A Mile Wide and an Inch Deep

In his article, The Coming Evangelical Collapse, Michael Spencer claims evangelical Christianity is on the verge of a major collapse in the western world.

One of the reasons Spencer gives for the coming collapse is the failure of Evangelicals to pass on “an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught.”

Regardless of what one may think about Spencer’s prediction, it’s hard not to agree that evangelicalism’s emphasis has shifted “from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success – resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.”

So how did Evangelicals get to this point? Spencer argues:

“Ironically, the billions of dollars we’ve spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.”

Have Evangelicals focused so much on telling others how to behave that we’ve neglected sharing with them what we believe and why we believe it? Do we even know what we believe and why we believe it? Are we a mile wide and an inch deep?

While Jesus was here on earth, He didn’t spend much time trying to change the politics of the Roman Empire. He had little to say about the sexual ethics of first century Palestine. Instead, He focused on making disciples. He healed the sick. He spoke out against religious hypocrisy. He taught about the Kingdom. He glorified His Father in heaven.

If Evangelicals desire to be more like Jesus, their focus needs to be more like His focus. As Jesus said, “Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.” (Luke 6:40; New Living Translation)