Confessing Protestants have an uneasy and uncertain relationship with evangelicalism. For many of us, evangelical churches have been part of our past: who hasn't been baptized in a Southern Baptist church? Some of you reading this issue may still be working for reform within evangelical churches. Many others, however, have left evangelicalism looking for something […]
As the articles in this issue of Modern Reformation suggest, evangelicalism is experiencing a change in seasons: former evangelical statesmen are passing from the scene, new evangelicals don't seem to rally around the same issues and ideas as their forefathers, and it's increasingly difficult (if it was ever really possible) to identify clearly what an […]
Here is a story the American press completely missed: Rick Warren, the highly successful pastor of Saddleback Church and the author of the best-sellers, Purpose Driven Church (1995) and Purpose Driven Life (2002), ministers the Bible in ways at odds with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). Saddleback does not baptize infants. It does not have […]
During my initial ordination interview for postulants, I was foolish enough to tell the absolute truth about my beliefs. Without hesitation, I proclaimed my evangelical leanings and my primary assessor was not at all pleased. "A dying movement!" he snarled. With these words-or so I thought-my hopes for "Holy Orders" were destroyed along with ordination […]
Whenever I see Pastor Joel Osteen's church on television, my mind goes back to a beautiful spring day in Houston during my graduate studies at Rice University. The enormous building in which Lakewood Church now meets on the Southwest Freeway was once a basketball arena used for many purposes. That day, my wife and I […]
For reasons too complex (and tedious) to detail here, I have been thinking lately about the twin phenomena of evangelical homosexuality and egalitarianism. (1) For the uninitiated, these novel doctrines attempt to maintain the essentials of the Christian faith, such as salvation through Christ and biblical authority, while at the same time denying historic teachings […]
Smack dab in the middle of a February 1, 1993, front-page Washington Post story on the avalanche of calls to Congress opposing the admission of openly gay soldiers into the military, reporter Michael Weisskopf dismissed the groundswell: "Corporations pay public relations firms millions of dollars to contrive the kind of grass-roots response that [Jerry] Falwell […]
I hope that non-Reformed readers will indulge me in a consideration of the relationship of our tradition to the movement known today as American evangelicalism. After all, I think that much of what I have to say here will apply to other traditions. In Reformed and Presbyterian quarters today, as in other traditions, a range […]
Executive Editor Eric Landry spent several days dialoguing with Michael Spencer, a Southern Baptist campus minister and popular blogger (internetmonk.com and Jesus Shaped.wordpress.com) recognized by many evangelicals as an articulate spokesman for post-evangelicalism. In this issue, we're asking questions about the nature and future of evangelicalism. Here, Michael Spencer helps us understand why so many […]
As the articles in this issue of Modern Reformation suggest, evangelicalism is experiencing a change in seasons: former evangelical statesmen are passing from the scene, new evangelicals don't seem to rally around the same issues and ideas as their forefathers, and it's increasingly difficult (if it was ever really possible) to identify clearly what an […]
Dr. David Wells's new book, The Courage to Be Protestant, was written as a summary of his last four, though he says in the introduction that it took on a life of its own, needing updating, and prodding Wells to get to the heart of what he was about in the four books. I met […]
As the articles in this issue of Modern Reformation suggest, evangelicalism is experiencing a change in seasons: former evangelical statesmen are passing from the scene, new evangelicals don't seem to rally around the same issues and ideas as their forefathers, and it's increasingly difficult (if it was ever really possible) to identify clearly what an […]
