Just in case you’re wondering . . . a new series
We begin a new series today. Some of the comments from last week’s post on our new banner and site purpose statement led me to think it important to clarify what it means to me to be “post-evangelical” and to frame that in more positive terms.
Many assume it means that people who so identify themselves have simply cast off the faith that is represented in evangelicalism. Others hear the critiques post-evangelicals offer of their former affiliations and don’t ever hear the positive side of the new things post-evangelicals have embraced.
Speaking only for myself, I want to make it clear that I can never fully “leave behind” my former life in American evangelicalism. It is an essential part of who I am.
I had a spiritual awakening in the days of the “Jesus People” movement, lived through various charismatic controversies and church growth methodologies, went to seminary and pastored a church during the birth and blossoming of the Willow Creek, seeker-sensitive era, saw all the developments from “Jesus music” to “CCM” to “praise and worship music” to K-Love, endured the worship wars, and went with tens of thousands of others to Bill Gothard seminars. I was there when the “megachurch” was manufactured, though I’ve never had much use for one.
I have moved from the Scofield Reference Bible to the NASB to the NLT to the NRSV (though I never did like the NIV, unlike most of my evangelical counterparts). I went from the Southern Baptists to independent Baptists to the Independent Fundamental Churches of America to the Evangelical Free Church to non-denominational churches that grew out of a Wesleyan tradition. My Bible college was what I would call “soft” fundamentalist and it was strongly dispensationalist in theology. My seminary grew out of the neo-evangelical tradition to become one of the strongest voices for contemporary evangelicalism and such doctrines as inerrancy.
I have lived through the rise of the Christian Right, the Moral Majority, the Reagan years, and the culmination of evangelical power politics in the Bush administration. I’ve seen the issues shift from abortion all the way to same-sex marriage. I remember and still appreciate the teaching of Francis Schaeffer before he became “political.”
In my years as an evangelical, I saw parachurch groups such as Campus Crusade and Navigators exert a tremendous influence on the church. I participated when “mission trips” first became a thing. Long before that, I was part of the rise of “small groups” and saw them become an essential part of church programs. VBS and Sunday School have always been around, but they’re not what they used to be. When I was young, big choir programs were regular, anticipated events. Now, a lot of churches don’t even know what a choir is. Or an organ.
Christian bookstores were rare when I was young, then they became pervasive, as did the entire Christian media and publishing industry. Now it’s hard to find one, except in the giant foyer of a megachurch. I lived through the televangelist scandals, but those put nary a dent in the prosperity gospel or the ongoing debacle of “Christian television,” which seems to be going stronger than ever. I have watched “Christian” movies morph from “The Gospel Blimp” to “Left Behind” to “The Passion of the Christ” to “God’s not Dead.” Well, maybe “morph” is too strong a word.
I ministered in several small and mid-sized churches, all of them deeply rooted in some form of revivalistic/Bible teaching/missions-oriented/pietistic tradition.
More recently, I have observed as several “streams” have diverged from evangelicalism and flowed out in different directions because of dissatisfaction with various elements of the movement. I’ve watched the neo-Calvinist/reformed/puritan folks seek a more intellectually satisfying and internally demanding faith that calls for submission to a sovereign God. I’ve watched people take the “ancient-future” path and become Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Anglican as they’ve searched for a more worshipful, sacramental, traditional faith. Various emergent groups have arisen before my eyes, seeking a more creative faith, in some cases questioning what they consider harsh traditional teachings in favor of a more “generous orthodoxy.” Others have left what they deem “right-wing” evangelicalism for a more socially progressive, inclusive faith that emphasizes serving the poor and inviting people who live what we used to call “alternative lifestyles” to the table.
The end of the world was never far from me in my evangelical life. It may have been closest in my youth, when Hal Lindsey was touting the “late, great planet earth.” But then, by the time I got to seminary, more than one professor remarked that students just didn’t seem as interested in understanding the “last days” and anticipating Jesus’ return anymore and that the teaching was being lost in our churches. Today, the occasional Harold Camping or John Hagee will make headlines for a moment with some new theory about impending doom, but even most evangelicals have shifted away from preoccupation with that. The most recent “Left Behind” film showed that evangelical Christians are not very good at predicting disasters, but they remain masters at creating them.
Until ten years ago, this was my life, my world. At that time, an unexpected and jarring personal experience led me out of pastoral ministry, into chaplaincy, and into a kind of wilderness it took me some time to name.
This is not to say I always felt comfortable in my evangelical skin back then. I have written here at Internet Monk repeatedly about how I never felt like I actually “fit” anywhere, how my mind and spirit continually kicked against the goads of evangelical doctrine and practice in various ways, how I failed repeatedly to find a denomination or group where I felt like I could be fully myself and still toe the company line. Nevertheless, it was my world and I could function within it. It became an integral part of my life and my family’s identity, and one does not simply cast that aside. Changing worlds is a fearsome and difficult matter, especially around age fifty.
It wasn’t too long after that change was imposed upon me that I discovered Michael Spencer and his “dispatches from the post-evangelical wilderness.” It has been a true lifesaver for me over this past decade, and I still find sustenance in the daily community here.
Having said that, there are some significant differences between Michael and me. One of the most important is that, even though he described himself as a post-evangelical personally, he remained much more involved in the evangelical world than I have. His teaching vocation in a Baptist school kept him interacting daily within an intentional community of evangelical Christians. On the other hand, I have not had that. My change in vocation took me outside the evangelical world, though not out of the ministry. The evangelical “bubble” seems far away now, a place I visit occasionally. When I do, I never stay long.
However, you can take the boy out of evangelicalism, but it’s nigh impossible to take the evangelical out of the boy.
After many trials and errors I found my way into a deep appreciation for many aspects of Lutheran theology and even thought about becoming a Lutheran pastor. But I have to confess, I’m not really a “Lutheran,” though the tradition shapes some of my practice. It has never become my world.
The world that now shapes me most, spiritually and religiously, is my vocation as a chaplain — a thoroughly ecumenical, missional, community-based ministry. That’s where I feel most comfortable: with my neighbors. That’s my world now, and as I said in an earlier post, I guess I’m not much of a “churchman” anymore. I view myself as a composite of all my experiences and journeys, and the chaplaincy allows me to bring them all to bear as I seek to serve others. I don’t have to fit an ecclesiastical mold to do my job. It’s better, in fact, if I don’t.
So, I’m experiencing a level of freedom now that I’ve never known before. As a chaplain, I can draw upon all the influences that have formed and shaped me, including my evangelical past. In this series, I want to talk about that and let you know what I think, as a post-evangelical, about things that are important to evangelicals — such things as the Bible, the Church, the gospel, and conversion, etc. — so that you can see both my appreciation for evangelicalism and my quarrels with it.
Just in case you were wondering.