In the cover story of the April 30 Courier, Rudy Gray, president of the SCBC, was quoted as saying, “The reality is that younger people are not as involved as those over 40 at our annual meetings. The real question is ‘Why?’?” I would like to offer three reasons.
First, the damage done to the SBC by the “conservative resurgence” of the ’80s cannot be adequately measured by numbers of people present at conventions. Talk to many people who were seminarians and young ministers at that time and you will hear words of regret and disillusionment. You may also hear many of them saying, “God called me to ministry, not denominational politics.”
Second, in her book, “The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why,” Dr. Phyllis Tickle writes that “every five hundred years the empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity become an intolerable carapace that must be shattered in order that renewal and new growth may occur.” Please take note that it was in 1517 (492 years ago) that Martin Luther codified his objections to the “empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity” of his day, arguably striking the match that lit the fires of the Protestant Reformation.
Third, the deconstruction of cultural and institutional systems brought on by postmodern philosophy of the early 20th century is now firmly ensconced in the church.
But it’s not all bad news. Tickle also wrote that “every time the incrustations of an overly established Christianity have been broken open, the faith has spread – and been spread – dramatically into new geographic and demographic areas.” New churches are being started, and the leaders of many of these new churches are ministering to demographics that have been shunned by the established churches.
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