Here. A recent issue of The Lutheran magazine, official publication of my beloved Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, sold the false comforting line that the decline in mainline Christianity and the relative increase in so-called evangelical or free churches is primarily demographics. Our birth rates have been declining, the article argued. Theirs have been increasing.
That's only a fraction of the story. While many of us in mainline churches continue to fight the good fight for the authority of Scripture and the centrality of sharing the Good News of Jesus, that isn't the direction in which our denominations appear to be heading. We're paying the price.
(Thanks to Good Brownie for pointing to the LATimes article.)
(Thanks also to Mark D. Roberts, whose blog is among the best around, for linking to this post.)
3 comments:
That was a pretty funny article--though sad at the same time.
Mark,
These last two posts make an interesting contrast. There is something to the charge of evangelical Christians being aligned with the Republican party. Your trip to the Christian store demonstrated the negative aspects of evangelicalism - shallow theology, materialism, and feel-good messages. Those things appeal to our more selfish natures, and they sell - both in churches and retail outlets.
But for all the shortcomings, on the positive side evangelical churches are growing because they do stand for something bigger than the social gospel of political progressives.
Amba also had a post on the LAT article. She is no Christian, but wrote with a kind of respect of "strong traditionalists":
"if you're going to be a Christian, be a Christian, already. If you're going to be a Jew, be a Jew. Keep those pure traditions alive, or admit that you're post-traditional and get out!"
I think that sums up why theologically conservative churches are generally healthy and growing. For all its flaws, traditional Christianity at least attempts to honor the significance of a tradition and authority which are much larger than my ideas and preferences.
Thanks to both of you, Julana and Jeff, for your comments.
In fact, Jeff, I meant the two posts to be sort of bookends. As an evangelical Lutheran, I must say that it isn't tradition to which I cling. (At least I hope that it isn't.) What's important to me is the Bible and the confessions of our movement as faithful expositions of the Bible.
To me, what afflicts both the mainline and free church traditions is a tendency toward cultural accomodationism. One accommodates to the left, while the other accommodates to the right. In either case, the Gospel is subordinated to human ideas, ideologies, and traditions, none of which is good.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments.
God bless!
Mark
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