EVANGELICAL LANDSCAPES - PART I

At the time of this publication in 2002, Stackhouse served as Professor of Theology and Culture at Regent College.

Stackhouse writes, "North American evangelism has been blessed with some superb artists (landscape painters): Timothy Smith, George Marsden, Mark Noll, Martin Marty, Donald Dayton - the list goes on. They have helped readers view evangelism in new ways" (p.9). 

"These essays are collected from my own sketch book" (p.10)

I found all the essays to be interesting. For our purposes today, I will only reflect on the first: "Perpetual Adolescence" (p.13). He begins:

"Contemporary popular culture has made a ritual out of adolescence". (p.14)

"It seems to be continuing in modern evangelical Christianity" (p.15)

The remainder of the essay is a critique of contemporary form of worship, celebrity-ism, materialism, health wealth and prosperity, the absence of denominational loyalty, materialism, shallow, superficial preaching and teaching that have kept American evangelism in a state of spiritual adolescence.

Stackhouse concludes: "Adolescents typically have trouble with responsibility". In all this, there is the horrible weightlessness of cheap grace." (p.19)

Questions:

1. Who are, in your opinion, the new voices calling American Evangelicals to maturity? (biblical fidelity, discipline, stewardship, justice, etc.)
2. What can we do as pastors and lay leaders to move the church we love toward spiritual maturity?

(in a future post I will comment on Chapter 2 of this book)