Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity. IVP Books, 2009.
Referenced in: Theology of Mission, Localized Theologies
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Though not written specifically for this purpose, The Next Evangelicalism is a great companion volume to Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom. Jenkins looks at how global shifts have moved “Christendom” to Latin American and Eastern population centers. Rah considers how these demographic shifts will impact North America, particularly in creating a significant level of multi-ethnic diversity. He suggests that if we will allow, this cultural shift will also bring about a needed corrective.
Rah divides the book into three parts:
- Part One, The Western, White Cultural Captivity of the Church – Looks at individualism, the heartbeat; consumerism and materialism, the soul; and racism, the residue of western, white cultural captivity.
- Part Two: Pervasiveness of the Western, White Captivity of the Church – Exposes the way each of the characteristics mentioned in part one – individualism, consumerism, materialism, and racism – have expressed themselves in the church growth movement, megachurches, and the emergent church.
- Part Three: Freedom from the Western, White Captivity of the Church – Suggests how we may learn from three different groups: suffering and celebration from the African American and Native American communites; holistic evangelism from the immigrant church; and a multicultural worldview from second generation immigrants (children of immigrants either born in the U.S. or raised and educated in the U.S.).
Rah weaves scholarship, personal experience, and anecdotes from the lives of others to paint a very convicting picture of the church’s cultural captivity. This book is an eye-opener. I dare say no individual or group among the cultural majority is outside Rah’s rebuke and instruction. But he moves beyond this to suggest an exciting and vibrant revival that can occur if we heed the opportunities.
From the Publisher
The future is now. Philip Jenkins has chronicled how The Next Christendom has shifted away from the Western church toward the global South and East. Likewise, changing demographics mean that North American society will accelerate its diversity in terms of race, ethnicity and culture. But evangelicalism has long been held captive by its predominantly white cultural identity and history.
In this book professor and pastor Soong-Chan Rah calls the North American church to escape its captivity to Western cultural trappings and to embrace a new evangelicalism that is diverse and multiethnic. Rah brings keen analysis to the limitations of American Christianity and shows how captivity to Western individualism and materialism has played itself out in megachurches and emergent churches alike. Many white churches are in crisis and ill-equipped to minister to new cultural realities, but immigrant, ethnic and multiethnic churches are succeeding and flourishing.
This prophetic report casts a vision for a dynamic evangelicalism that fully embodies the cultural realities of the twenty-first century. Spiritual renewal is happening within the North American church, from corners and margins not always noticed by those in the center. Come, discover the vitality of the next evangelicalism.
About the Author
Soong-Chan Rah (D.Min., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is Milton B. Engebretson Assistant Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. Previously he was founding pastor of Cambridge Community Fellowship Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Rah has been a part of four different church-planting efforts, and served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Boston. He also serves on the boards of Sojourners and the Catalyst Leadership Center. He is a frequent conference speaker and contributed to Growing Healthy Asian American Churches (InterVarsity Press).
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