The Rise and Fall of American Evangelicalism
by Daniel Maasen
“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law you are not a doer of the law but a judge.”
~ James 4:11
What’s Going On?
I was raised in a home that would have considered itself American Evangelical and I came to faith early enough that I don’t have much memory of when I wasn’t a believer in Jesus. I was called into ministry in high school and have been in some sort of ministry leadership for the last 15 years. In that time, I’ve had the privilege to serve alongside some of the best and some of the worst hearts for ministry and for God’s people. I’ve seen people hurt deeply, lives restored wonderfully, and every state of the heart in between. Suicide, church splits, selfless sacrifice, and the paths that brought us to these places.
I go to work every day as a pastor in a local church every day alongside men and women who deeply love the Lord, are committed to following the way of Jesus to their best ability, and have a true heart to see the lost saved and the hurting healed. The kind of church I experience and see around me on the local level is nothing short of beautiful, humble, and effective — even through the most difficult and uncertain circumstances. On the other hand, through the years, I’ve noticed a shift in my culture’s posture towards this American Evangelical movement. Where once there was excitement, now lies skepticism. Countless stories of pastoral failure to serve and rather abuse what authority was given to them have cost the trust of many of my colleagues, friends, and family. The disconnect I feel between my personal experience and that of so many of those around me causes me to pause, listen, look around, and consider: what’s going on?
“Countless stories of pastoral failure to serve and rather abuse what authority was given to them have cost the trust of many of my colleagues, friends, and family.”
A Seed Planted
To better explain, I think it’s important to zoom out and look at the seeds that were planted to form the fruit we are now reaping. In 1975, a church by the name of Willow Creek planted a seed that captured the imaginations of churches across America. The idea was this: what if, rather than gear every weekend gathering towards strengthening those that believe and adhering to strict Biblical structure, we spent one of our services specifically engaging the lost in our community in a fresh, culturally-influenced way? The style would change, the message would pivot, and the whole focus of the hour-and-a-half would be towards getting that person (they were called “seekers”) to hear and accept the gospel.
There were immediate results. People got saved by the hundreds, and churches across the country asked themselves: if they can do that with one service, why can’t we do that with every service? If an hour-and-a-half is good on a Sunday morning, wouldn’t building the whole church around this concept be better? There couldn’t be a downside.
Fast forward. Widen the deviation.
A Seed Rooted
In 1990 Crossroads-Cincinnati went from 100 in attendance to 1,200 in 5 years. In 1996 Life Church, the largest church in America, was founded. In 2001 Chris Hodges started Church of the Highlands. Ravi Zacharias withdrew from membership and submission to church leadership to begin a ministry under his name. In 2006 Elevation church opened its doors. As I grew in understanding and communicated with other leaders in the church, we began to sense the danger. The “church experience” was shifting away from strictly biblical methodology towards something… different. The seeds that were being planted were that of likely good intent, but proclaimed unashamedly a message of “we know a better way. Our wisdom is good.”
So priorities changed. Motives shifted. To list them all would sidestep the intent of this article, but if you’ve been in the church for longer than 10 years, you can probably recognize what I’m talking about. These new seeds were hailed as good. “A new movement of the Spirit,” some said. And maybe it was. But in 2011 the Barna Institute released their poll.
A Seed Bearing Fruit
According to their research, 59% of those once associated with the church would “drop out” or otherwise walk away from their faith. A scary statistic, made worse by the follow-up survey 8 years later that revealed that the percentile had increased to 64%. What happened? What about the tens of thousands that were becoming saved in these mainline, mega-church settings? Not only that, but leaders in the church began to fall away. Be it moral failure or outright apostasy, the once larger-than-life leaders in the faith began dropping like flies. These failures occurred not in the bounds of close, relational discipleship, but in the public square. Suddenly, those hurt by the church and the toxicity that spewed from this leadership culture had an abundance of examples to point to to say, “ah-ha! The church is a joke after all! Their best, cream-of-the-crop leaders can’t even keep the ruse going anymore.” In 2021, Christianity Today released a popular podcast detailing the sequence of events and failures of leadership that brought the collapse of one of the biggest churches in America back in 2014. These were twelve episodes discussing, at length, the parallels between the failures in leadership that Mars Hill experienced, and the greater culture in American Evangelicalism. At the time of writing this article, the reviews on Apple Podcasts were approaching 10K, averaging 4.8 stars out of 5. Clearly, the podcast struck a chord in the hearts of many who, after reading dozens of the reviews, reveal that they have been deeply hurt by situations similar. I personally consumed every episode. It’s compelling.
