I am reading through David Wells’ The Courage to be Protestant, and I came across this rather punchy quote. Wells is speaking of the evangelical church on the whole and its obsession with culture and how to be relevant. Success Relevance is found through Barna, not the Bible. Wells remarks,
Again and again the issue that has emerged, as a result, is whether evangelicals will build their churches sola Scriptura or sola cultura…Nevertheless, it is the question that should be raised again and again, no matter how little sense it makes. What is the building authority on the church? What determines how it thinks, what it wants, and how it is going to go about its business? Will it be Scripture alone, Scripture understood as God’s binding address, or will it be culture? Will it be what is current, edgy, and with-it? Or will it be God’s Word, which is always contemporary because its truth endures for all eternity (p. 4)?
After surveying the “land” of evangelicalism primarily through the lens of classical evangelicals, marketers, and emergents, Wells concludes,
It is time to reach back into the Word of God, as we have not done in a generation, and find again a serious faith for our undoubtedly serious times. It is now time to close the door on this disastrous experiment in retailing faith, to do so politely but nevertheless firmly. It is time to move on. It is time to become Protestant once again (58).
