Book Review - The Next Evangelicalism by Soong-Chan Rah

The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity by Soong-Chan Rah
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐(4 of 5 stars)

Why you should read this book: You're a white evanglical looking from an outsider's perspective on how white American culture has affected your expression of faith. Or you're a non-white evangelical considering how you fit into God's plan for his Church.

Why you should not read this book: If you're a white church leader looking for specific, practical steps to take. Rah mentions the first step in the book - go find a non-white mentor.

Essential quote: “At times, the evangelical church has been indistinguishable from the Western, white American culture.”

Summary:

The Next Evanglicalism describes the ways in which American evangelicalism has been influenced and beholden to white, American culture. For many non-white readers, this book provides important validation of common experiences (such as the lament of the decline of the white church) and much of it may seem like "preaching to the choir". Unlike other books that describe the global church, Rah focuses specifically on the American church, making it an important diagnostic read for Americans.

This book seems clearly directed at white evangelicals, but its goal seems to be more awareness than transformation, leaving a significant knowledge gap. White evangelical readers with little familiarity with multi-ethnic churches, black churches, or immigrant churches will likely have a hard time picturing how different church could actually be and end up doing exactly what Rah discourages - projecting their familiar white American evangelicalism onto global churches with significantly different practices and culture. The translation of good intentions into church culture is crucial but largely unaddressed. What practical steps can a majority-white church take to confront systemic racism? How is the theology of suffering embedded in black church culture and services, and what might that look like for white churches? How should the white church learn from and borrow the immigrant church's holistic care? I worry that white readers may only see superficial problems with superficial solutions rather than understanding the deep cultural transformation required to learn from and embrace non-white evangelicalism. Also, I wonder if white readers will recoil at what may be perceived as an overly-negative perspective of the American church, as Rah spends little time on the contributions of the Western church.

It was really refreshing to hear a perspective on Christianity that includes a vision for immigrant churches and their Asian-American progeny like me. Rah's description of the Korean-American immigrant church resonated with my personal experiences, as did the experiences of non-white people attending white church. His assertion that the children of immigrants could play an important role in the transformation of churches is both insightful and inspiring, particularly when the Christian elites tend to be white men.

Overall a 3.5-star book, rounded up to 4 for some especially phenomenal and insights

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