Nailing the evangelical fads<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The upperclassman sat across the cafeteria table from freshman Joe Carter and, in a matter of minutes, asked The Big Question -- a question about eternal\" \/>\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\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nailing the evangelical fads\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The upperclassman sat across the cafeteria table from freshman Joe Carter and, in a matter of minutes, asked The Big Question -- a question about eternal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-23T06:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\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\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/\",\"name\":\"Nailing the evangelical fads\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-02-23T06:00:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-02-23T06:00:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"The upperclassman sat across the cafeteria table from freshman Joe Carter and, in a matter of minutes, asked The Big Question -- a question about eternal\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nailing the evangelical fads\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes a weekly column for the Universal Syndicate.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/author\/tmatt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nailing the evangelical fads","description":"The upperclassman sat across the cafeteria table from freshman Joe Carter and, in a matter of minutes, asked The Big Question -- a question about eternal","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\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nailing the evangelical fads","og_description":"The upperclassman sat across the cafeteria table from freshman Joe Carter and, in a matter of minutes, asked The Big Question -- a question about eternal","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/","og_site_name":"Terry Mattingly","article_published_time":"2009-02-23T06:00:39+00:00","author":"tmatt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"tmatt","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/","name":"Nailing the evangelical fads","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-02-23T06:00:39+00:00","dateModified":"2009-02-23T06:00:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1"},"description":"The upperclassman sat across the cafeteria table from freshman Joe Carter and, in a matter of minutes, asked The Big Question -- a question about eternal","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nailing the evangelical fads"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/","name":"Terry Mattingly","description":"On Religion","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1","name":"tmatt","description":"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes a weekly column for the Universal Syndicate.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/author\/tmatt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":1567,"date":"2009-02-23T01:00:39","date_gmt":"2009-02-23T06:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=1567"},"modified":"2009-02-23T01:00:39","modified_gmt":"2009-02-23T06:00:39","slug":"nailing-the-evangelical-fads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/02\/nailing-the-evangelical-fads\/","title":{"rendered":"Nailing the evangelical fads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The upperclassman sat across the cafeteria table from freshman Joe Carter and, in a matter of minutes, asked The Big Question \u2014 a question about eternal life and death.<\/p>\n

As any evangelical worth his or her salt knows, that question sounds like this: \u201cHave you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?\u201d Super aggressive believers prefer: \u201cAre you saved? If you died tonight, would go to heaven or hell?\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter remembers replying: \u201cI\u2019m, yeah, actually I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happened next was strange. The young man was \u201cvisibly disappointed\u201d and \u201cwore a look of minor defeat\u201d because he wouldn\u2019t get to save a soul during this lunch period. He ate quickly and departed and, this is the crucial detail for Carter, they never spoke again. <\/p>\n

The evangelist wasn\u2019t looking for a friend or dialogue with a believer. He wanted to carve another notch on his Bible, using techniques learned during a soul-saving workshop. If his blunt approach offended strangers, or even strengthened their \u201cFundie-alert systems,\u201d that was their problem, not his.<\/p>\n

Every decade or so there are new, improved techniques for making these spiritual sales pitches, each backed with snappy catch phrases and, these days, with hot websites, books and videos. Then everything changes again a generation later, noted Carter. What you get are stacks of leftover \u201cLeft Behind\u201d video games, \u201cWhat Would Jesus Do?\u201d bracelets, \u201cemerging church\u201d study guides and copies of \u201cThe Prayer of Jabez.\u201d<\/p>\n

It helps to know that Carter is himself an evangelical who is concerned about evangelism issues. As a journalist, the 39-year-old former U.S. Marine has worked for a number of conservative causes, including World Magazine, the Family Research Center and the presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee. He recently finished helping build Culture11.com, a right-of-center forum for evangelicals, Catholics and mainline Protestants interested in discussing how religion, culture and politics mix in daily life.<\/p>\n

That website\u2019s future is uncertain, but before his recent departure Carter nailed a manifesto to that cyber-door<\/a> \u2014 dissecting 10 fads that he believes are hurting evangelical organizations and churches. While most conservatives have been arguing about their political future, in the Barack Obama era, Carter decided to focus on faith issues.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a list that will be puzzling to outsiders not fluent in evangelical lingo. The \u201cSinner\u2019s Prayer, which reduces the quest for salvation to a short \u201cmagical incantation,\u201d made the list, as did the emphasis on \u201cpremillennial dispensationalism\u201d and other apocalyptic teachings in some churches. <\/p>\n

Carter is also tired of long, improvised public prayers in which every other phrase contains the word \u201cjust,\u201d as in, \u201cWe just want to thank you Lord.\u201d He would like to hear more sermons focusing on the life of Jesus, as opposed to preachers and evangelists focusing on their own dramatic life \u201ctestimonies.\u201d And while he is in favor of growing churches, Carter is worried that the \u201cchurch growth movement\u201d has evolved from a fad into a permanent fixture on the American scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat most people call the church-growth movement is something that grew out of business principles, instead of growing \u2014 organically \u2014 out of the life of the church,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople started trying to figure out how they could change the church so they could get more people to come inside, rather than doing what the early church did, which was going outside the church and reaching people by actually getting to know them. \u2026 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like people started saying, \u2018What kind of music do we need to play so that more people will join? What do we need to do to the preaching? What kind media can we add to the services?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

But the thread that runs through this online manifesto is that Carter is convinced that evangelicals need to spend less time striving to make quick conversions and more time training disciples who stay the course.<\/p>\n

In the end, he said, techniques will not carry over from one generation to another.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the problem is that evangelicals really don\u2019t have traditions,\u201d said Carter. \u201cInstead, we have these fads that are built on the strengths and talents of individual leaders. \u2026 But a real tradition can be handed on to anyone, from generation to generation. It\u2019s hard to hand these evangelical fads down like that, so it seems like we\u2019re always starting over. It\u2019s hard to build something that really lasts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"