Just What Kind of Christians Are Hip Evangelical Churches Producing?

"Year after year, I do think that we are struggling to keep pace with the amount of people who are coming into our chapters from churched backgrounds who are coming with these assumptions that all people are saved. Another thing that this [Barna] study cites is that 51% do not believe that they have a responsibility to tell people about their faith in Christ," explains InterVarsity evangelist York Moore. "So that lack of responsibility coupled with an openness for universalism and pluralism among Christians is a real problem in InterVarsity."

One of the major results of an expansion of such views has been confusion over orthodox end times views. "The major theological casualties are naturally the great eschatological categories of heaven and hell-- the new world, the return of Jesus, the Judgment Day, these kinds of things. Because of that, the ultimate end game, if you will, of the universe is often ignored. There's no sense of urgency for the salvation of souls."

Moore says the danger of straying from these 2,000-year-old truths is significant. "People are gravitating toward that which is easy, that which is more appealing to our American lifestyle, and the consequences of that could potentially be disastrous."