If you are at all familiar with Calvary Chapel you may find it interesting how someone could be so gung-ho for a fellowship of Churches like Calvary Chapel and then end up in a confessional, Orthodox Presbyterian Church (opc.org).  I had spent an entirety of six years in Calvary Chapel and have served in a variety of ways from being on the facilities team, sound team, co-leading and teaching “College and Career Night” to being involved in a Calvary church plant, serving on the board and teaching on various occasions… even desirous of being sent out myself someday to plant a church.  There was a point in time where I thought the Calvary way was the modern extension of the book of acts church, oh how ignorant I was!

If you came here expecting a rant on the evils of Calvary Chapel or to see me air dirty laundry you came to the wrong place.  While I might list specific issues with Calvary Chapel- the issues really apply to the entirety of the modern evangelical church in America.  The application ranges from the very modernistic church to the essentially reformed and “reformed” churches I have visited along the way.  My purpose here is not to BASH anyone but to set off in reformation.   American Christianity is in a sad, sick place.  We say, I am rich, have prospered and need nothing- not realizing that we are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked (Rev 3:14-22).  It’s easy for us to point our fingers at the extremes like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen and say, “those are the Laodiceans of Revelation Chapter 3″ when in actuality it may very well be us too.

American evangelicalism may trophy the conservative label around or claim to be biblical, but it has not only embraced secularization, pragmatism, pop-psychology and the liberal mindset- it has led the way in it.  Many of the references I make will come from Michael Horton’s book, “Made in America.”   You would do better to read his take on the issue rather than mine.  In either case look forward to future writings on the issue as I try to paint the picture with more specific cases from my prior circle of modern evangelicalism.