Comments on: Recommendations and Review: The Next Evangelicalism by Soong-Chan Rah

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:43:52 +0000

The white western church has already collapsed, we just cannot admit it in our arrogance & faith in our money & social(church) institutions. Monk, I don’t think you & Soong-Chan Rah are predictors of the coming collapse as much as you’ve aknowledged it’s already happened. A polluted gospel driven by Invictus has filled churches with unregenerate people who have brought the world with them because a watered down gospel doesn’t want to offend sinners.
This book is an honest look at the wreckage that exists today, thank you.
But when do we simply preach the gospel & stop worrying about the result. We need to follow Jesus & encourage others to do the same. The gospel turned the world upside down. When we again spread the gospel the same will happen today.

By: iMonk

iMonk — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:32:31 +0000

My hope is that the church in the west will stop talking and start listening.

I look forward to meeting you on the panel at C-Stone in July.

I’ll be the fat white guy in the baseball cap

By: Soong-Chan Rah

Soong-Chan Rah — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:07:40 +0000

The changes in American Christianity are reflective of the larger changes in Global Christianity. These are actually very exciting times for the church. While we in the West lament the loss of the cultural dominance we once held, the work of God continues on.

By: cey

cey — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:51:13 +0000

Are we going to fight the culture war or are we going to do what Christ has called us, as the Church to do?

Yes, the walls of our comfort zones are crumbling, but if we have the long view in sight it is a good thing. Remember what happened to the Church after Stephen was stoned to death? Their comfort zone was utterly shattered. But check out the way that they prayed in Acts. They didn’t ask God to make life comfortable, but to give them boldness to do what needed to be done.

The Church grew and spread cross-culturally. Is that not what we want?

Keep up the good work. Thank you for writing this book.

By: Soong-Chan Rah

Soong-Chan Rah — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:20:06 +0000

Thanks for the review. I appreciate that you were able to discern that while I am critical, ultimately, my goal is to see a stronger and healthier church. I would hope that folks would understand that we don’t move out of our comfort zones unless we encounter voices from outside of the mainstream or the usual voices that we hear in American evangelicalism –hence the emphasis on the stories of the black church and immigrant churches (communities that are often left out of the discussion about American Christianity). The goal is to not demonize one segment of Christianity while canonizing another. But to show that American Christianity is changing rapidly and that we need to hear from these disparate voices.

Sue’s comments above are quite disturbing in that it projects a hostility that does not exist on my part. I’m really curious where she gets any inkling that I do not care if her white neighbor has a witness or comes to Christ. Is there any specific statement in the book that even hints at this? Her statements are inflammatory and not at all what I am writing about.

By: Sue

Sue — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:38:28 +0000

Got hear Soong-Chan Rah a couple of years ago on this subject; I had hoped he had developed more of an irenic spirit but your review doesn’t sound like it. I was quite put off – not because I believe in a white hegemony of Christianity and that other groups should sit down and listen to me, but because it seemed to me that he didn’t care if my white neighbors had a witness or if they ever came to Christ. A hegemony of non-white Christians isn’t automatically better, either. Is his book blunt, or just rude and angry?

By: Pastor M

Pastor M — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:04:50 +0000

There certianly does seem to be the assumption among white evangelicals that that is the way, perhaps the only way, to see things. If Pat Buchanan were an evangelical, he’d be livid at Dr. Rah’s analysis and comments, as he seems to me to be the Catholic counterpart to this kind of thinking, if we can call it thinking.

By: James the Mad

James the Mad — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:54:07 +0000

Thank you for your recommendations. I will be going out of town for a few weeks soon, and two of the books I’ll be taking with me will be ones you have suggested.
Not sure if that will keep me out of trouble or prepare me to get into more, but either way it’s good.

By: iMonk

iMonk — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:13:00 +0000

I made it clear that I was not predicting a total collapse of evangelicalism. I’ve repeated that dozens of times in posts and interviews. I never said specifically whom would collapse. I said there would be good evangelical churches now and in the future. I never said, for example, the SBC would collapse. I said that the collapse would be among the kind of evangelicalism that had been dominant in the post WWII era. among some of those using the megachurch model and among those who fail to pass on the faith to the next generation.

I haven’t changed anything. But I appreciate your correction.

By: bob3

bob3 — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:56:38 +0000

“I stand by my prediction of a Great Evangelical Collapse, but that collapse will be among that segment of evangelicalism that continues to assume its cultural dominance is God-given and the new environment of diversity and new immigrant/third world church influence is not significant.”

Thi is not what we read in January’s posts that brought all the notoriety. Assumption of “cultural dominance” that is God-given is extremely vague.

You mentioned the SBC and emerging churches, mainline Protestant world, and others as the ones who were sinking.

It appears the seven day forecast has changed.