Are we witnessing the death of America’s Christian denominations? Studies conducted by secular and Christian organizations indicate that we are. Fewer and fewer American Christians, especially Protestants, strongly identify with a particular religious communion””Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc. According to the Baylor Survey on Religion, nondenominational churches now represent the second largest group of Protestant churches in America, and they are also the fastest growing.
More and more Christians choose a church not on the basis of its denomination, but on the basis of more practical matters. Is the nursery easy to find? Do I like the music? Are there support groups for those grappling with addiction?
This trend is a natural extension of the American evangelical experiment. After all, evangelicalism is about the fundamental message of Christianity””the evangel, the gospel, literally the “good news” of God’s kingdom arriving in Jesus Christ””not about denomination building.
Anglicanism is well-suited to work within such trends. People clearly hunger for biblically-solid, practical preaching and teaching to help them live more closely in accord with God’s plan for their lives. Yet many also yearn for the sacred and the sacramental and a key element of their common worship.
Anglicanism is one of the few places they can find both. Attendance at our traditional 8 am service has roughly doubled in the last three or so years (from about 70 to about 125 or 130) and close to half that growth has been from people under 45.
The church doesn’t have to be just like the world to attract people. You can even argue rather cogently that what they’re seeking is something [i]apart[/i] from the world: in a word, holy.
#1 Agree. But the Anglicanism I see is not biblically based with practical preaching and teaching. It does not want to have anything to do with this and puts down folks who do.
“And though nondenominational churches are growing, the Southern Baptist Convention—the nation’s largest Protestant group—has over 10,000 students studying for ministry in six seminaries right now.
If denominationalism simply denotes a ‘brand’ vying for market share, then let denominationalism fall. But many of us believe denominations can represent fidelity to living traditions of local congregations that care about what Jesus cared about—personal conversion, discipleship, mission and community. Perhaps the denominational era has just begun.”
In teaching various religion courses, I find that students typically neither know nor care about denominational differences. There’s a place for “mere Christianity”–partly to show students the wide, core areas of Christian agreement. But there’s a danger in nondenominationalism or even ecumenism, not to mention consumerist-oriented mushiness, if it means reducing almost to nothing denominational distinctiveness.
My clear sense is that worshiping Methodists experience a generalized Protestantism but know little about the Wesleys and many wonderful aspects of traditional Methodist emphasis. (They don’t have to have these distinctives forced on them; they just need to be exposed to them to consider and possibly appreciate and learn from.) I don’t get the sense that members of the Church of the Brethren know much about the Anabaptist or Pietist tradition.
Because all churches these days are probably seeker churches–seeking to be welcoming to seekers–they’re casting a wide net. They don’t want to seem like a narrow, specialty, offbeat, even boutique enterprise. But there’s a lot of great historical and theological texture that often goes missing. As a result, Methodist churches–to pick on that quintessential American denomination– can seem bland, but countervailing resources are there. So I’d say reach for them and make use of them to enrich and embolden.
[blockquote]This trend is a natural extension of the American evangelical experiment. After all, evangelicalism is about the fundamental message of Christianity—the evangel, the gospel, literally the “good news” of God’s kingdom arriving in Jesus Christ—not about denomination building.[/blockquote]
I would argue it is the natural extension of latent American individualism found within the evangelical experiment. Community means nothing more than what I, myself, can get out of the community, i.e. better nursery, better parking, better music. If the church caters to my individual whim then I will go there. If not, bye bye.
I think, Archer, that you’re painting with an overly broad, overly cynical brush. Too many counter-examples of good church people self-sacrificially serving their communities (and distant communities in other lands) in myriad ways. And does “evangelical” = “individualistic” or even “selfish”? I would think that “secularist” would more closely = “individualistic.”
Perhaps I am cynical, but I still disagree. Evangelical theology touts individual salvation. There is no communal salvation in modern, Evangelical theology. Evangelicals serve their communities, but only to win individual souls. The minute the community causes individual Evangelicals to squirm (either in theology or church services or whatever), they are out the door, looking for greener, purer theological pastures. There is no ethic of actual catholic community in contemporary Evangelical theology. Cite me a major source if you disagree.
“There is no communal salvation in modern, Evangelical theology.”
Is there any “communal salvation” in Christianity? Kierkegaard reminded us that you can’t walk across a tightrope (to the Kingdom) in a crowd. Luther said that each of us much do his own believing even as each must do his own dying. And isn’t the contribution of Anglicanism (historically) to strive for the right balance between the situation of the individual believer (important) and being fortified by the church community, which helps to carry us thru the dry places of our own spiritual aridity (also important)? Yes, “we believe” but also “I believe.” As an Anglican, I don’t deny that evangelicals often overemphasize individual salvation, but that’s not a new point. And your characterization was not so much theological as a characterization, maybe a broad-brush caricature, of some really selfish people.
Anyway, I’m familiar with a local Church of the Brethren congregation in Frederick, MD, and, while they’re evangelical, there’s an awful lot of talking, feeling, and doing as community–Body of Christ–as well.
And if you really are “cynical,” as you say you might be, shouldn’t you really, as a Christian, be questioning your attitudinal starting-point?
