If Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews, then I was an evangelical of evangelicals during my teenage years. I got Focus on the Family’s Brio magazine in the mail each month, the Christian girl’s substitute for Seventeen; I went on four summer mission trips with Teen Missions International to far-flung countries where we did work projects and evangelism; I listened almost exclusively to CCM (Contemporary Christian Music); and I wore a WWJD necklace for a brief season. Though my material relationship to my faith has changed since then, unlike Paul, I do not count these things as rubbish (Phil. 3:4-8). They were important reminders of my evangelical mindset that faith should be woven into every aspect of life. Material objects are an important marker of culture, ones that define us as part of certain groups, and remind us of our commitments, our highest priorities, and our sense of identity.
I noted with interest, therefore, David Campbell’s analysis of the different rates of decline between the mainline and evangelical churches highlighted in the 2014 Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study. He attributes these differences to the presence or absence of subculture within a denomination:
Read Full Article »