Soong-Chan Rah - The Next Evangelicalism

“ The NEXT Evangelicalism” Soong-Chan Rah Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism North Park Theological Seminary [email_address] www.profrah.com

The Changing Face of Christianity “ Typical” Christian from 1950?

The Changing Face of Christianity “ Typical” Christian in 2010?”

Western Christianity
“ Over the past five centuries or so, the story of Christianity has been inextricably bound up with that of Europe and . . . North America. Until recently, the overwhelming majority of Christians have lived in White nations, allowing theorists to speak of a . . . ‘European Christian’ civilization.”
The Next Christendom
Philip Jenkins

Shift in Global Christianity
“ Over the past century, however, the center of gravity in the Christian world has shifted inexorably southward to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. . . . Christianity should enjoy a worldwide boom in the new century, but the vast majority of believers will be neither white nor European, nor Euro-American.”
The Next Christendom
Philip Jenkins

Global Christianity
1900 statistics:
Africa 2%
Asia 4%
Europe 68%
Lat. Am. 11%
N. Am. 14%
Oceana 1%
“ White”: 83% “ Non-white”: 16% “ White”: 40% “ Non-white”: 60% “ White”: 29% “ Non-white”: 71% 2005 statistics: Africa 19% Asia 17% Europe 26% Lat. Am. 24% N. Am. 13% Oceana 1% 2050 statistics: Africa 29% Asia 20% Europe 16% Lat. Am. 22% N. Am. 12% Oceana 1%

Shift in American Evangelicalism
“ The passage of the Immigration Reform Act in 1965 increasingly looks like the most significant single event of that much-balleyhooed decade.”
“ [The U.S.’s] ethnic character will become less European and less White, with all that implies for religious and cultural patterns.”
Jenkins

U.S. Census Projections
2008: U.S. minority population about 33%
2023: U.S. children – 50% minorities
2042: U.S. minority population more than 50%

Christianity in America?
Michael Spencer in The Christian Science Monitor : “The Collapse of Evangelicalism”
Jon Meacham in Newsweek : “The End of Christian America”
PEW and ARIS reports

Denominational Trends
Large or Growing Denominations
Baptist 64% white
Pentecostal 58% white
Smaller or Declining Denominations
Lutheran 96% white
Congregational/UCC 89% white
Episcopalian/Anglican 89% white

Boston’s Quiet Revival
1970: 300 churches
Many of these churches no longer exist
Current estimate: over 600
Mostly in the ethnic, immigrant communities
Over half of those churches hold services in a language other than English

Boston’s Quiet Revival
2001-2006: 98 new churches were planted
76 churches reported the language of worship
50% of those churches worship in a language other than English
Many churches with significant non-white population but with services in English

American Christianity in the Twenty-First Century
19 th century Evangelicalism
The Great Reversal
Scopes Trial
Fundamentalist / Modernist controversy
Creation of a Christian sub-culture
White Flight (Christians to the suburbs)
Marginalized Christianity
Mainstreamed Christianity

Marginalized Christianity

Ark-itecture

Mainstreamed Christianity

Western/White Captivity of the Church
Individualism
Individual sin vs. Corporate sin
Personal faith/salvation vs. Corporate faith
Materialism / Consumerism
Reducing relationships to a market exchange
How do churches measure success?
Racism
Social construct of race
America’s original sin

Creation of “THE OTHER”
Orientalism by Edward Said
“ Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient – dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style of dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.”
“ European culture gained in strength and identity by setting itself off against the Orient as a sort of surrogate and even underground self”
Creation of “THE OTHER”
you are different from us / you are not like us
we will marginalize you

“ Lawmaker suggests Asian-descendant voters should adopt names "easier for Americans to deal with"
During public hearings on the voter identification legislation in the House, state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, suggested that Asian-Americans might want to adopt names that are " easier for Americans to deal with " when they want to vote so their names will match what is on registration rolls.
“ Do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"
Brown later tells Ko: "Can't you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that's easier for Americans to deal with ?"

Wax on, wax off, get your rickshaw ready Swervin', curvin', hold your rickshaw steady

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