Michael Spencer at the Christian Science Monitor predicts a collapse of American Evangelicalism (as we know it.) Of course, I look to more basic causes: almost no gospel, no catechism, no catechesis, and building churches on the foundation of slick marketing and meeting of felt needs instead of the foundation of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins. One aspect of the problem is explained dynamicly in this podcast of Fighting for the Faith on Pirate Christian Radio.
It is worth the read. It is not an impossible scenerio:
Oneida, Ky. - We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.
Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.
This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.
Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.
Why is this going to happen?....
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