What Church Movement Will Come After Evangelicalism?
I’ve been thinking about this for some time now and don’t have a clear answer. As a great baseball sage once said, predictions are hard, especially about the future.
American Religious Revivals Throughout History
Looking back in American history, we can see some important Christian revivals. The Puritan Revival of the early 1600s is what sent many English Christians to America in the first place. The Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, the founders of the Massachusetts Bay colony, and the founders of Connecticut and Rhode Island all came out of this 17th-century Puritan Revival. Then, in the middle of the 1700s, there was a 'Great Awakening' that spanned the entire length of the American colonies.
In the early 1800s, there was the 'Second Great Awakening.' This established evangelicalism as we know it today, complete with camp meetings and new religious movements including the Mormons and the Adventists. Some scholars indicate that there was a 'Third Great Awakening' in the late 1800s, which led to the Holiness Movement and the beginnings of Pentecostalism. Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, there was the Jesus Movement.
A Well-Defined Rhythm of Life
All this fits into a well-defined rhythm of life. Every century or so, there is a society-defining crisis: The Revolution, the Civil War, World War II. The generation that comes of age when that crisis hits not only resolves the crisis but gains political power and sets about fixing many of the rest of society’s ills. They tend to be a secular bunch, not interested in religion, but society works when they are in charge and they raise a cohort of kids to be the heirs of their legacy.
Current Societal Crisis and Secular Millennials
It doesn’t work. Those kids reject the materialistic solutions of their parents in favor of spiritual quests. They are the transcendentalists going within, living in communes, and talking with angels. They are the hippies finding Jesus in LSD. They are the Pilgrims leaving a comfortable existence in the Old World to find a purer life on a new continent.
Now, where are we on this cycle? The mood of America is one of deep fear and foreboding. We are on the threshold, it seems, of a terrible crisis—if we’re not there already. While the Baby Boomers—the prophetic generation that gave us the Jesus Movement—hold onto power far longer than they should, our only hope is that the secular Millennial and Gen Z kids they’ve raised will step in to clean up the mess.
A New Great Awakening
And only then, when the children of Millennials start to mature, will we see a new Great Awakening. So, I can predict an approximate time frame, but there’s no way to tell what it will look like. Except that it will be offensive to their secular parents and conventionally religious grandparents alike. It will start among the young and highly educated. In fact, many of America’s previous revivals have started among students on college campuses. It is likely to be Christian-based, but I can’t guarantee it.
Themes and Characteristics of Previous Revivals
Previous revivals have had a 'back-to-the-land' theme with young people flocking to the farms and woods to live out their faith. Most have been sexually unconventional with everything from group marriage to nudism. Women have been regarded as equals. There have been prominent prophets and religious thinkers, from Jonathan Edwards and Joseph Smith to John Humphrey Noyes and Ellen White. And while many of the most extreme movements die out after a few years, many will gain a modicum of respectability and endure.
But that’s still a decade or two away at least. We’re still trying to clean up the mess that the current prophetic generation, the Baby Boomers, has made. And that’s as far as I can tell from my own crystal ball.
In conclusion, the future of religious movements in America is uncertain, but it is clear that the next wave will be influenced by the needs and desires of the younger generation, likely leading to a renewed spiritual quest and a redefinition of traditional religious practices.