The Next Evangelicalism

by Stephanie Green '09
Issue 15 | Winter 2008-2009

The week of October 6 celebrated Bethel University’s sixth year of events recognizing and celebrating reconciliation. This year’s Reconciliation Week was themed “We Are Reconcilers.” The beginning of the chapel service on October 8 recounted the racial incidents that occurred during the 2002-03 school year and then highlighted the progressive antiracism and reconciliation steps taken to motivate Bethel toward being a unified body of Christ.

In his introduction to Reconciliation Chapel, Associate Director of Admissions and Community Relations Choua Vang welcomed guest speaker Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah as “a modern-day prophet who grapples with God.”

Rah spoke to the community on the topic of “The Next Evangelicalism,” focusing on the account in Acts 15 in which the church experiences a dynamic shift from Jew to Gentile-centered faith. Rah began his address with familiar statistics. In 2005, Rah said, 40 percent of Christians in the world were white, while 60 percent were non-white. By 2050, it is predicted that 20 percent of Christians will be white North Americans and Europeans, while 71 percent of Christians will be African, Asian, or Latino.

“The demographics of our world have changed dramatically,” said Rah, the Milton B. Engebretson assistant professor of church growth and evangelicalism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, Ill. “A reality in American society is that we are going to see a nation comprising no clear majority.”

The problem, he said, is that American evangelicals are “still caught up in 1950s Christianity,” though many of the nation’s evangelical churches are maintaining their membership or growing because of a rise in minority populations. “We are captured by Western white culture,” he added, referring to a recent article in Christianity Today that featured “overwhelmingly white” churches in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Rah left chapel attendees with two challenges: that Americans address a history of slavery and genocide as sin, and that they also recognize the changing world and engage in relationships with those different from themselves.

“The challenge I have for you,” said Rah, “is to be mentored by someone of a different race, because you’re here at Bethel to prepare for your whole lifetime, which will include a major shift toward a global, non-white church.”

Reconciliation Week events continued following the chapel service with the Reconciliation Fair and a Community Forum.