[blockquote]Is there any “communal salvation†in Christianity?[/blockquote]
Are you kidding? Read any of the Catholic epistles in the New Testament, particularly Peter and James. The “You” that is translated into English is always a plural you in the Greek. God never speaks to individuals in the salvation plan in either the Old or New Testament, with the possible exception of Abraham, but even then the covenants God makes to Abraham are for the community not Abraham personally. The Spirit is always speaking to the community, the whole people of God, the whole body of Christ.
I suppose I am somewhat cynical. In my ministry, I have had to deal with a lot of “escaped Evangelicals,” as one of them referred to herself as. To almost all of them, the idea that Christianity is something more than just my personal relationship with God but also my personal relationship with the Communion of Saints is nearly a complete revelation.
We do have priests in the Anglican tradition, and the priest is the mediator/go between between God and His people. Priesthood is irrelevant if salvation is nothing more than the individual’s relationship with God.
But, to be fair, I am sure there are those who identify as Evangelical that are more communal based in theology. I guess it depends on what you mean by the term “Evangelical.” Evangelical used to be a synonym for any major Protestant Christian. Most Victorian Protestants, at least in America, would not have objected to being labeled “evangelical.” But starting with the crisis of modernity where modern Christianity in America polarized along the literalist/liberal lines, the term ‘Evangelical’ began to slowly be hijacked in the 20th Century by theological strands within Protestantism to the point where it is now equated by most as neocon/Reagan/Televangelist/Christian Coalition type Christianity. That is more to what I was referring.
I sometimes hear people lament that people choose churches by style without even thinking about theology, and thereby find themselves under teaching that is less than biblical. I would imagine that about the same percentage of folks chose a church in the 1900s because of the sign on the door without even thinking about theology.
Formal denominational ties may be weakening, but networks such as the [url=http://www.acts29network.org]Acts 29 Network[/url] are on the rise.
[url=http://www.benjermcveigh.com]Jesus and Teenagers[/url]
Archer, I think you’re being both narrow and unfair in #4. I know Dutch evangelicals, Canadian evangelicals, and Latin American ones, none of whom have had American individualism superimposed on the “evangelical experiment” (as you dismiss it).
In several areas of Latin America I have worked in regions where the Adventists and Nazarenes have built a common church and a common ministry to their towns. They respect and enjoy each other’s theological differences within that “experiment.”
The Roman Catholics are increasingly irrelevant across much of Latin America, to the extent that there are now more evangelicals worshipping on a given weekend than RCs.
The Roman sense of “community salvation” (you mention in #8) unfortunately led them into that whole Marxist idiocy known as Liberation Theology, largely repudiated by events and rejected with some enthusiasm in Colombia, Peru, and Chile … to name just three.
I agree with Archer. I think it was N.T. Wright in one of his recent books about taking a new look at Paul who wrote God’s primary purpose is the salvation of humanity first, the individual second. He used the analogy of the sun having the appearance it revolves around us, when it fact it’s just the opposite. Wright says we need to remember we’re revolving around God, not the other way around. Far too much emphasis is placed on individual salvation particulalry in America where individualism is sacrosanct. There’s a parody on Youtube where a man plays a piano hawking his new album “It’s All About Me Lord, Not About You.” Well worth taking a look.
All of this discussion needs to be balance by the fact that you can choose a TEC church for style and not be aware of its theology or the lack thereof. Group salavation in TEC is that all ways lead to God. Or that you and more especially, your group are saved when they are welcomed into a TEC congregation.
The year 2009 was a banner one for the LGBT agenda at the TEC GC. It was also a year where (TEC in USA) Infant Baptisms (30,682) were less than Burials (30,853). I believe (based on my limited data) that the last time that Burials were greater than Infant Baptisms was in 1935. Statmann
It is all a matter of balance. Not a matter of ‘polar’ options on a linear scale.
A linear approach to comprehending God; and his Word to us through Jesus, the Apostles and the prophets; is a human attempt to simplify in human terms what God has presented to us using His Words that He has chosen to use to communicate with us.
Our relationship with our Creator and His Messiah is both one of individual Salvation and of being a member of a community, the Body of Christ. That is why the current crisis caused by the revisionists throughout the mainline Christian churches is a matter of such critical importance. It is why the issue of Communion within the Anglican Communion is so critical an issue.
Salvation is about each one of us individually in our personal relationship with the Trinity and it is also about our relationship with each other within the Body of Christ and with those outside the Boidy of Christ.
Archer wrote at #6,
[blockquote] Perhaps I am cynical, but I still disagree. Evangelical theology touts individual salvation. There is no communal salvation in modern, Evangelical theology. Evangelicals serve their communities, but only to win individual souls. The minute the community causes individual Evangelicals to squirm (either in theology or church services or whatever), they are out the door, looking for greener, purer theological pastures. There is no ethic of actual catholic community in contemporary Evangelical theology. Cite me a major source if you disagree. [/blockquote]
That’s not good enough, Archer. If you are going to make sweeping disparaging comments about the personal habits and practices of millions of christian believers, the onus lies on YOU to back up your claims. You haven’t given any support at all, its just apparently what you want to believe.
I should add that I am not an “evangelical” in the sense being used on this thread although my beliefs are evangelical in another sense, yet also proudly Anglican. But it wouldn’t matter who you were writing about – Roman Catholic, Mennonite, Oriental Orthodox, Brethren or whoever – if you are going to suggest that every member of a church is “out the door” when things get difficult, come up with some reason for your allegation (preferably some reason that indicates you have some actual experience or research behind you).
Let me add that I think a number of points in the article are well made.