This is just a random list of "side issues" I think of future importance to the evolving discipleship culture of evangelicalism. These are matters of internal Church culture I think will need to be tackled by those interested in reform.
1. The rise of young Calvinists* who equate a commitment to doctrinal orthodoxy with a commitment to Calvinism. And on the flipside, the rise of those disinterested in doctrinal orthodoxy b/c the perception is that to be passionate about theology makes one a Calvinist jihadist.
2. The push on behalf of the LDS "church" to be considered not just Christians, but evangelical Christians. And the apparent sympathy for this movement from scholars/pastors within the evangelical church.
3. The effect evangelicalism's burgeoning political apathy may have on social justice issues evangelicalism can't afford to be apathetic about.
4. The preoccupation of major denominations with issues non-essential to the faith.
5. Economic depression and widespread unemployment, two American cultural crises the Church -- with its addiction to bigger, faster, better -- is not equipping its own culture to confront.
6. The proliferation of technology that makes the world smaller as it makes individuals actually less and less personally connected. And the Church's present inclination to accommodate this distance rather than to counteract it.
That's all I can think of right now. Anybody got any others?
* Before you get mad, let me remind you I'm one of those awful five-pointers myself.
1 comment:
I would add:
Continuing to understand our post-Christian culture that will increasingly become so. Thinking through what evangelism looks like in this milieu. Tim Keller proves helpful with this one.
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