A What? (Part 3)

Okay, so now we look at neopuritanism as I use it. Right now the current buzzword for our generation is the "emergent" church. D.A. Carson is one of the biggest proponents of this term right now. Some characteristics of this movement (of which we are apparently a part) are:

- Missional toward compromise
- Community toward moralism
- Image away from Word
- Ancient away from Authority

Confused? Me too. I think the point is that we all like hymns and we're antsy to make a difference without using the standard tools in light of post-modernism. I'm not sure. But you can read more about it in the latest byFaith (the PCA mag). This issue also has a story on our beloved Jean Larroux (he's even on the cover). If you go to a PCA church, you can easily pick up a copy.

That was a side note for the purpose of contrast. I'm not sure how much I agree with the generalizations I've read regarding the emergent church. I've read some things I really agree with, particularly the "ancient away from authority" label. Right now, though, I'm finding Puritanism to be more adequate. I think Kapic and Gleason basically set forth five doctrinal characteristics and two historical. The five doctrinal being:

- Spirituality
- Communion with God
- Reliance on the Bible
- Emphasis on grace and depravity
- Necessity of the Holy Spirit

And the two historical being:

- Sacramental anxiety
- Revival

The five doctrinal I take at face value. The two historical I adapt for my personal use (this is where the "neo" comes in). I'm big on revival and revolution. I feel like it's about time for another Reformation to come along - it's been about 500 years. Europe is in a state of disarray and America will soon follow unless something big happens. Don't believe me? Here is a statistic of the day from Operation World: In Germany, 70% of the people claim to be Christian, yet only 45% believe in a personal God, and a mere 8% worship regularly! Eight percent of over 82 million people! Or you can talk to my sister about Ireland (she would love to). World Harvest does a lot with Europe - check them out at www.whm.org.

As for the sacramental anxiety, I appreciate the spirit of the critique. John Bunyan, writing from prison in the midst of a prayer controversy, said that there could be a thousand Books of Common Prayer, but without the Spirit they would be worthless. However, I think we have different problems today. Restricted to our generation in America, I feel like:

- Many reformed youth/young adults lack passion in worship and the drive/resources to make any noticeable social change. This is despite the fact that they (we) have the theology to support social change and passionate worship.
- Other evangelicals have lots of passion but flimsy theology. You can yell and scream for Jesus all you want, but when someone comes to you with cancer, what do you say?
- Roman Catholic youth pretty much evaporate into agnosticism or post-modern pluralism by the time they are in later high school or college. I can count on one hand the number of devout Catholic youth I know - and almost all of them are charismatic.
- Eastern Orthodox youth are pretty cool, but where are they? I know a few very intelligent, very thoughtful Eastern Orthodox folks, but they are certainly a soft-spoken, practically invisible bunch. So much so that I can hardly critique them (this is probably a regional problem that requires more research).
- As funny and blatantly obvious as this sounds, "Christianity is the new Judaism" in the sense that ethnic Christianity is now extremely prevalent. I can't even fathom the number of times I've heard someone say, "I guess I'm a Christian (I was raised Christian), but now I pretty much believe whatever, you know? I mean, whatever you believe is cool. It's all the same, really."

Yeah, the English Protestants went nuts and killed people over doctrine, which is ridiculous (Christian charity and unity, anyone?). But at least they DID something. We can't sit idly by and watch humanitarian efforts trump Christian service and let muddy theology and a lack of passion sap the life from American Christianity.

I haven't even touched on the serious moral epidemics of American evangelical Christianity, or my favorite term used by Christian Smith (the sociologist, not the worship leader) to describe the majority religion among American youth: moralistic therapeutic deism. For more on those subjects, google Christian Smith or "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience."

More later. Sorry for the length; it's a soapbox.

Peace,
Sam