If Protestantism is True by Rose Devin

Author:Rose, Devin [Rose, Devin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
Publisher: Unitatis Books
Published: 2011-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

The Disintegration of Mainline Protestantism

On a weekday trip to the grocery store, I saw two bumper stickers for churches: the Powerhouse Church and the Cactus Cowboy Church. I have a friend who goes to a very hip, artsy Protestant church called Mosaic, which denies that it is a “church” in the standard sense. None of these churches fall under the usual categories, nor are they affiliated with a standard denomination. The mainline Protestant denominations are shrinking rapidly, and the coming collapse of Evangelicalism has been talked of as well,[52] so it is not surprising to see the rise of such “niche” churches. We are all looking for community, and these churches are offering community in varying ways that appeal to specific groups of people.

Ask a young adult who goes to a denominational church how he would describe himself and you will likely hear, “I am a Christian; I go to this church because they teach soundly from the Bible.” He would not label himself a “Baptist” or a “Methodist.” The fact that a person’s parents were a certain denomination doesn’t bind her nearly as strongly as it once did, when families formed communities that were often homogeneous religiously. Alister McGrath talks about this fading denominational loyalty within Protestantism: “Even as late as 1960, most Americans had serious misgivings about worshiping at Protestant denominations other than their own, feeling this compromised their religious identities. Their loyalty was primarily—and in many cases exclusively—to the specific beliefs, structure, and life of a particular denomination.”[53]

If what really matters is believing in Jesus and following Him, not where you go to church or how you label yourself religiously, then people will go to the church where they can both “be fed” and contribute their God-given gifts. A cowboy is going to love it at the Cowboy church where barbecues are fired up after every Sunday service and the elder rides a horse.

Not to be flippant, but just like I have my unique Starbucks coffee—a mint mocha latte, decaf, whip—I can now have my unique church, and the people there are like me, so that’s where I am going. If I don’t fit into the categories of Anglican or churches of Christ or Pentecostal, I can go instead to where I have found a community who relates to my personal journey with Jesus.

Because we are now used to having our preference in just about everything, and because our Western culture is driven so strongly by consumerism, it is easy to see how these same ideas get translated into a demand for church choice. Why should I go to a church that doesn’t “feed me” or that “I don’t get anything out of?” I don’t willingly subject myself to inconvenience and pain in other areas of my life, so why do it on Sundays? I want a church that fits my tastes, plays worship music I like, has people of the same age and demographic as me, and provides activities that I find meaningful. McGrath confirms this

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