The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0385529848\")
<\/em><\/strong>, and it opens up with some sketches of the scene:<\/p>\nHis first idea forms the ground on which he builds: Christian America is fading<\/em>. He\u2019s right: the Christianity of my father and of Gabe\u2019s father, which once defined Christianity and shaped how to relate to culture itself, is over. Gabe sees it in the passing of Jerry Falwell, or at least sees Falwell\u2019s death as indicative of a major shift. The fundamentalist Christianized culture that Falwell fought for is all but gone, and here are three categories that are arising on the scrapped buildings of a former way of life:<\/p>\nPluralism<\/p>\n
Postmodernism<\/p>\n
Post-Christian<\/p>\n
But Gabe sees here not the death of the Church, nor does he appeal as so many do to some apocalyptic fears. Instead, there\u2019s good news here and there\u2019s a \u201charnessable wind\u201d that can fill our sails for a birth of what he calls the \u201cnext Christians.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nBut before he gets to the \u201cnext Christians,\u201d Gabe tells the story of being asked to sketch the kinds of Christians in America \u2013 and to do this Gabe chose to see it all through the lens of how we relate to culture. I like this for a simple reason: instead of grouping Christians by theology, or by denomination, Gabe groups them according to the sort of Christian life they embrace. I\u2019d be interested in what you think about his groups.<\/strong><\/p>\nThere are three groups:<\/p>\n
The Separatists<\/strong>.<\/p>\nIn this group are the insiders<\/em>, who live in a Christian bubble \u2013 schools, friends, churches, books, etc.<\/p>\nThere are also the culture warriors<\/em>, who are driven to bring America back to God and who fight their zealous battles in the public forum, and he uses the Ten Commandments rock in Alabama as a good example.<\/p>\nThere are the evangelizers<\/em>, who use every opportunity \u2013 not all of them good \u2013 to proselytize.<\/p>\nThe Culturals<\/strong>.<\/p>\nIn this group he speaks of blenders<\/em>, who are mostly brought up in the faith \u2013 he seems to have in mind traditional denominations \u2013 but who do all they can to make sure they fit into the culture and don\u2019t stand out as weirdos.<\/p>\nAnother group here are the philanthropists<\/em>, who obviously spend their time by giving themselves for those in need.<\/p>\nThe Restorers<\/strong>.<\/p>\nGabe\u2019s focus in this book is on the Restorers, whom he calls the Next Christians.<\/p>\n
First, they embrace the whole Story of the gospel \u2013 creation, fall, redemption and restoration (including consummation). Instead of the truncated gospel of fall and redemption, which focuses on getting out of earth and into heaven, the Restorers see their task on this earth to be kingdom restoration.<\/p>\n
Second, they don\u2019t accept how things are. They are driven by a kingdom vision, by how things ought to be<\/em>. He tells a good story here about \u201cCat,\u201d who saw the possibility of what prisoners could be. (He tells her full story.)<\/p>\nIn our next post sometime next week we will begin to sketch the six characteristics of the Next Chrisitians.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gabe Lyons represents \u2013 indeed leads \u2013 a rising generation of Christians who not only think changes need to occur but are making those changes in a constructive manner. Gabe, with David Kinnaman, burst on the book scene with their bestselling UnChristian. In the hallways of a conference I met Gabe once and hoped we could stay connected.<\/p>\n
But it was not until last Spring\u2019s Q Conference that I had another conversation with him \u2013 well, excepting a phone conversation or two.<\/p>\n
Just prior to the Q Conference Gabe informed me he was writing a new book about a rising generation of Christians and he asked me if I\u2019d read it \u2026 which I did, which I liked immensely, and which is now the subject of a new series on the Jesus Creed blog.<\/p>\n
The book is called The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America, and it opens up with some sketches of the scene:<\/p>\n
His first idea forms the ground on which he builds: Christian America is fading. He\u2019s right: the Christianity of my father and of Gabe\u2019s father, which once defined Christianity and shaped how to relate to culture itself, is over. Gabe sees it in the passing of Jerry Falwell, or at least sees Falwell\u2019s death as indicative of a major shift. The fundamentalist Christianized culture that Falwell fought for is all but gone, and here are three categories that are arising on the scrapped buildings of a former way of life:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[484],"tags":[2182,2183],"class_list":["post-8800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","tag-gabe-lyons","tag-next-christians"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Next Christians 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gabe Lyons represents \u2013 indeed leads \u2013 a rising generation