We have been witnessing a number of important trends within evangelicalism. I’ve been trying to sort out in what I fondly call my mind what some of these trends might be, and how they might be connected to each other. The following basic analysis emerged.

1. New ways of doing church. This trend reacts against traditional passive/conformist approaches, and prefers authenticity to slick professionalism. Interested in developing ‘fresh expressions’ of church. It emphasises development of communities of faith, not just individual salvation. Many of the new ways of doing church are intended to facilitate…

2. Inclusion and diversity. This trend protests against denominationalism, judgmentalism, and ‘in versus out’ mentality. It is committed to eclecticism, and to ‘belonging’ before ‘believing’. This leads to a re-appraisal of..

3. Believing and behaving. This trend appeals to Jesus (“By their works you shall know them”) and James (“Faith without works is dead”) to assert the priority of orthopraxy (right behaviour) over orthodoxy (right thinking). This then informs our…

4. Christian mission in a post-Christian world. This trend seeks to reach people who have never had any contact with church, and who may be interested in ‘spirituality’ but not in ‘organised religion’. It focuses on understanding the cultures we seek to serve. It insists that the social gospel cannot be separated from the spiritual gospel. All of the above draws on the…

5. Influence of post-modern thinking. This trend distrusts verbal, propositional and certaintist explanations. It views knowledge as personal, provisional, and perspectival. It inclines towards pluralism and relativism. There have also been significant trends in…

6. New Testament scholarship. The ‘third quest for the historical Jesus’ questions the meaning of ‘Jesus is Lord’, ‘repentance’, ‘the kingdom of God’. ‘New perspectives on Paul’ question the meaning of ‘sin’, ‘justification by faith’ and other doctrines often considered to be ‘pillars’ of evangelical faith. It is not surprising, then, that questions are being asked about our inherited…

7. Theology. This trend distrusts precise definition and systematisation of knowledge. It sees unconditional love as the lens through which to understand biblical teaching, and (on ethical as well as scriptural grounds) questions penal substitution and some other doctrines thought to be incompatible with the love of God.

I’d like to spend some time on my new blog looking at the nature and implications of some of these trends. Are there some that should be promoted, others that should be opposed, and perhaps still others that might be merely tolerated? What’s going on? How can we discern God’s will for his church and his gospel today?