surviving on borrowed capital

"What are we to do? In 1974, we Evangelicals were not ready to step into the vacuum and lead our culture to higher ground. And because the 1960’s revolution had not been around long enough to do its damage, the culture was still living on the borrowed capital of a Christian worldview and could not sense the urgency to return to the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Today, we stand at a crossroad in the American Evangelical church. Since the mid 1800s, there has never been a greater window of opportunity for us to seize the moment and, by our lives and thought, to show our culture the way forward. Now is the time for us to stop being thirty years behind the times. Now is the time for us to gather our confidence and lead…"

- J. P. Moreland


Unfortunately, this is not the sentiment of the majority of established churches in America. Modernism is in its death throws, gasping for air, and the church sits vigilant praying for a swift recovery. We as a culture stand on the brink of the greatest paradigm shift since that of the enlightenment. Consequently, this also stands as our greatest opportunity within the last several hundred years to contextualize the gospel and to redefine the ecclesiological emphasis. Instead of seeing the impending postmodern shift as a threat to existing structures, we should work to identify latent potentialities within the emerging trends. Christianity is neither modern nor postmodern it is an expression of truth which is understood existentially through personal identification with Christ. Shrouded in most systems of thought are touch points or conceptual elements which can be redeemed for the purposes of communicating the gospel. Emerging thinkers have their own exclusive set of priorities associated with interpersonal and community relations. Example: Insights from a narrative are a more effective tool in communication than a simple exclamation of propositional truth. This is not bad, it's just different. The postmodern worldview is not the enemy. True, the emphasis on the subjectivity and relativity of truth pose unique challenges. However, the dogmatic assertion and unwavering commitment to the idea of the empirical and singularly objective nature of truth can do just as much to undermine the testimony of an authentic believer. God can not be fully explained or defined or proved through experimentation and deductive reasoning. There is, and necessarily must be an element of mystery present within any systematic or biblical theology. This is no accident. God is God, and the hidden things belong to Him. As we stand gazing out at the precipice that is before us, let us work together as a community to build a bridge of communication with the culture, engaging non believers in new ways, lighting imaginations with the fire of eternal truth.

"In Him we live and move and have our being as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'" -Acts 17:28

AMEN