A steady flow of writing and publishing about evangelical ministry pours off the
presses every day. It ranges across a spectrum of purpose and perspective, from
"How to Make Your Worship Ministry Exciting and Relevant," to sober analysis
and critique of the overall state of evangelical ministry. It reflects concern for
both ministry function and ministry form. And it coincides with a period of history
in which form is outstripping function for the attention of the church. Today it is
fair to say that in terms of form, evangelical ministry is virtually "up for grabs".
It is necessary to stay alert to the fresh winds of creativity and innovation in
contemporary ministry, and it is also necessary to listen sensitively to voices
expressing concern about trends within evangelicalism that have the potential to
lead us astray.
While wishing to steer a course that maintains my own positive enthusiasm for
the church in the 21
If we take seriously the burden of many who have published assessments in the
past few years, we might have to concede that evangelical ministry is indeed in
trouble. In fact, it is quite common to find those assessments expressed in terms
of crisis. To be sure, the voices of alarm do not all share the same perspective.
There are those who see the church as "increasingly (if not terminally) out of
touch with the postmodern culture."
American evangelicalism and its ministry will continue to look anything like the
historic evangelical Protestantism of which it is an heir.
critique of the church and its ministry--it is about exploring boundaries. While
there is indeed cause for concerns among those who believe in the church, there
is also much to celebrate. Having spent significant time reading and reflecting on
the growing body of literature related to this issue, I am indebted to many others
for their observations and assessments on which I've drawn.
The title I was given--Defining Evangelicalism's Boundaries in Ministry--posed
some initial challenges. The first was definitional. I wrestled with the concept of
"boundaries" in this context inasmuch as the term does suggest a map of a