By G. Jeffrey Macdonald, Religion News Service

Repentant for having spent a generation bowing at the altars of church growth and political power, concerned evangelicals gathered last week (Oct. 13-15, 2009) to search the soul of their movement and find a new way forward. That evangelicals, who compose a quarter of the American population, must refocus on shaping authentic disciples of Jesus Christ has always garnered wide support. But how to do that in a consumerist society with little appetite for self-denial is fueling internal debate.

The state of evangelicalism drew the scrutiny of intellectuals as 500 people attended a conference at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary on “renewing the evangelical mission.” Leading thinkers called fellow believers to repent for a host of sins, from reducing the Gospel to a right-wing political agenda to rendering God as a lenient father who merely wants “cuddle time with his kids.”

“We are seeing the very serious weakening of American faith, even among people who profess to be believers,” said Os Guinness, senior fellow of the East West Institute in New York and author of “The Case for Civility.” “Yet an awful lot of people haven’t really faced up to the true challenge and still think they can turn it around with things like political action.”

Speakers earned applause for highlighting where evangelicalism, which began as a Protestant renewal movement, has ironically come to need its own renewing. At one point, participants sang a new hymn that’s setting the tone for a new era: “We spurned God’s way and sought our own,” they sang, “and so have become worthless.”

“The church in a sense has lost its mission to go out and love the people,” said Steven Mayo, pastor of Elm Street Congregational Church in Fitchburg, Mass. “We’ve become useless in a society that desperately needs us.”

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