ken wilson online

Robert Putnam is the most careful purveyor of survey data alive.  He understands religion in America as few others do, and with great appreciation for its benefits.  So when he speaks, we’re smart to listen.  And this is what he’s telling us: evangelicalism in America grew robustly in th 1970’s and 1980’s (when my church community, Vineyard, was founded.) But by 1990 it hit a wall, and since then has been in numerical decline.
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I’ve owed you this post for a while.  Yes, I have a pebble in my shoe over the current state of the American evangelical movement of which my tribe, the Vineyard, is a part.   Yes, I think Phariseeism is alive and well in evangelicalism.  I’d call my own out if I saw it, but others are free to do so in the comments section.  And yes,  I’m bored by Christians who call out the sins of the world like it’s a worthwhile hobby.  Or like it’s news.  Been there, done that.  Spent fifteen years of my life in that mode, and I guess I got it off my chest.  I can imagine being wearied by this–hearing this, reading this– just as I am wearied, but not so much to stop.  So the first of a two-parter: evangelicals at our best (to be followed by evangelicals at our worst.)

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