Hope for the Renewal of Christianity

Do we live as if we believe that God is making all things new?

Last Tuesday, I marked the fifth anniversary of my book with Mark Pattie, The Pietist Option, by sharing a conversation in which my co-author professed himself “less hopeful about the health of Christ’s Church in the near-term and more convinced than ever that the more hopeful future the Pietist Option offers is needed.”

The first feeling was certainly familiar. Not long after I published my conversation with Mark, I accompanied a colleague to a meeting at which they learned the details of how their position would be eliminated at the end of our Christian university’s academic year. Many such meetings took place the beginning of last week; even in programs that weren’t eliminated, many will need to struggle on with fewer faculty.

In the midst of the complicated feelings of last week, I still think Mark is right that Pietism can help Christians to hope for renewal. Two days before our conversation appeared here on Substack — two days before my colleague’s fateful meeting — I taught a class on Christian renewal at a local church, trying to explain the relevance of the Pietist Option for an aging congregation in a declining denomination as this country enters a post-Christian age.

“I’m no expert on church renewal,” I told them right away. “I’m just a Christian and a historian.” But I could tell them two things that could offer hope for renewal amid fears of decline. The first is vastly more important than the second.