One of the downsides of spending significant time working as a missionary is that you can feel as thought you don’t really fit in anywhere; especially in Church.
A lot of this can be attributed to a sort of reverse culture shock. Exposure to other languages, cultures and ways of doing things can make church at home seem rather dull. Being honest, this is more a problem with the returning missionary, rather than with the church. However, it is also true that exposure to the way that Christians live out their faith in other contexts does not always place the western church in a flattering light.
The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity by Soong-Chan Rah, expresses some of the frustrations that I have sometimes felt about church in the UK in a gracious, if forthright manner. Rah is a first generation Korean immigrant to the US, who pastors a growing mulit-national church. In nine chapters, he covers hot topics such as individualism, racism and learning from immigrant churches. It is not a comfortable read, but it is compelling for those of us who are part of the white, western Church. Though he writes from an American perspective, his insights are equally relevant to the UK and Europe. Here are a few quotes to give you an idea of the sort of thing he is saying:
For most of its history (but particularly for the last fifty years), American evangelicalism has more accurately reflected the values, culture and ethos of Western, white American culture than the views of Scripture…
The danger of the Western, white captivity of the church is an excessive individualism and personalism that reflects the narcissism of American culture rather than the redemptive power of the gospel message…
Worship in the white captivity of the church is oftentimes a collection of individuals who happen to be in the same room…
As you can see, it’s hard hitting stuff, but before you dismiss what he is saying, get hold of the book and read the whole thing, not just my isolated quotes. It is hard to argue with the totality of what he says.
From these quotes, it might seem that this is a depressing or downbeat book, but that would be far from the truth. It is a book that is full of hope for the church and the glory of God in this world. However, it does pose the question as to whether the church in the west is in the right place to join in with what God is doing.
If you are in church leadership in Europe or N. America, you should give this book a read, with an open mind. It is far from comfortable, but it is a timely message for the world I live in.
11 replies on “Books I Have Read: The Next Evangelicalism”
RT @kouya: Books I Have Read: The Next Evangelicalism: One of the downsides of spending significant time working as a missio… http://t.co…
Nev McCormack liked this on Facebook.
Yes, but how can we ensure the next evangelicalism isn’t just a reflection of, say, Korean worldview, ethos etc.!?
The author says that all strands of the evangelical church need to be in dialogue, informing and learning from each other.
Just downloaded it Eddie so will let you know what we think. Thanks for the great book recommendations.
That observation excludes African American evangelicals
I would agree that the viewpoints of some Americans Evangelicals sometimes follow politics and culture away from Scripture. On the other hand, every genuine expression of faith is necessarily contextualized. The “new” evangelism cannot and should not escape that. I haven’t read the book, but articles on this topic (say on Red Letter Christians) appear quite naive, thinking that Christianity can and should exist as a sort of supra cultural religion. American Christianity will always be American, not some international norm.
I don’t think you would find the book naive, Ed. He argues strongly that American evangelicalism needs to be American, but that it needs to reflect the whole American population, not just the white elite.
In that case, I’ll put it on my to read list. He may be making a prediction rather than a prescription as US Evangelicals are going to get a LOT more culturally and ethnically diverse in the coming decades. After the end of numeric dominance, will come the end of theological and ideological dominance. Have you read Ed Stetzer on this topic?
I’ve not red Stetzer, but Rah’s point is that if numbers count for anything then ‘minorities’ would already be much more influential in the evangelical scene than they are at the moment. Some of his own experiences as a Korean American are very sad and rather humbling.
It will take time. Now I remember hearing of Rah’s experience. I come from a historic peace church, so I know a little what it’s like to be ridiculed by those holding the majority evangelical view.