This is really a great synopsis of the lost foundations of Evangelicalism. The faith itself might still be useful, but what does it mean when the ground of its being -- that there is a common cultural meaning that Evangelicalism speaks to -- disappears?
In my journey into a more Anabaptistic faith, I'm find that Evangelicalism, as you say, has as its grounding a place that cannot be inhabited by the dispossessed or the oppressed or the forgotten or the failing. Evangelicalism in its essence is a faith that needs political cover and power. It doesn't work so well for people on the margins, whose backs are against the wall. How does the Jesus of the Evangelical church *really* connect to those who are rejected by their societies *and* their churches for not fitting into narrow binaries of behaviors, beliefs, and being?
I'm still finding people who are *in love with Jesus* and seek to follow him in his ways of living and connecting. But they have no place in the Evangelical churches--and the faith of those churches has no place in them. That belief system (and oh how it is a *system*!) has crushed them and discarded them.
So they went and found Jesus.
Reminds me so much of my own faith journey from near 55 years ago of meeting Jesus in the outburst of the Jesus Movement. Rather than the church culture that demanded propriety and circumspection, the Jesus Movement was an explosion of love and acceptance and forgiveness to a generation that lost belief in the beliefs of their parents.
Here we are seeing a new movement in the world of people finding Jesus outside the walls of the predictable church. It's glorious. I'm all for it.
That more people will discard the trappings of what Evangelicalism has done to the image of Jesus is a good thing. We can return to the Jesus of the text and find better ways to enjoy his words and his actions.
And I am hoping with all my hopes that this will become a fresh expression of the "good news" that God isn't angry with us and isn't out to destroy us to prove his power and goodness, but instead is calling us--as where are, where we are, and as who we are--to come follow him in enjoyment and mystery and presence and community.
This is really a great synopsis of the lost foundations of Evangelicalism. The faith itself might still be useful, but what does it mean when the ground of its being -- that there is a common cultural meaning that Evangelicalism speaks to -- disappears?
In my journey into a more Anabaptistic faith, I'm find that Evangelicalism, as you say, has as its grounding a place that cannot be inhabited by the dispossessed or the oppressed or the forgotten or the failing. Evangelicalism in its essence is a faith that needs political cover and power. It doesn't work so well for people on the margins, whose backs are against the wall. How does the Jesus of the Evangelical church *really* connect to those who are rejected by their societies *and* their churches for not fitting into narrow binaries of behaviors, beliefs, and being?
I'm still finding people who are *in love with Jesus* and seek to follow him in his ways of living and connecting. But they have no place in the Evangelical churches--and the faith of those churches has no place in them. That belief system (and oh how it is a *system*!) has crushed them and discarded them.
So they went and found Jesus.
Reminds me so much of my own faith journey from near 55 years ago of meeting Jesus in the outburst of the Jesus Movement. Rather than the church culture that demanded propriety and circumspection, the Jesus Movement was an explosion of love and acceptance and forgiveness to a generation that lost belief in the beliefs of their parents.
Here we are seeing a new movement in the world of people finding Jesus outside the walls of the predictable church. It's glorious. I'm all for it.
That more people will discard the trappings of what Evangelicalism has done to the image of Jesus is a good thing. We can return to the Jesus of the text and find better ways to enjoy his words and his actions.
And I am hoping with all my hopes that this will become a fresh expression of the "good news" that God isn't angry with us and isn't out to destroy us to prove his power and goodness, but instead is calling us--as where are, where we are, and as who we are--to come follow him in enjoyment and mystery and presence and community.