The late 1800's:
There's a ton of debate on where and when the church fell behind. When we look back, evangelical culture was so dominant in the late 1800's that the church was the scale on which business and entertainment were judged. Before a product hit the shelves of a store or before a book hit the editor's desk, the question was always asked; "How will Christians respond?" Products failed or succeeded based solely on how the church would drive the market. Politicians won elections, not by their faith alone, but rather by their denominational affiliation. Their faith in Christ was a given. In present day culture we're all jumping to vote for a Mormon simply because we feel like he's closer to being a Christian than his opponent. During this time in history the church missed on one key demographic, the elite universities, and this proved to be a critical problem.
Around the time that the church lost footing in higher education, something else happened, technology arrived. Churches controlled newspapers, books and businesses, but the key players in the development of newer technology would turn out to be the alumni of the better universities in the world. Evangelical Christianity developed the notion that technological change wasn't to be embraced. The church took the stance that they needed to be able to find this technology in the Bible, or deny it's usage. The old phrase "if God wanted man to fly He would have given us wings" is not a joke, it was the literal line of thinking that Christians used towards technological advancement. By the time the church finally did allow technology to creep in, she was already too far behind. The industries had become institutionalized and the barrier to entry was far too great. In turn we completely missed our opportunity to take control of advanced media, like movies and television. Given the culture shift that was coming, missing this window set us back tremendously.
What culture shift?
Obviously here I'm talking about the changes that our society has undergone in direct relation to television and movies. Let me set the record straight, I love TV. This is not me demonizing television. I have a really big, nice 3D one right in the middle of my living room and I'm hardly covering it up with a sheet when people come over. However, this technology did come with a price. We now live in a culture where critical thinking, reading and studying a subject outside of the bounds of school are unheard of. This is where Christianity cannot compete. We can't fix this with more Kirk Cameron movies. I'm saying that this is an area that we simply can't take back. This is due to the inherent love of the written word that most Christians share. Christianity is very much a written culture and yet we live in a world that's glued to the TV for 3 hours a day.
I love to read. This is going to be nerdy, but reading is literally my favorite thing to do. I can't remember the last time I wasn't actively reading a book. It's become even better since I purchased a Kindle. I can now read tons of old theology and church history books for almost no cost. Some of these books were rare, if even in print at all, but now they're on my Kindle for a whopping 99 cents. Calvin's commentaries, lectures by J.I. Packer, sermons by Spurgeon, my list could go on for days. None of these things were a real option before, but now I have them all. I can't even begin to relay how much growth these soundly written pieces of theological history have changed my understanding of God's word, much less how much these works have done for the church as a whole.
What preceded might have sounded like a one paragraph Kindle commercial or even me trying to brag about the books I enjoy. In reality, it's an opportunity for Christians to connect technology back with our written culture in a way that we couldn't before. I'm not saying that Kindles are going to save the church. What I'm saying is that we live in a time when some of the best collections of theological work in the history of mankind sit only a few clicks away. Books that were once preserved only as showpieces for some one's private library are now available to anyone. Atheists have a difficult time dealing with Christians that know sound doctrine, philosophy and apologetics. This has always been the case. If we have any shot at winning back the culture that we once dominated, it's now. We lost control by losing intellectual believers, and educating ourselves is a great way to get this back into gear.
I can promise you we're not going to take it back with emotional music on Sunday mornings. The seeker sensitive church model has been taking root for the last 15-20 years and it's clearly a failure. What worked before can work again, but we have to embrace our written heritage and stop trying to plug Christianity into holes where it doesn't fit. Churches need to promote doctrinal education amongst their congregations. Not put theology on a shelf while plugging in an emotional substitute. Doctrine is what separates the Southern Baptist from the Westboro Baptist, Presbyterians from Pentecostals, and the Mormons from the Methodist. We all read scripture, but it's the lenses of doctrine through which you're able to discern false teaching from the Word of God. Your Christian heritage came from men that spent their entire lives slaving over scripture to bring forth teaching that will last forever. It's a shame to see these men moved from center stage in the life of the church in favor of the latest Christian self help writer being pushed by Life Way.
Now none of this matters if we don't actually read the books. Just having them on hand isn't enough. Once we take back the intellectual realm, we can put ourselves into position to take our culture back. I don't want to pretend that I've just cured the disease here, but I can't help but think this is a good start. The change has to start with each individual believer and penetrate the church long before it will penetrate the culture. If you're in a church where doctrine isn't considered important or even taught then you need to wonder why. Paul certainly thought it was a big deal. His letters to Timothy and Titus were written to give instruction to his two proteges. In those three small books alone he uses the word "doctrine" 8 times, and all of the verses are instructions for them to teach sound doctrine to churches. He uses the word "teaching" an additional 12 times. I guess I just can't see Paul standing in the pulpit saying "today, we're starting a 5 week series on money management." Although, we can't be entirely shocked by the teachings of our churches. Paul warned Timothy of this mentality in 2 Timothy 4:3 when he said, "The time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine; but, having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions." Maybe it's time we stop scratching ears and start teaching sound doctrine. Or maybe we'll let another 100 years go by and the church will be completely irrelevant to it's own, and all in the name of trying to stay relevant to the world.