Justice, Unity and Spiritual Formation

While in the shower today, I had a few minutes to reflect on some of the things I've been reading recently.  And it occurred to me that, broadly speaking, there are three major shifts taking place within Protestant churches, particularly among evangelical congregations: a shift toward greater focus on social justice (caring for the poor and powerless), ecumenism (once a four letter word for most conservatives, but increasingly being redefined as denominations work together with other denominations to achieve various missional objectives with greater frequency and depth), and spiritual formation (exploring the use of historically practiced spiritual disciplines for greater spiritual transformation and maturity).

For some denominations, these are merely shifts in emphasis; for others, they are major shifts in the very culture of the denomination, which, in turn, creates cultural conflict (framed in terms of "theological" battles) between the emerging generation of Christians and their parents. Interestingly, the emphasis on evangelism is not being sacrificed in the process, but rather, evangelism that ignores the poor, other Christians, or deeper personal transformation is viewed as anemic.

For an example of what I'm talking about, look around the Evangelical Free Church's website here.

Or watch Bill Hybels' interview with Bono regarding the church and social justice: