Evangelical Christians have flaws to fix

The Failure of the Evangelical Christian Movement

I know that the title of this blog will take many by surprise and even evoke anger and disbelief.  The purpose of this article is to evoke thought, not build walls.  So if you disagree with my conclusions, I applaud your free thinking.  If you find some of what I said valid, then I ask you to act on it and if you find yourself thinking along the same line, then pass on your thoughts. Because this movement is the most significant growth in Christianity in North American in probably the last millennium.

First the positives. The Evangelical Movement moved people into a modern relationship with God and His Son.  Much of what the more established religions have failed to do in the last 100 years.  The decline of attendance was evident as was the backlash.  No decade did more to erode traditional Christian values than the 60's.  This movement lead in the forefront by Mega-churches like Willow Creek and Saddleback has taught us that the thing we were chasing, the self-gratification and worship of money was not satisfying and only through a relationship with God can we truly be happy.  

Music was moved from 100 year old hymns to modern music.  Teaching was less history and more application and the move to fulfill the great commission was well in hand.  I applaud these groups and others that have grown for bringing about a fundamental change in how many worship and see the relationship with their God.

With success comes some unintended consequences.  It is these consequences that I would like to address briefly.

• The Christian Counter Culture 

Much of what was designed as a way to reach out to people to get them to rediscover their need for God has become a crutch and a way of life for many.  Christian Music, Movies, Entertainment and even Restaurants have become unintended economic factors to feed the movement.  While I enjoy good modern worship music as much as anyone, I would caution that listening to it exclusively is detrimental to the great commission.  Let me explain my reasoning.  First of all, Jesus did not hang out in the Temples and only associate with practicing Christians.  He went to where God was not and preached grace and forgiveness.  How many of those that consider themselves good practicing members of their congregations venture our of their comfort zone by trying to understand the lost and relate to them. How many churches are worried about repaving the parking lot, remodeling the children's wing or expanding the auditorium versus using those funds to reach out to the community they serve.  How many are discouraged from television, movies, music and other items that are not within our sensibilities.  But reality tv, the Simpsons, John Stewart and more are the guage of our society and should be watched and listened to if nothing more than a reference point to speak to people and share our story.  The counter culture is a bridge that should be opened to allow the lost to transition, but not a wall to keep us away from the world.

• Missionary Work

There is a strong movement inside the Evangelical churches for the traditional method of Missionary Work.  Teams of individuals take a week off and travel to placed like Panama, Honduras, Haiti and more.  While this fulfills a sense of doing good and giving to the less fortunate, it falls short of what I believe is the real purpose of the local church.  Why is it less fulfilling to take a week off of work and work on an elderly person's falling down home or helping a family in need repair their home?  There seems to be a misguided priority on overseas missionary work as doing more good.

• The balance of maintenance vs evangelism.

Every church has to deal with the reality that doing Gods work involves money, and the proper use of the resources that He provides.  It seems that many of the churches are asking for 10% and spending most of it on the current facility or adding another full paid staff member to minister to the congregation who attend and are proud of their church but unwilling to give of their time or talents. 20% of the congregation does 80% of the voluntary ministry.  A mature church does one of two things, it goes into maintenance mode and builds coffee bars, small group meeting rooms and expanded concierge items in the lobby or it tries to duplicate itself in another community.  The latter is far more biblical than the first. 

• Location - Location - Location

In religion as in real estate it seems to be the fad.  Evangelicals target large communities of affluent or up and coming people.  Making the decision that the incomes of these people will create the monetary flow needed to grow a church.  But how many of these new churches target areas with little income or high amounts of unchurched.   Here is where the Evangelical portion of the great commision is most needed.

and lastly..

• Division versus Inclusion

The Christian movement in the US has so much division because of interpretation of  scripture and emphasis of some portions of the bible over others.  Jesus preached forgiveness and inclusion.  In many of the issues that separate us as Christians and denominations, even more separate us from the lost.  How many see churches argue about Gay Rights, what constitutes a sin and what doesn't, how to worship, what to do in a service and what to preach, they see it as a decision that is just to hard to make.  The original Evangelical movement was about preaching the message of forgiveness and grace has now become about things and deeds.  A return to that message of forgiveness will more than help.  The doors of the church need to be opened to many opinions.  Biblical truth is of itself the basis.  But to dissect the bible in a word by word dissertation and making it about supporting your argument is counter productive.  The bible is divided into books, chapters and verses to make it easy to find information, not to make it easy to disregard the meaning of the story, parable or history lesson. 

There is much right with the Evangelical Movement, but success also breeds issues.  I would like each person to pray and let God lead them in the right direction, not a 30 minute power point based on two versus.  Read your bible, do not have it read to you.  God will convict you to do the right thing.