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    Nathan Martin

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    Last Call: Where Have All the Evangelicals Gone?
    Monday, January 4, 2010, 12:56 PM

    “… I met so many Christians who felt guilty of doubting, as if doubt was the opposite of faith, and that’s not true. The opposite of faith is unbelief. Doubt is a halfway stage, it’s being of two minds, you half believe and you half don’t believe. Like a spinning coin, it’s going come down one way or the other. Doubt is either going to be resolved and go back to faith or be left unresolved and move on to unbelief.” -Os Guinness

    “…always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth”- 2nd Timothy 3:7

    “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”- Ephesians 4:14-15

    [Read Part One]

    [Read Part Two]

    It’s supposed to mean something when the clock strikes twelve on the last turn of the calendar.

    Place your birthday, alongside Val Kilmer, on December 31st and it’s easy to learn from a young age the incredible melodramatic flatness that accompanies the human means of celebrating change. Sitting here this bitingly cold Monday morning, I’m trying to remember a year where the addition of one more candle on the cake, or the chiming of a fresh calendar cycle, actually ignited some significant chord within my reflections.

    A birthday for me, a birthday for humanity. You’re a year older. The world still exists. Can you feel the enthusiasm?

    We want one day to mean something. We want a defining moment where everything gets turned around and, in a Damascus-bright moment, the moment of truth hits us and we are converted to a new and higher way. Some people get that in a particularly dramatic conversion story, or a tender nuptial— yes, there was a wedding in my weekend  — but the majority of days proceed just like the one before, and we are left feeling despondent that we don’t feel like we should in this specific moment.

    We want articles that we read and the speakers we hear, to do the same thing as the start of a new year, but true change rarely comes with the perfect rhetorical pronouncement or carefully typed paragraph. This final part of the conversation with Guinness isn’t meant to be some sort of capstone to a revolutionary new vision of purpose and action, but rather a moment to stop, evaluate beliefs and ask,  “Where do we go from here?”

    Hopefully, in the vein of the two verses at the beginning, it’ll be to a place of greater Christ-centered reflection, directed towards the purpose of growth and action

    Gay Marriage, Abortion,  and the future of the church after the jump

    (more…)


    2: Where Have All the Evangelicals Gone?
    Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 8:00 AM

    “…a steadily rising equivalent of the European repudiation of religion climaxing in the new atheist. We have created the monster we dislike, and it’s our fault.” -Os Guinness

    [Read: Part One]

    My father told me I shouldn’t play poker.

    Don’t worry, a striving towards some form of higher morality wasn’t at the heart of this command.  Card games weren’t the devil’s playthings or anything in my family, my dad just didn’t want to see me lose consistently. It’s a hard thing to bluff and hold your cards until its time to triumphantly reveal them– patience isn’t always one of my virtues– and when you’ve got a face that fluctuates faster than the colors on a thirteen year old girl’s mood ring, poker may not be the wisest game of choice.

    Clumsy intro, I know, but as the comments have started piling up on the first part of this conversation with Guinnesss, it’s been hard for me to not just flip the rest of the text of the interview and put everything out on the table for you to read. Consider this a poorly handled slow play.

    Before moving to the new part of the interview, one note on the definition of Evangelicalism that has sparked much of the debate. When you’re trying to understand what Guinness believes about Evangelicalism, I’d encourage you to follow the advice of Rev. Mike and “go re-read the Evangelical Manifesto.”

    Guinness tackles new atheism, the emergent church and the greatest theological problem facing the church in this section. Read, think and keep up the lively discussion.

    (more…)


    Where Have All the Evangelicals Gone?
    Monday, December 28, 2009, 3:18 PM

    “..for instance in England, there was a vogue for the term, “post-Evangelical.” That’s absolutely ludicrous. If someone is an ex-Evangelical, in other words, they once were an Evangelical, but no longer are, then terrific. At least they’re honest enough to say so, I mean that’s sad, but they’re honest. To be post-Evangelical says nothing. What are they, positively? Are they liberal Christians, catholic Christians, orthodox Christians, neo-Orthodox, what are they? Post-Evangelical just says what they were, it says nothing about they are. All the post-y terms are useless…

    “The way I defined (Evangelicalism), it’d be foolish to be past it, you should be back to it. There was a time when Billy Graham came back from the Soviet Union, and the liberal churchmen from the council of churches said that Billy Graham had, “set the clock back 50 years for the church,” and Billy answered, “I wish I had set the church back 2,000 years.” In other words, Evangelicals should always be going back as a close a system as we can, to Jesus.”

    -Os Guinness

    ____________________________

    When Os Guinness speaks, you don’t want to miss a single word.

