There’s been a lot of buzz about an article titled The Coming Evangelical Collapse. I don’t want to get into the why’s or how’s. What has caught my mind is the response to the following:
Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the “conversion” of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.
Many wonder why Lutherans aren’t included in the list of “beneficiaries” since we have many things in common that attracting Evangelicals. Some take the position that Lutherans aren’t up to the task. We can’t get our members to understand what we believe well enough to explain it; not to mention our internal squabbles. Others claim it’s our worship style that is the barrier.
My frustration starts with the talk of being “beneficiaries.” This talks sounds to me like “Evangelicals are going out of business, so we need to get our share of their old customers.” Once we improve our market share, we’ll improve our finances and poof we’ll once again have a thriving denomination. This is the kind of thinking that lead to the Evangelical collapse in the first place.
Further, while I am proudly Lutheran, I’m not called to share the Gospel of Lutheranism. I am called to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If that takes a person to a Reformed Church, back to their Catholic roots, or on to Eastern Orthodoxy, who am I to question God? Yes, I believe that the Lutheran confessions are the best exposition of the Christian faith, but I don’t believe you must be a Lutheran to have eternal life.
Look I beat myself up all the time because I shy aware from the conversation with my nominally Lutheran mother, my nominally Methodist father, my nominally Christian mother-in-law, my Buddhist father-in-law, my lost brother-in-law, my atheist leaning cousins, etc. etc. I’m bad at “sharing my faith.” Yes, I’m inwardly focused because I want to guard against exposing myself and family to false teachings. You can blame me for the dwindling numbers in my church and my denomination. But any attempt to be “beneficiaries” and get “our share” of converts is fundamentally misguided.
Comments on this entry are closed.