Continuing with the previous conversation on Michael Spencer’s article on The Coming Evangelical Collapse, I will share some of my observations. Refer to the previous post for links to the article.

Michael makes 7 points as to why he believes the collapse is inevitable – read those here and come back for my take – go ahead – I’ll wait.

1) The love affair that evangelicals have had with a one party affiliation is over. Jesus resisted the politicization of the good news of the Kingdom why do we think that we know better than him. This previous election proved that the shrill message of the Religious Right did not resonate well with the rank and file. The limited issues that have been part of the platform of the Right ignore the tsunami of compassionate social and justice issues that younger evangelicals are swept up in to.

2) Barna’s current research shows that 1/2 of 1% of born-again Christians between the ages of 18-23 have a Biblical worldview. That means 99% of our churched young adults DO NOT possess a Biblical worldview. Our young people have not embraced the faith no matter how much money we throw at youth ministry. We need a massive wake up call in this area to make sure that we are really making Christ followers of our young people, not just giving them hype!

3) There is a reformation coming to the Western church. Reggie McNeal makes a brilliant case for this in his current work, Missional Renaissance. There are some megachurches that will thrive in the future but they must be missionally and incarnationally focused.

4) Christian education has not done its job in producing people that are growing in Christ-likeness. Christian education must move from a Hellenistic model of merely transmitting information to a Hebraic understanding of focusing on obedience to the teachings of Christ, not just mere knowledge. Willow Creek’s Reveal study proved that – ’nuff said!

5) People are not going to continue giving to massive building programs that are monuments to man and fat paychecks for the professional clergy. People will give to initiatives that are community focused and transformative. Here the church must morph from an inward focus to an outward missional impulse.

6) Yep, the southeast won’t be the Bible belt for much longer. Post modernism and secularism is here to stay and we must learn to contextualize and incarnate the Message in this environment.

7) Again, the shift in finances will move away from the consumeristic demands of the Baby Boomers to the altruistic vibe of the emerging generations. I don’t see a problem with that.

This collapse to me is not terrible news. Tomorrow I’ll share why I don’t think this is all bad news. Share your comments.