of Christians who not only think changes need to occur but are making those changes in a constructive manner. Gabe, with David Kinnaman, burst on the book scene with their bestselling UnChristian. In the hallways of a conference I met Gabe once and hoped we could stay connected. But it was not until last Spring\u2019s Q Conference that I had another conversation with him \u2013 well, excepting a phone conversation or two. Just prior to the Q Conference Gabe informed me he was writing a new book about a rising generation of Christians and he asked me if I\u2019d read it \u2026 which I did, which I liked immensely, and which is now the subject of a new series on the Jesus Creed blog. The book is called The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America, and it opens up with some sketches of the scene: His first idea forms the ground on which he builds: Christian America is fading. He\u2019s right: the Christianity of my father and of Gabe\u2019s father, which once defined Christianity and shaped how to relate to culture itself, is over. Gabe sees it in the passing of Jerry Falwell, or at least sees Falwell\u2019s death as indicative of a major shift. The fundamentalist Christianized culture that Falwell fought for is all but gone, and here are three categories that are arising on the scrapped buildings of a former way of life:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Next Christians 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gabe Lyons represents \u2013 indeed leads \u2013 a rising generation of Christians who not only think changes need to occur but are making those changes in a constructive manner. Gabe, with David Kinnaman, burst on the book scene with their bestselling UnChristian. In the hallways of a conference I met Gabe once and hoped we could stay connected. But it was not until last Spring\u2019s Q Conference that I had another conversation with him \u2013 well, excepting a phone conversation or two. Just prior to the Q Conference Gabe informed me he was writing a new book about a rising generation of Christians and he asked me if I\u2019d read it \u2026 which I did, which I liked immensely, and which is now the subject of a new series on the Jesus Creed blog. The book is called The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America, and it opens up with some sketches of the scene: His first idea forms the ground on which he builds: Christian America is fading. He\u2019s right: the Christianity of my father and of Gabe\u2019s father, which once defined Christianity and shaped how to relate to culture itself, is over. Gabe sees it in the passing of Jerry Falwell, or at least sees Falwell\u2019s death as indicative of a major shift. The fundamentalist Christianized culture that Falwell fought for is all but gone, and here are three categories that are arising on the scrapped buildings of a former way of life:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-01T05:08:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-09-30T21:02:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/files\/2010\/09\/Gabe.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/\",\"name\":\"The Next Christians 1\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-01T05:08:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-09-30T21:02:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Gabe Lyons represents \u2013 indeed leads \u2013 a rising generation of Christians who not only think changes need to occur but are making those changes in a constructive manner. Gabe, with David Kinnaman, burst on the book scene with their bestselling UnChristian. In the hallways of a conference I met Gabe once and hoped we could stay connected. But it was not until last Spring\u2019s Q Conference that I had another conversation with him \u2013 well, excepting a phone conversation or two. Just prior to the Q Conference Gabe informed me he was writing a new book about a rising generation of Christians and he asked me if I\u2019d read it \u2026 which I did, which I liked immensely, and which is now the subject of a new series on the Jesus Creed blog. The book is called The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America, and it opens up with some sketches of the scene: His first idea forms the ground on which he builds: Christian America is fading. He\u2019s right: the Christianity of my father and of Gabe\u2019s father, which once defined Christianity and shaped how to relate to culture itself, is over. Gabe sees it in the passing of Jerry Falwell, or at least sees Falwell\u2019s death as indicative of a major shift. The fundamentalist Christianized culture that Falwell fought for is all but gone, and here are three categories that are arising on the scrapped buildings of a former way of life:\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Next Christians 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Next Christians 1","description":"Gabe Lyons represents \u2013 indeed leads \u2013 a rising generation of Christians who not only think changes need to occur but are making those changes in a constructive manner. Gabe, with David