The coming evangelical collapse?

Internet Monk Michael Spencer has a really sobering piece on what he calls “The Coming Evangelical Collapse.”

(HT: Tall Skinny Kiwi)

This segment predicts the nature of the collapse, its antecedents and some of the effects. Parts 2 and 3 will look at what is left afterward and whether the collapse is a good thing, respectively.

Much of what Michael has to say isn’t new – earlier voices in the precursor to what might be called “Missionalism” today have spoken for at least three decades about the fact of Christendom as a spent cultural force, and the need for a mission to Western Culture, making many of the same points Michael has.

On this blog I’ve discussed some of the same factors he brings up, and none of them are original with me – the love of church buildings, creeping consumerism, leadership that is good at theology but not very good at anything else, and other issues. And there are also voices today which speak to the need to deconstruct religious moralism and legalism which predominates in much of what is called evangelicalism.

One of the points that Andrew Jones points out as especially salient is point 7 from Michael’s post – the question of economic sustainability, exacerbated by the current macroeconomic effects of the global financial crisis. In my own hometown of Memphis, I received a prayer request regarding a “prestige” church that was having to lay off staffers because of a drop in contributions. The effects I discussed in this post (again the idea did not originate with me) have already begun, and I think Michael clearly elucidates the issue of economic survivability of the status quo. I think that his thoughts are sobering if not troubling, and should especially be so for “tall steeple” churches.

But I can’t help but to ask if some of this isn’t wishful thinking or even schadenfreude – Michael is a very thoughtful fellow and doesn’t fit the “angry young church dude” profile.

And yet in my gut I can’t help but get a feeling of “serves them right!” when I read his post on the collapse. Again, this is more a visceral reaction – I can’t point to anything explicit that says this, and my feelings are very suspect and unreliable when it comes to judging the motivations of others. More darkly I fear that the feeling may simply be the expression of a latent affection within me that I’m projecting on Michael. I’m of the same age range as Michael; neither of has qualified as “young” for at least 15 years in the most charitable construction of the term.

Regardless of what’s behind it, though, I think that Michael’s prediction is more likely to be correct than incorrect.

I’m going to have to do some more thinking on the issue before I comment further on what I think God may be trying to do through this, but one thing is certain: this too is under the Lord’s providential superintendence, and God has a redemptive purpose for it. Just as I dread the consequences of what may be coming in the economy but am excited to be alive to see these interesting historical events unfolding, so also I dread what may be coming for churches, but am excited to be a witness to what God is doing: it’s shaping up to be something completely new.