My mom asked me what I thought about The Christian Science Monitor article “The coming evangelical collapse.” Below is my email back to my mom.

Re: What are your thoughts on this article?

Hey Mom,

I read this article from The Christian Science Monitor yesterday from a friend of mine. I pretty much agree with this article. I’ve been aware of this issue for about a year. It is a trend in evangelicalism to go “back” to Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy (albeit, many of those RCC and Orthodox Christians are becoming evangelical, but not as many going the other way). Partially, this has to do with the evangelical-Protestant inability to create “connection” with something deeper (like the historical faith Christianity is), the promotion of doctrine over unity (we need both, but evangelicals have promoted doctrine too highly when the Bible finds both to be equally important), and the removal of all things “mysterious” that Christians, like RCC and Orthodox Christians, embrace.

I think he is correct that evangelicalism has aligned itself with a political ideology, though Christian in some ways, is not in others. Young evangelicals are aware of this and so many are on different political ends as their parents. As one young evangelical told me a story, “Someone asked me, ‘Are you a Democrat or Republican?’ I responded, ‘On what issue?’” …Whereas, their parents have seen a black-and-white division between parties, the young evangelicals see some Democrat ideals as Christian (e.g., social issues) and some Republican ones as Christian (e.g., pro-life). As in my experience, one young guy said [to summarize Scot McKnight’s story], “My youth pastor wants to know if I believe the Bible is ‘inerrant.’ He keeps bugging me. But I don’t care that much. Because my youth pastor doesn’t care about the poor, he’s done nothing for justice in the world, and he didn’t even hear about the situation in Darfur until I mentioned it to him last Christmas.” Young evangelicals want their faith to embrace the “wholeness” (love, truth, justice, salvation, etc.) of Jesus. Sadly, many young evangelicals will walk away (if not, pushed away) because they will be perceived as “liberal,” but really, they are seeking to promote the whole mission of Christ.

I don’t think megachurches (Calvary Chapel, Willow Creek, Lakewood, Saddleback, etc.) will go anywhere any time soon, but they will likely see declines because younger people seek community and find it difficult to do so in large crowds. Thus, megachurches will have to reevaluate their ministries.

The only thing is that many young evangelicals will stick around. They love Jesus. They love the people in their churches. Some don’t care. Others will likely try to reform and change things but will be met with resistance.

My hope is that we (Christians) can get beyond our categories of “evangelical,” “mainline,” and “Catholic,” and just be Christ-followers working together.

So, overall, I think the article is on to something, and we should pay attention. From my experience, much of what he says is true.

Love,
Evan

PS - I only scanned this article by Christianity Today, but it deals with the article you sent me. On the Lasting Evangelical Survival 

So, have you read the article?

   What do you think?