Is The Sky Falling?

The following is the lead-in to an article entitled, "The Coming Evangelical Collapse," that appeared in the March 10, 2009 edition of The Christian Science Monitor. Just as background, the author, a guy named Michael Spencer (the "Internet Monk"), is a well-educated, orthodox Christian pastor and writer of one of the most widely read and highly respected religious blogsites in the world.

If this doesn't pique your interest in discipleship, I'm not sure what will. I would suggest going to read the article but if you don't have time, at least read this intro. My plan is to do a short series in response to this piece. It has been very thought-provoking for me. Here is a summary of Michael's prognostication. Check it out ...

"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."