An interesting quote by an evangelical pastor. I know I have loved learning the depth of the Church's history (and I still have so much more to learn) and that learning that depth, those traditions, etc, has really deepened my faith. It has also added to identification more as a Christian and less as an American.
I think the problem with a lot of the American church is there is little interest in learning history, of celebrating the cycle of Church life, and living out the faith on a daily basis. We're too often taken by fads and new ideas, and we mix nationalism with faith, when..as Christians we should be putting faith far ahead of country.
I have run into so many people who don't even know the names of the Reformers, much less what they wrote or said. And they certainly don't know why Justin the martyr was important, or how Augustine helped shape the Church. And by not knowing, they cheat themselves out of so much.
This is our family we're talking about...don't you want to know your family's history? Your family's heroes, thinkers, eccentrics and steadfast men in the breach? Your history helps you to understand who you are, which helps grounds you for the turbulence that may come.
-Beth Haynes Butler
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"“Evangelicalism is bankrupt, and by that, I don’t mean that it’s an evil thing,” Rev. Ed Gungor said.
“In a sense, evangelicalism is in Chapter 11. It’s not paying all the bills. ... No one wants to jettison the challenge of personal faith, but how can we reorganize to pay the bills?”
Gungor said a symptom of the problem is that evangelicals are orienting more and more to the secular culture. New Year’s Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July have become more important than Advent, Epiphany and Pentecost.
“In the end, we’re making people better Americans than Christians,” he said.
He said evangelical churches are more subject to secularism than liturgical churches because they are not connected to their historic core. American culture itself is ahistorical, he said, focused on the present and the future, and not the past.
“In some ways we have an Alzheimer’s church,” he said, a church that not only has forgotten its own past but also has lost its sense of identity."
I think the problem with a lot of the American church is there is little interest in learning history, of celebrating the cycle of Church life, and living out the faith on a daily basis. We're too often taken by fads and new ideas, and we mix nationalism with faith, when..as Christians we should be putting faith far ahead of country.
I have run into so many people who don't even know the names of the Reformers, much less what they wrote or said. And they certainly don't know why Justin the martyr was important, or how Augustine helped shape the Church. And by not knowing, they cheat themselves out of so much.
This is our family we're talking about...don't you want to know your family's history? Your family's heroes, thinkers, eccentrics and steadfast men in the breach? Your history helps you to understand who you are, which helps grounds you for the turbulence that may come.
-Beth Haynes Butler
******************************
"“Evangelicalism is bankrupt, and by that, I don’t mean that it’s an evil thing,” Rev. Ed Gungor said.
“In a sense, evangelicalism is in Chapter 11. It’s not paying all the bills. ... No one wants to jettison the challenge of personal faith, but how can we reorganize to pay the bills?”
Gungor said a symptom of the problem is that evangelicals are orienting more and more to the secular culture. New Year’s Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July have become more important than Advent, Epiphany and Pentecost.
“In the end, we’re making people better Americans than Christians,” he said.
He said evangelical churches are more subject to secularism than liturgical churches because they are not connected to their historic core. American culture itself is ahistorical, he said, focused on the present and the future, and not the past.
“In some ways we have an Alzheimer’s church,” he said, a church that not only has forgotten its own past but also has lost its sense of identity."
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