Not out of a voyeuristic urge but out of concern for the church in general, and, in particular, for those churches with which I am involved, I took time this morning to read the report of the difficulties being faced at Bethlehem in Minneapolis. (The church where John Piper was the longtime lead pastor.) I fear and think that their issues are shared broadly among Evangelical churches.
If you are a subscriber to CT you can find a report here. If you are not a subscriber I would imagine a web search will reveal other articles.
The CT article pointed me to two other articles that attempt to classify the fault lines along which Evangelicals are dividing. One by Kevin DeYoung categorizes four responses to current social conditions. The article includes two charts that describe how those who from contrite to courageous tend to respond to various issues that present themselves in our world today. The other by Michael Graham, looks at six factions within Evangelicalism and then goes on to predict what the author sees as the way churches will be sorted. He sees three kinds of churches emerging.
As I read the article about Bethlehem and the other two articles I linked, I saw a probably over-simplified tension between orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Not that middle of the road is always best, but clearly in this case we need to work hard to both believe right and to behave correctly.
It's tough.
