Evangelical Recession…Crash!!!



I was skimming through The Great Evangelical Recession: 6 Factors that will Crash the American
Church…and How to Prepare (Baker) by John S. Dickerson and I found things he had to say to be quite chilling.

Dickerson is far from a fear mongering “Chicken Little” crying out “The sky is falling;” rather, the guy has done his homework. Looking at various studies on the evangelical Christian church, picking out the common trends observed through those studies, Dickerson forecasts, In the next decade we will see a massive decease in evangelical influence politically, economically, culturally, and financially…

We are losing influence because we are shrinking.
     We are losing influence because the host culture is changing so much faster than we (or even it) can understand.
     We are losing influence because the United States population is booming faster than it was during the Baby Boom, and our movement is not keeping up with the growth.
     We are also losing influence because culture at large is realizing, formally or informally, that evangelicals are not as big or significant as we have claimed. Whether by percent of population, power of vote, or simple cultural influence, we are no longer as might as we once were (p. 25). 

There are solutions to this problem. Dickerson thinks so. I am unwilling to throw in the towel saying, Ichabod, i.e. the glory of the Lord has departed. Yet, the warning signs must be heeded. Many can sense the crash looming on the horizon, but it takes a bit more to take stock of the situation and rest the course.

WGN

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