The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

Just as global Christianity is shifting away from the West to the South and the East, so too is the North American church diversifying in terms of race, ethnicity and culture. While some parts of North American Christianity are in decline, others are experiencing transformation and growth as a result of increasing globalization. Spiritual renewal is happening in corners and margins not always noticed by those in the centre.

Soong-Chan Rah calls the North American church to escape its captivity to Western cultural trappings and to embrace a new evangelicalism that is diverse and multiethnic. Rah brings keen analysis to the limitations of North American Christianity and shows how captivity to Western individualism and materialism has played itself out in megachurches and emergent churches alike.

Many white churches are in crisis and ill-equipped to minister to new cultural realities, but immigrant, ethnic and multiethnic churches are succeeding and flourishing. This prophetic report casts a vision for a dynamic evangelicalism that fully embodies the cultural realities of the twenty-first century. Spiritual renewal is happening within the North American church, from corners and margins not always noticed by those in the center. Come, discover the vitality of the next evangelicalism.