Reinventing American Protestantism

A revolution is transforming American Protestantism. While many of the mainline churches are losing membership, overall church attendance is not declining. Instead, a new style of Christianity is being born in the United States, one that responds to fundamental cultural changes that began in the mid-1960s. These new paradigm churches, as I call them in this book, are changing the way Christianity looks and is experienced. Like upstart religious groups of the past, they have discarded many of the attributes of establishment religion. Appropriating contemporary cultural forms, these churches are creating a new genre of worship music; they are restructuring the organizational character of institutional religion; and they are democratizing access to the sacred by radicalizing the Protestant principle of the priesthood of all believers. Included in my definition of new paradigm churches are "seeker-sensitive" churches, such as Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago or Saddleback Community Church in southern California. These churches are attempting to design worship services that appeal to those who do not usually attend church. I also want to include in the ranks of the new paradigm a growing movement of churches that identify themselves as part of "apostolic networks." These churches model their organizational structure after the religious leadership described in the New Testament book of the Acts of the Apostles. - Introduction.