    Some people clamor for your ear, trying to insert themselves into the forefront of cultural and political discussions but with Guinness, there is none of that hurried move to the “hook.”  There is a sense of urgency and importance to each gently-accented thought coming from the 68-year old social critic that demands your careful attention. With a thoughtfully nuanced perspective, rooted deeply in the truths of Christianity and a life well-lived, Guinness  has helped to provide a center to the solar system of Christian intellectual and cultural discussion.

    This foundational member of the Evangelical Manifesto was gracious enough to talk about what it truly means to be an Evangelical, the future of the church, and why styling oneself a “post-evangelical” is “absolutely ludicrous.”

    (more…)


    You Shouldn’t Have Been Born, Caleb Jones
    Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 12:37 PM

    What happens when you’re told that you were a mistake, that you shouldn’t have been born, and that your parents were selfish to allow you into this world?

    One of my dear friends, Caleb Jones, has been forced to face that question head on in the last few days and weeks. His thoughts on struggling with Cystic Fibrosis made me stop. I’ve known Caleb for the last few years, we’ve roomed together, played soccer together, and (in the tradition of southern-born men) shot guns together. Despite facing some unique challenges, Caleb lives life with an intense fervor and zeal that is inspiring.

    And he never complains.

    Please lend Caleb your eyes for a few minutes, I promise it’ll be worth it.

    (more…)


    Sensitive Christians and Christmas
    Monday, December 14, 2009, 8:39 AM

    It’s the lovely time of year where people of all faiths, denominations and economic status levels do their absolute best to reduce the Yuletide season down to the most innocuous, commercially viable standard of celebration. These actions are, in turn,  responded to by loud proclamations over the destruction of the “real meaning of Christmas,” mailing list protests, and why your VISA should be put to use in a way that will glorify Jesus better.

    No, I promise I’m not going to trot out that tired “paint by numbers” critique on commercialism and Christmas kitsch.

    The New Yorker offers a slightly humorous take on how Christians can be a bit more sensitive this holiday season, although apparently a “Happy Interfaith Holiday Season” means only trying to pander to your Menorah-lighting friends

    (more…)


    The Death of Friendship
    Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 5:35 AM

    I swear, this isn’t one of those one and done type outings.

    After my introduction to the kind and vocal members of Evangel, I had all the best intentions of becoming an active and regular voice on this site. I went home to Mississippi for Thanksgiving, did a little reading, a small amount of thinking, and came back to the District with a legal pad full of scratched out thoughts. But then cold weather and long conversations — one with Os Guinness that should eventually appear on this site — managed to eat away at all my good intentions.

    Oh, and then I’m just slightly intimidated by the words and minds of my fellow writers.

    (more…)


    Not Dead Yet
    Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 1:36 PM

    This is the introduction I didn’t want to write.

    Over the last few years, I’ve watched Patrol Magazine grow. I’ve written on and off for the site—served as the head editor for a short stint—and I’ve been amazed and excited to see its growth. I’ve always wanted nothing but the best for Patrol. The site possesses the potential to foster important and meaningful dialogue, and I’ve loved being part of it.

    Certain editorial decisions over the last few months at Patrol have left me a little worried over the focus of the site. I’ve always answered critics with the argument that Patrol does not have a specific agenda; it’s merely a forum for a wide range of opinions and discussions. Up until Tuesday, I believed that.

    There was an editorial published last week, “Get Over It,” pushing for the acceptance of the notion that modern evangelicalism had failed as a movement and should be discarded. With broad and flamboyant strokes, this column brought scathing accusations against evangelical churches, charges that, if taken to their logical conclusions, have tremendous implications on the presentation of the gospel and the definition of Christianity.

    This was more than an attack on a failing business model (like the case of CCM Magazine); this was an attack on traditional evangelical faith. Patrol Magazine describes itself as “post-evangelical”—that’s not me.

    I’m a joyful evangelical who attends a church that holds to the validity of Scripture, the reality of sin, humanity’s need for salvation and the centrality of the cross in saving people.

    I wanted to respond to Patrol’s editorial, but, through a complicated series of events, I learned that there would be no place on the site for a public expression of internal disagreement.

    And so, I won’t be writing for Patrol. With growth, things change, and sometimes you can’t support that change. It hurts.

    With change for Patrol comes change for me, and I’ll be joining the writers of Evangel.

    So take this as a greeting, and here are my thoughts on why evangelicalism is, “Not Dead Yet.”

    ***

    Listen carefully, but the bell is not yet tolling for true evangelicalism.

    Sounding the death of a cultural institution is a high achievement for writers and a publication seeking to understand and analyze the times. Whether documenting the rise of the tea party or the death of 8-track tapes there is a rush to be the first to lay a pen to paper, or a key stroke to a glowing screen, and accurately detail the problems leading to the ascent or collapse of cultural mainstays.

    (more…)