Defections from evangelical churches and parachurch organizations continue apace. Where it used to be mainline churches hemorrhaging worshippers, as discouraged congregants went in search of a faithful gospel ministry, now it is evangelicals facing the numbers crunch. "Doom, Boom, and Gloom" is the name of a popular financial report, but it could just as easily suffice for a potted history of American evangelicalism.
This issue of Modern Reformation presents a series of "Exit Interviews" with those who have recently passed through the turnstile and weren't shy about informing us of their departure. Why are they leaving? Where are they going? You'll read firsthand what research and polling also confirms. Many leave-takers have stopped church shopping and are simply calling it quits. Some embrace another religion, or opt for their own make-shift spirituality. Others are turning to Roman Catholicism (Exit Stage West) or Eastern Orthodoxy (Exit Stage East). A few turn to some version of liberal Protestantism, but just as many leave for the so-called "New Atheism."
Subscribers beware: the lead interview with Editor-in-Chief Michael Horton and sociologist Christian Smith is no breezy read, but will force you to recognize the importance and remarkable relevance of the sixteenth-century Reformation for evangelical theology today. Sharpen your pencils and prepare to follow a top-shelf debate about ecumenism and mainline Lutheran capitulation to Roman Catholicism, for that in fact played a major role in Smith's recent exit from evangelicalism. The same caliber of discussion may be found in the review by Professor Bryan Estelle of Roman Catholic apologist Scott Hahn's recent book on biblical theology.
Theology should never be divorced from the real life drama of faith and repentance. Shane Rosenthal, producer of White Horse Inn, narrates his own conversion from nonpracticing Judaism to functional atheism, evangelicalism, and finally Reformation theology. However, not all conversion stories are very interesting, so Michael Horton reminds us that our own lives are ultimately bound up with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, more than our own sappy emotional soap operas. This is a deeply held conviction of Tullian
Tchividjian, who writes about his experience of trial and testing in pastoral ministry. He exhorts us that the gospel is for Christians too, even pastors, and is the only genuine power unto salvation. The best kind of theology refuses to simply turn inward, which is why regular contributor Leon Brown presents a short series on personal evangelism. He addresses three common objections that he hears in the public square. The reality of apologetics in action confronts all of us with the importance of knowing what we believe and why we believe it.
So read these interviews and press on to further biblical study and theological reflection. Explore with us the many reasons, the better reasons, to search out Reformation alternatives to generic evangelicalism instead of looking for the exit.
