, but it doesn’t leave you in that state. It changes you. It transforms your desires.
Demian: Do you think grace-heavy/lawlesness is a non issue?
Trevin: The problem is not that we believe too much in grace…it’s that we have not yet realized the enormity of human sin.
There is no need for costly grace if sin is not a big problem. When sin isn’t a big deal, neither is grace. Neither is the law. Who needs Jesus, except as life coach and cheerleader?
What Do You Think?
Trevin’s brought up some great ideas, like the problem of antinomianism lies…not in too much grace…but in an ignorance of the severity of sin.
Do you agree? And what about his thoughts on abortion–do you share his optimism that abortion could be gone one day?
Share your throughts. Brutal and all. We look forward to hearing from you.
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