Vince Deagler

hi folks.  yesterday (sunday) i was looking into what on the surface strikes me as a potential contradiction.  let me backtrack.  in the past 6 mos. or so i have read a number of blogs, articles, editorials, etc. that have predicted the demise of evangelical christianity as it presently exists.  different “experts” gave different reasons, some quite varied, some made sense, others were hokey.  but i began to notice one reason seemed to make everyones list.  now before i get into that, isn’t the idea of an evangelical collapse a contradiction of matt. 16:18 “i will build my church and the gates of hades cannot prevail against her”.  as i thought on this, i came up with a well that just depends.

remember gamaliel???  if you do you get a gold star for the day.  gamaliel was a member of the sanhedrin, and we meet him in acts 5.  in acts 5 the sanhedrin is trying to figure out what to do about the expansion of christianity.  they thought they had solved that problem by crucifying jesus, but that decision had blown up in their face.  many experts believe that by the time we get to acts 5, there are as many as 20,000 christians in jerusalem…not exactly what they had planned on when conspiring to kill jesus.  well as they were debating what to do now, gamaliel suggested they do nothing.  his explanation went something like this… if this movement is of god, we cannot stop it, if this movement is not of god, it will die out on its own.  pretty wise don’t you think?  but taking that thought, couldn’t we say if the evangelical church collapses, as predicted, perhaps it is because it was not of god.

that leads me to the one reason almost every “expert” listed as a cause for collapse…consumerism…or a consumer driven approach to ministry that substitutes pragmatism, motivation, personal success, therapeutic, feel good messages, and a church growth orientation that focuses on numbers, dollars, and facilities instead of sound doctrine and obedience.  what do you think?  i ran this by a few people, and they did think we as evangelicals have been infected to some extent with consumerism…a view that considers what the church offers me, how the church serves me, meets my needs, etc.  (doesn’t that pattern closely resemble the entitlement culture that permeates america today?)  when i look in scripture i find we are brought to the church by god’s design, not personal choice.  (look up 1 cor. 12:18, 24)  we are brought there with a specific purpose in mind and a special enablement to fulfill that purpose as in the body analogy of feet, hands, eyes, ears, etc.  and that as a collection of body parts, assembled into a functional whole, under the leadership of christ, we can do more than we could ever do on our own.  i think that is what god is building.  i think we are to figure out where he is at work and join him in that work.  if a segment of evangelicalism fails b/c it was built on consumerism, we should not necessarally conclude god did not keep his word…as in i will build my church.  perhaps he was busy building his church, and his church is not built on consumerism, it is built on service.  as rick warren has said …it’s service, not serve us.  thats my story and i’m sticking to it.  what do you think?  i would enjoy a healthy debate on the tendancies (some good, some ???) creeping into evangelicalism.  thanks for reading.  blessings.  vince