The Mark Noll Conference

You have heard the old adage, "Kill two birds with one stone."  I got to knock off my bucket list two dreams in one event.  I have always wanted to visit Notre Dame University and I have also always wanted to meet Mark Noll.  I went to the Mark Noll retirement Conference which was literally a whose who of Evangelical church history scholars.  I met people like Martin Marty (90 years old and was like a rock star at this event) and George Marsden and David Bebbington as well as people like Jonathon Wilson.

The most divine appointment of the whole conference for me was not meeting Mark Noll although it was a precious moment.  The divine appointment for me was to meet an Evangelical man turned Catholic I met at this conference.  His love for history, the Catholic Faith, his love for great Christian biblical scholarship, and his Christ-like humility was such a breath of fresh air for me as well as a kindred spirit. The sweet beauty of the Holy Spirit filled the air during our long conversation.

Besides, NDU wining and dining everyone making one feel like a King or Prince (Kudos for this Catholic school) but there was a very enlightening conversation and discussion on the future of evangelicalism. David Bebbington shined the brightest in this conversation but the panel of top notch Evangelical historians were all excellent.

I also heard many concerns by the younger Evangelicals that they did not like how Evangelicals were tied to politics or particularly Trump.  They were frustrated by the lack of diversity and circle the wagons approach by too many Evangelicals today while also lamenting of being tired of the political correctness and shaming and blaming of white males for every injustice in the world. 

These young Evangelicals lamented how too many older Evangelicals are still taking a one dimensional approach to the Bible as well as being too often anti-science.  Some of these young Evangelicals were asking, "Why should we stay?" which maybe reveals a greater crises among Evangelicalism than the way the media has tried to tie Evangelicals to Donald Trump.  If Evangelicals start losing some of their best and brightest among the younger generation, Evangelicalism will truly reap the whirl wind in the future.

There is a rise of atheism in America as well as many Evangelicals turning towards Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism to find spiritual renewal of their fragmented Protestant faith.  Hope on the horizon may be younger Evangelicals coming from the southern parts of the globe to evangelize the west which could possibly renew Evangelicalism for the future?  Time will tell whether there will be promise or peril for the Evangelical future?