Critical Reflection Paper

Title Your Name Subject and Section Professor’s Name Date The Next Evangelicalism’s Main Points Soong-Chan Rah’s “The Next Evangelicalism” delineates a detailed and exhaustive spectrum of issues facing the white evangelical community in America. Rah (2009) started by the examination of the imprisonment in the church, getting to the main ones that are part of this state. To individualism, he says, people tend to have a self-centered approach on Christianity privatizing our salvation while ignoring the responsibility of the society and the disregard of social justice. Consumerism and materialism heighten this distortion thereby presenting the gospel as being the product of the rich and no longer an exercise of the poor in submission and ministering. Likewise, Rah (2009) demonstrates the survival of racism within the evangelicalism which is not only considered inclusive but universal. He uses poignant cases, for instance, the Christian publisher who resorted to harmful stereotypes in their services, to show to what extent racist biases continue to shape how people worship. Through his examination of those concerns, Rah displays a multi-layer cultural enslavement that undermines the potential of the gospel to be transformative. The second part of the book is more specific; it is no longer just establishing a diagnosis but rather examines how captivity appears differently in certain aspects, such as evangelicalism church growth strategies and the emergent church movement that denounces the more-is-better and profit-centered methods which seem to focus on the superficial success and neglect the deep formation into Christians. Besides, Rah (2009) goes deep to see if the emergent church deals with the problems and he finds out that it continues the same cultural biases it claims to overcome. However, he notices that it focuses mostly on the viewpoints and experiences of the young, white, middle-class members. In reply to all these challenges, Rah (2009) proposes a new model for evangelicals—one pulsing with humility and cultural immersion. He calls for white churches to salt and learn from other non-white, Majority world cultures where rich theology and perspectives are being revealed. Through his vision of a new evangelical wave, Rah focuses on the need to demolish the barriers of power and position and to consider 21st-century church growth and relevance to be inextricably related to diversity. Personal Stand Among Rah’s commentaries on the immanence of the white evangelical church’s enslavement, I have very similar perception to what he is saying. Rah’s criticism echoes some of my own encounters with evangelical communities wherein it seems that the virus of individualism, consumerism, and racism has even succeeded in watering down the gospel that should at its essence bring about the i...