What Has Happened to the Evangelical Christianity of Not Long Ago?
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This is basically what every church I’ve ever attended looks like, plus or minus a few things. But, there does seem to be a pervasive casualness and frivolousness that has infected many churches. A lady from our church went with a friend to attend another church, as a favor (the friend didn’t want to visit a new church alone). This is what the member reported back:
- The music was loud and the congregation didn’t participate; it was a band’s show.
- The “sermon” consisted of two pastors sitting on stools and having a conversation with each other about something innane.
- The Lord’s Supper was held that day, and was arranged on tables at the back. The lead pastor closed the sermon, asked everyone to partake, and left people to grab their crackers and juice and socialize at will, as music played. Literally, there was nothing else said about it Children rushed to get cups of juice, ignored the crackers, some adults ignored it altogether in favor of the coffee bar, and nobody cared.
- I’ve seen something similarly blasphemous (but, not as bad) concerning the Lord’s Supper at a local GARBC church, too.
This is so irreverent and blasphemous. Is this really what most “conservative” churches are like? It’s impossible to tell; our own perspectives are so limited. But, it’s frightening. That isn’t Christianity.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
I agree with you Tyler. This is what conservative “Christianity” is becoming in an attempt to be nonthreatening, casual, cool, relevant, reflecting the culture rather than Biblical principle in order to keep seats filled, ministries continuing, salaries paid, and debt paid.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
In a response to some comments to this article, the author of this article says,
I thought I did mention the main cause—cultural accommodation (on both the “right” and the “left”)—being more concerned with fitting in than standing out.
Accommodating culturally (in the ways that the author speaks of as problematic) supposedly for the sake of the gospel is greatly hurting the cause of Christ all over the world.
[RajeshG]In a response to some comments to this article, the author of this article says,
I thought I did mention the main cause—cultural accommodation (on both the “right” and the “left”)—being more concerned with fitting in than standing out.
Accommodating culturally (in the ways that the author speaks of as problematic) supposedly for the sake of the gospel is greatly hurting the cause of Christ all over the world.
Is cultural accommodation in and of itself problematic? Can we accommodate the culture in ways that is not sinful or problematic? Or, is all accommodation wrong?
The author mentions that he’s not bemoaning “drums on the stage,” yet why is that not a sign of the cultural accommodation he’s against? Certainly the types of instruments we use during worship is a reflection of someone’s culture.
If he admits that some of his concerns may be issues of legalism , what is the way forward?
You guys may have missed the key sentence:
Why has it changed so dramatically in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in America? I suspect the “old evangelical” ways are now considered legalistic. Perhaps so. Some would even say it was more than just “old fashioned;” it was too out of step with culture to have much impact on the culture. Possibly so. I could go on with the reasons why this mid-twentieth century evangelical subculture has largely gone away (except among separatistic fundamentalists).
I don’t know what circles Olson runs in, but quite a few of the things he mentioned are still in practice in my circles and church. Other sections he wrote (in my opinion, like “revival meetings”, which I read as “revivalism”) are unhealthy and need to die. But if the main point is that Evangelicalism is dying, and you run in circles that aren’t committed to doctrine enough to separate from sin and error, then I’m going to wonder why you’re so surprised when people don’t take the Lord’s Supper seriously.
We can gripe about the music and dress standards, but that’s fruit off of an unhealthy or poisoned tree. Deal with the roots of the issue first - what kind of God do they believe in and worship? What message do they preach?
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
A good illustration of what’s happening in supposedly conservative Christianity is the change in the SBC. Note what the current SBC President did recently in the church he pastors: https://twitter.com/thejoshcarlile/status/1091668187979108353
Whether SBC, independent Baptist, or what flavor church: This is disgusting. If anyone doubts the Conservative Resurgence is failing, this should help convince you.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
What is wrong with people? That is truly blasphemous.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
Is the writer of this article the same as the Roger E Olson who wrote in defense of “Postconservative Evangelicalism” in the Four Views book edited by Andy Naselli? The same book where Kevin Bauder wrote defending historic fundamentalism?
[Darrell Post]Is the writer of this article the same as the Roger E Olson who wrote in defense of “Postconservative Evangelicalism” in the Four Views book edited by Andy Naselli? The same book where Kevin Bauder wrote defending historic fundamentalism?
…..it is him. Which is why the OP article befuddles me.
In “Four Views…” he argued that much of evangelicalism needed to be scrapped. In the OP article he argues that in some circles much of evangelicalism has been.
So where does he really stand?
Olson is strange. Sometimes (like in this article) I agree with him. Other times, I don’t. Today, he just published an article in which (among other things) he bemoans evangelical’s unwillingness to see Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox as true Christians.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
With due respect to Whitney Houston and a couple of men doing some goofball things linked by Wally, I’m not all that worked up about Olson’s list because most of it is Christian-ish microculture. Some of it, like #13 about preaching being always to convict of sin and such, ignores the fact that a lot of passages in Scripture discuss other topics, and hence to “go for the jugular” that way is simply to misrepresent Scripture.
I’m not entirely unsympathetic to Olson’s comments, though, as I remember learning the hard way about 21 years back about the problems of the “seeker-sensitive” movement. Preaching—really any exegesis of the Word—was downplayed to the point where a former coworker of my wife who visited—this is a guy who dressed up as Gene Simmons from Kiss for Halloween—characterized our then-church as “church lite.” But I don’t think that re-emphasizing fundagelical culture from the 1950s to the 1990s really corrects this problem.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
The greatest moment of my pastoral ministry came last year, when a church member brought a friend to church. The friend is unsaved. She said that, although our church was nice and the people were friendly, there was too much Bible in the message. She said she was looking for something lighter. #winning.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
My response to what I just saw in this video: “I wanna puck alone, not with anybody.” How does this confront an individual with the glorious Christ?
You’ll be hard-pressed to get me to defend J.D. Greear (or Whitney Houston, for that matter), but that video wasn’t during a worship service. If he ever does something like that during his church’s worship service, I’ll be the first to pull out my pitchfork and fire up some torches.
https://pjmedia.com/faith/2016/04/28/atlanta-church-opens-worship-servi…
Doesn’t matter whether what Greear did was during a worship service or not - He did it in his church as pastor. Can anyone imagine Adrian Rogers or W.A. Criswell doing anything remotely similar to this? People like Mohler must be devastated at seeing the President of the SBC doing this. And this is part of the problem with the new leaders in Evangelicalism - No Taste, No Class, No Brains. Does anyone doubt situations like this happen because they are letting the wider culture influence them? No one is talking about “re-emphasizing fundagelical culture from the 1950s to the 1990s”. But compared to the culture being emphasized today, it would be an improvement.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
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