Kinnaman, burst on the book scene with their bestselling UnChristian. In the hallways of a conference I met Gabe once and hoped we could stay connected. But it was not until last Spring\u2019s Q Conference that I had another conversation with him \u2013 well, excepting a phone conversation or two. Just prior to the Q Conference Gabe informed me he was writing a new book about a rising generation of Christians and he asked me if I\u2019d read it \u2026 which I did, which I liked immensely, and which is now the subject of a new series on the Jesus Creed blog. The book is called The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America, and it opens up with some sketches of the scene: His first idea forms the ground on which he builds: Christian America is fading. He\u2019s right: the Christianity of my father and of Gabe\u2019s father, which once defined Christianity and shaped how to relate to culture itself, is over. Gabe sees it in the passing of Jerry Falwell, or at least sees Falwell\u2019s death as indicative of a major shift. The fundamentalist Christianized culture that Falwell fought for is all but gone, and here are three categories that are arising on the scrapped buildings of a former way of life:","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Next Christians 1","og_description":"Gabe Lyons represents \u2013 indeed leads \u2013 a rising generation of Christians who not only think changes need to occur but are making those changes in a constructive manner. Gabe, with David Kinnaman, burst on the book scene with their bestselling UnChristian. In the hallways of a conference I met Gabe once and hoped we could stay connected. But it was not until last Spring\u2019s Q Conference that I had another conversation with him \u2013 well, excepting a phone conversation or two. Just prior to the Q Conference Gabe informed me he was writing a new book about a rising generation of Christians and he asked me if I\u2019d read it \u2026 which I did, which I liked immensely, and which is now the subject of a new series on the Jesus Creed blog. The book is called The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America, and it opens up with some sketches of the scene: His first idea forms the ground on which he builds: Christian America is fading. He\u2019s right: the Christianity of my father and of Gabe\u2019s father, which once defined Christianity and shaped how to relate to culture itself, is over. Gabe sees it in the passing of Jerry Falwell, or at least sees Falwell\u2019s death as indicative of a major shift. The fundamentalist Christianized culture that Falwell fought for is all but gone, and here are three categories that are arising on the scrapped buildings of a former way of life:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2010-10-01T05:08:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2010-09-30T21:02:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/files\/2010\/09\/Gabe.jpg"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/","name":"The Next Christians 1","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-10-01T05:08:27+00:00","dateModified":"2010-09-30T21:02:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Gabe Lyons represents \u2013 indeed leads \u2013 a rising generation of Christians who not only think changes need to occur but are making those changes in a constructive manner. Gabe, with David Kinnaman, burst on the book scene with their bestselling UnChristian. In the hallways of a conference I met Gabe once and hoped we could stay connected. But it was not until last Spring\u2019s Q Conference that I had another conversation with him \u2013 well, excepting a phone conversation or two. Just prior to the Q Conference Gabe informed me he was writing a new book about a rising generation of Christians and he asked me if I\u2019d read it \u2026 which I did, which I liked immensely, and which is now the subject of a new series on the Jesus Creed blog. The book is called The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America, and it opens up with some sketches of the scene: His first idea forms the ground on which he builds: Christian America is fading. He\u2019s right: the Christianity of my father and of Gabe\u2019s father, which once defined Christianity and shaped how to relate to culture itself, is over. Gabe sees it in the passing of Jerry Falwell, or at least sees Falwell\u2019s death as indicative of a major shift. The fundamentalist Christianized culture that Falwell fought for is all but gone, and here are three categories that are arising on the scrapped buildings of a former way of life:","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/01\/the-next-christians\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Christians 1"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/40\/2010\/09\/Gabe.jpg\" "\\"Gabe\\"")
<\/a>Just prior to the Q Conference Gabe informed me he was writing a new book about a rising generation of Christians and he asked me if I\u2019d read it \u2026 which I did, which I liked immensely, and which is now the subject of a new series on the Jesus Creed blog.<\/p>\n