More conservative, not less

It is half-time and the losing fans are making for the door

Note: This week I spoke with the mission organization Reliant in a virtual staff meeting. The following is a part of what we talked about regarding trends.

A piece caught my attention this past week that I think has ramifications for Evangelicals (and thus, missions). The Washinton Post ran an article with the title, ‘A step back in time': America's Catholic Church sees an immense shift toward the old ways. How did it change? Here are a few select items mentioned in the article:

• Contemporary hymns are being replaced by music rooted in medieval Europe.

• Sermons are focusing more on sin and confession.

• At the parish elementary school, students are hearing about abortion and hell.

The author goes on to write about the tide going out on Vatican II liberalizations from the 1960s. This change was “molded by plummeting church attendance, increasingly traditional priests and growing numbers of young Catholics searching for more orthodoxy.”

I believe similar changes are underway in Evangelicalism. There are signs all around us if we look for them.

The vote on LGBTQ+ issues in the United Methodist Church last week was not a bold, new move, but a recognition that the conservatives have already left the building. The die on this was cast as close to 10,000 churches left to join the more conservative Global Methodist Church. The result of this is that those Methodists who would be largely called Evangelical have “purified” themselves in a smaller denomination, led by more conservative leaders, in search of more orthodoxy. These are the churches most likely to be engaged in global missions, by the way.

This study shows that young women are leaving the church in unprecedented numbers. The study analysis states that “Sixty-one percent of Gen Z women identify as feminist,” are more liberal, embrace the movement of gender dysphoria, and are pro-choice. These are all positions with huge ramifications for church participation (this has some asking if the future church will be more male than it is now). These are the people who are leaving.

Imagine you are having a Superbowl party. As the Vikings dominate their opponent in the first half, (hey, I did say “imagine”, didn’t I) the opposing team’s followers, disheartened, leave for home at half time. What do you have a left? A smaller and more intensely focused group of Vikings fans. This is what is happening in the church right now. The more conservative constituency is staying, while the less conservative people are leaving.

Because the missions movement lives downstream from the church, we can expect a more conservative cohort of recruits coming through our doors in the years ahead. I think we are probably at the beginning of this trend and not the end of it. It is also happening institutionally. I am seeing more organizations emphasizing doctrine, orthodoxy, and traditional preaching in how they attract and screen new candidates.

Ministry leaders feel a rising need to define the boundaries of theology in ways they have not had to consider until now. Is Andy Stanley in, or out? How far will we go recognizing differences between men and women (both in terms of their nature, but also in terms of roles)? Do we have a policy on pornography and what do we do to leaders caught accessing it? Where do we stand on critical theory? Do we ask about any of these issues in our hiring process? These are issues that ministries, from churches to missions agencies, feel forced to address. Legal counsel is also telling them that in order to protect their religious rights, they need to have policies on these issues in place before they are challenged.

Evangelical demise in other Western nations has been more of a “slow burn.” In the US, the rapid rate at which change is happening has, I believe, shaken us from a deep sleep. “Institutional capture,” in which the founding ideals of institutions are tossed overboard in light of current cultural values, has been in the news a lot lately. Many of the institutions on your news feed, showing raging protesters for Hamas, were founded with Christian ideals. Ministry leaders know this. On a call a few weeks ago with another ministry leader, he said to me that this sort of institutional capture will not be happening, “on my watch.” One way to counteract it is by institutionalizing the original, founding purposes. These tend to be conservative purposes.

The current quest for understanding who we are and how we fit into the larger scheme of culture and redemptive history is a vibrant discussion within Evangelicalism right now. There are strong positions being taken on many different sides from competing perspectives. There has never been a time in my life when I can remember so many authors writing about the role of the church in the larger culture than right now (I cut my teeth on Francis Schaeffer, so that is saying something). This, too, is a part of the winnowing process underway right now.

As that room of football fans shrinks, the results may be counter intuitive. Their commitment to orthodoxy will be strong and they will also have learned to navigate what it means to be a minority in a larger, hostile culture. Many will know what it means to be shunned by family, fired for their spiritual commitments, and debanked for their affiliations. Those who stick through this might be better suited for cross-cultural ministry. As the editor of First Things said to me on a phone call a few months ago, “Evangelicals need to learn how to thrive without feeling this need to be in control of the culture.” Amen to that.

It is going to hurt, but it might lead to a healthier, more resilient church and missions movement in the long run.

[image: Microsoft Co-pilot using the prompt “a small white church on a hill in a dystopian city]