Compelling as it was, I couldn’t square that circle between the apparent legitimate experiences of the masses and my own legitimate experiences of the solid, gospel-centered, love-focused leadership I’ve been surrounded by for most (if not all) of my ministry experience. This disconnect led me to believe that 1) it’s not simply doctrinally based (as some hypothesize), 2) it’s not demographically based (for the gospel is for all), 3) it’s not location based (Bible-belt churches fail as often as those in progressively leaning cities), and 4) it’s not church-size based (though the larger churches usually make the news more often). There’s a definite growing disdain for American Evangelicalism for seemingly very good reasons, yet… they don’t seem to fit my own experience.
Again, I’ve personally been on the ground-floor of churches closing due to mistakes by leadership. I’ve been a part of churches that split over leadership decisions, and I’ve been deeply hurt personally by toxic leadership in the church. So how is it that myself and so many other godly leaders in the church still love this thing so deeply, against all the evidence that it should be the contrary? My only conclusion is that there must be two churches.
Thrown Into the Fire
Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 3:10 that “Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” I may be American in that I grew up in this country. I may be Evangelical in that I believe that people come to a saving faith in Jesus primarily through the intentional, verbal sharing of the Gospel. But the schism between the Willow Creek and Mars Hill methodology of American Evangelicalism and the gospel-centered, Jesus-loving Christians that I am surrounded by every day has become so vast, that the same term can no longer apply to the two groups of believers. Maybe the answer to the confusion is that American Evangelicalism took a turn over three decades ago that didn’t cause enough of a distance at the time to warrant a change in terms. But like two highways that intersect and continue infinitely on their way, eventually the distance between American Evangelicalism and true, biblical church life has grown until they are in vastly different “states” today.
The sad truth is that no matter what the tradition, when you do life with people and put trust in a person, you run the risk of being hurt. No matter how hard I try, I still hurt the people I care about. People entrusted to me to shepherd in the church have been failed by me. I constantly think about the ways I could have handled situations better. Because even the best ministries are stewarded by faulty people, people will inevitably be wronged and altered in ways we wish they weren’t. There isn’t a system this side of eternity that isn’t that way. But there is an increasingly obvious difference between a biblical church and the systemic quasi-church culture that has proven to be so hurtful. One that had warning bells on it all along, and yes, is possibly even considered mainstream today.
I love the local church and all who would claim Christ and work tirelessly to see the gospel furthered, but for those of us who have held to biblical methodology over the last few decades, the time may be upon us to recognize and disassociate from the term “American Evangelicalism.” The words may be good, but the fruit came out rotten. If you are part of a church/pastoral staff team that has tirelessly held to the truth and method of the gospel, I hope you receive encouragement to continue on. If you’re a part of a church like I described that focuses more on the comfort/desires of you, the attendee, over the obvious truths and methods of Scripture, I would encourage you to find a local church that doesn’t feed your flesh or tickle your ear. You can get out, but get back in at a healthier place. You can still serve God faithfully in the local church and simultaneously disassociate from bad (Biblically shallow) leadership. You can’t live in obedience to God’s Word and not engage faithfully in the local church. The good news is, there are still good places around that you can confidently do that in. I’ve seen them. They’re everywhere. But they’re probably not on the news. They’re probably not the flashiest, but they’re probably closer than you think.
