The Next Evangelicalism is mandatory reading for any member of the Body of Christ. This is a gross understatement, but it is sometime necessary to state the obvious nonetheless. In the midst of all the publications concerning issues of Church & Race, Church & Culture, Missions, Emergent/Emerging Church, Church Growth and the future of the Western Church, Soong-Chan Rah's book directly challenges most, if not all authors and "authorities" of said areas of "Church studies". His heartfelt love for the Church is undeniable. Yet, Rah unapologetically indicts the captivity of the Western Church by the dominant white culture as the elephant in the room which can no longer be ignored by leaders in the Western Church.
Chapter after chapter, Dr. Rah's book provides multiple cases, examples and references marking the manner in which the captivity of the Western Church continues to galvanize and suffocate the true mission of the Church of Jesus Christ. He describes how, "... our movie-theater sanctuaries (to appease the consumer looking for an hour's worth of entertainment on a Sunday morning) and our mall-like church buildings reveal our captivity to the materalistic and consumeristic culture of American society," (p. 53). As our individualism contaminates our understanding of community, the Western Church continues to transmit a distorted theology and warped sense of life in Christ. Spiritual marketplaces where we can try on churches, compare ministries as if they were products, goods and services, is a sobering reminder of how we - for I believe we are all to some degree held in captivity - seek, "... programs that came in a nicely packaged, preset curriculum. . .," without having to deal with the, "...relational messiness of the primary culture," (p. 102).
There's more to come as I continue to reflect on this impressive and thought & spirit-provoking book. It is my prayer that Rah's book becomes a source of humble, loving, but uncomfortable conversations among members of the Body of Christ. I pray that Rah's pain and tears are shared in Christ-centered communities across the West for the sake of addressing the good, the bad and the ugly of living together (or not) in the Western Church.
