Background
My faith background was as an Evangelical Protestant. I attended two Evangelical seminaries and got a Master of Theology degree and a Master of Divinity degree. I was an Evangelical church pastor for a few years. It didn't end well.
Good Things about being an Evangelical
One thing I am thankful about being an Evangelical is the love for the Bible that I got from Evangelicals. Many know chapter and verse and even if they don't, they can find something in the Bible that relates to any particular subject.
Evangelicals are so good at spreading the Gospel that they are all around. They've even penetrated Central and South America. Countries that were once Catholic are now around 1/3 Evangelicals. You can probably find a half dozen of them a short drive from where you live.
Evangelicals have all sorts of theological understandings of Scripture to suit any interpretation of the Bible.
Weaknesses in the Evangelical Approach
One problem is it leads to a "My Bible and Me" view of the faith. The church gets viewed almost an accessory to the faith. If you don't like your church, you can jump down the street to another church that suits you better.
There's no accepted and standard way of reading the Bible. This has resulted in a wide fragmentation of the Evangelical church into hundreds or more denominations.
No comments:
Post a Comment