Archives for 5.26.09

a bit more on the ‘exodus’

An article from Associated Baptist Press discusses the movement away from ‘Conservative Evangelicalism’ that appears to be happening in that ‘other camp.’

Stetzer said the Social Gospel was based on a "post-millennial" theology that believed it possible to establish God’s kingdom on Earth. A main reason it lost influence, he said, was introduction of philosophies and theologies that moved some mainline churches away from positions that conservatives viewed as orthodox Christianity.

Today’s younger evangelicals are different, he said, in that they reject teaching that undermines fundamental tenets of Christianity and instead "believe they are placing an emphasis on fulfilling all of the commands in Scripture and ministering to others rather than an eschatological imperative."

I don’t know what to make of this as far as CEs are concerned, but I wonder if the movement leftwards away from fundamentalism isn’t part of a broader movement leftwards in general. This appears to be occurring all over Christendom and is a ‘sign of the times’ more than anything else.

If there is a connection, it suggests to me that there is really nothing wrong with Fundamentalism per se, but we are in ‘the apostasy’ and the faltering footsteps from within our own ranks may be part of a general movement.

I offer this as a suggestion not as conclusion, lest any should misunderstand.

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more on the ‘exodus’

In a recent post, all five of my readers (plus a few others!) discussed reasons why it appears that many younger people are departing from fundamentalism. I was struck by the excellence of the answers. Some of the reasons given were surprising to me.

Today, Ellis Murphree posts a blog with his take on the subject. His answers are similar to what was posted in the comments section to my post.

I attempted to summarize the reasons my commenters gave in an excel spreadsheet. My categories are pretty subjective, but help me to think through what was said.

The reasons some might be leaving that didn’t surprise me are these:

  1. Personality issues: these are what flow from the ‘pastor as dictator’ big BaBtist model of church leadership
  2. Standards issues: these are reasons that flow from the complaints over alleged legalism and Pharisaism
  3. Versions issues: clearly this battle has soured some on fundamentalism in general (unnecessarily so IMO)
  4. Calvinism/Puritanism: while I earlier agreed with the notion that this isn’t the issue, it is a factor, but perhaps not exactly as one might expect
  5. Lack of innovation/deadness: This may be a true charge to some extent, but seems more of an excuse than a reason – if there is a lack of innovation… innovate!

Now, two reasons in particular really surprised me:

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