The Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now

Recently, in reflecting upon the plague of “social justice” agitation in historically evangelical churches, even the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), it occurred to me that this is part of a bigger picture of evangelicals being prone to be carried away by fads and “new things.”  It is not just the Athenians of Acts 17 who are habitually obsessed with whatever seems to be “something new.”

And I have to confess that in my evangelical days, from my conversion to sometime into my Anglican years, I, too have been caught up in an evangelical fad or two . . . or three . . . or – well, lets just say my knowledge of several evangelical fads is up close and personal.

You may have already read between the lines and surmised I no longer consider myself an evangelical, and you would be correct.  It’s not that I am less committed to orthodoxy and the authority of scripture; my commitment continues hot.  It is that I have become influenced by Anglo-catholicism and that evangelicalism has evolved into something I for the most part no longer wish to be associated with.

And evangelicalism has evolved, devolved really, in part because of its tendency to be carried away with “every wind of doctrine” and practice.  Yes, many evangelicals resist this devolution and tendency doggedly sometimes with temporary success even.  But “Big Evangelicalism” is going and is too close to gone, is more The Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now (TECoWHaN) than a church old school evangelicals and other traditional Christians can stomach anymore.

Thus TECoWHaN not only erodes orthodoxy; it erodes unity.  Watch the Southern Baptists to see that.

But I am necessarily painting with a very broad brush here.  And not all evangelical fads have been bad.  I still think the WWJD bracelets were a good idea for one thing. Yes, mock me if you wish.

Still the evangelical tendency to be The Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now, to give itself over to fads and “new things” big and small, is so deep seated and has done so much harm that I am starting a series on it.  Yes, I will be critical, but I will be self-critical as well.  For I have oft been an enthusiastic participant in TECoWHaN with very mixed results.  And I hope my experiences will assist in being a warning not to go and do likewise.

Stay tuned . . . perhaps wearing a hard hat.