Embarking

This post doesn’t deal as much with the “future of evangelicalism” but rather as a way of establishing our past and/ or current location.  Over the years, I’ve struggled to know what being evangelical means.  I have certainly been grounded in evangelicalism:

1. My denomination has an evangelical stream, but is not considered an evangelical denomination.
2. Personally - growing up - I was raised as an evangelical.  My most formational pastor in my middle and high school years was a former missionary to Chiapas, Mexico, and the church was a new church planted only about a year before we began attending.
3. My mentor in college was a deeply evangelical and evangelistic pastor with a mind like John Stott’s and a heart like Billy Graham’s. 
4. The first church I served was traditional and conservative, but theologically evangelical.
5. The second church I served had a deep evangelical history (including deep involvement with Wycliffe, Intervarsity, built by a former pastor of Park Street Church in Boston, and some interaction with Francis Schaeffer) on the campus of the University of Michigan, but didn’t “fit in” with many more conservative or fundamentalist evangelicals on campus.
6. The church I serve now defines itself in its values as holding to “an evangelical and reformed understanding of the Christian Faith.”

But even though this grounding is clearly a part of my history, there are a number of reasons I’ve struggled with this identity.  First, when someone who is spiritually seeking wants to know what “brand” of Christian I am, the answer would probably be “evangelical,” but the follow up questions, “What do evangelicals believe” is not as easy to answer.  Second, there are a number of people who more tightly define evangelicalism to exclude myself and others of my friends who I would say are deeply theological.  (see “Lining Up” post).  Third, there are a number of streams within evangelicalism that are pulling at one another, fighting sometimes against one another, and vying for leadership for the future of evangelicalism.  I would argue that often these arguments are about “secondary issues” and not primary ones, while others would call primary what I would call secondary.  So, who says?  Who decides?

I’ve been thinking a lot for several years about the future of evangelicalism.  A number of writers over the past decade have written about both the past, the meaning of, and the future of evangelicalism.  There’s no consensus.

I guess I find this particularly interesting because I’ve always kind of wondered where I fit in the whole scheme of things.  I haven’t written in a while on this blog, and part of the reason is that I’ve been on a journey of rediscovery for the past 4 months.  I’ve been returning to some roots of mine both theological, culturally, and in my own personal narrative.  It’s been a fascinating ride, really.  I’ve had more clarity about what I believe, where I fit, how I’m evangelical, (how some people would say I’m not and why), why I’m drawn to the emerging church, why I’m drawn to the missional church, why I’m interested in the new monasticism, why I never feel comfortable with either a conservative evangelical or a liberal Christian label.  I’ve made peace with myself about why deconstruction is important to me and how it fits my reformed theological roots, and a lot more.

Anyway, all of this works together in me to in my concern over the future of the evangelical church.  Where are we headed?  Who is we?  Who decides who “we” is?  In the past, it seemed that our “pop” evangelicalism was lead by our pastor - JI Packer, our theologian - John Stott, and our evangelist - Billy Graham.  But with these leaders all aging and approaching the end of their earthly days, I wonder who will lead us, and whether we’ll stay together.  There are certainly people vying for power over the label.  There’s a resurgence of deeply conservative fundamentalism, a rise in global evangelical fruit, an upsurge of new reformed calvinists (or neo-calvinists), a hugely “successful” non-denominational mega-church movement with powerfully influential leaders, an emerging church alternative, and an increase in Pentecostal churches and much more.  So… what is the way forward for evangelicals?