Christianity changing

I'm between two congregations. In one I get to help form the culture and participate in leadership, and the other I am mostly an engaged congregant who serves in a few ministries. I'm struggling with the mother church. The preaching seems more angry and reactionary. I leave room that it hasn't changed, that I have, but the reality is probably that we both have over the eight years I've been there. There is a sense that the topics are eternal and found throughout the "biblical church" since its infancy, but much of it is pop psychology that has been wrapped in Christian language and fitted between biblical lines. We use language such as "application-based" and "practical preaching" to shape this type of approach. It is based on Baby Boomer/New Age life assumptions and openly talked about in the seeker churches. These topics have become common sense within conservative culture and so there is comfort in them. Jesus is preached, but there are as much seeker ideas and rantings against liberalism, philosophy, and academia. I'm not reacting against it because I believe Gad has/is using it, but I guess I'm reacting against its claim of historical authenticity.

Yesterday, I heard a famous Baptist radio preacher use concepts from the Word of Faith movement. He didn't hear the whisper that the strength of your faith is a defining characteristic of what and how much you have. It made me smile because he would be appalled if he knew. Many of the conservative Bible scholars who are thought to find the Bible to be "innerrant" actually claim that the original, lost manuscripts were inerrant, but not necessarily the cannon we have today. In the last 10 years the language from Christianity on homosexuality has shifted from the debate on nature Vs. nurture to often agreement that homosexuals don't want to be attracted to the same sex and there are factors from birth that can impact this. Even in the most conservative churches divorce is rarely raised except in therapeutic terms because most of the leadership has experienced it. Grassroots Christians wanting to impact the U.S. for Jesus have become an established political movement that's first priority has subtlely shifted from justice issues to self-preservation.

Though it seems to be heresy, Christianity evolves. The first century church experienced God differently than we do. We like the idea that Jesus birthed the church in its full understanding to the disciples and it has been simply growing ever since. But I can't buy into the model so simplistically any more. I guess my concern is that I don't hear people interested in how the Spirit might work through this process, instead they seem to be more steadfast in putting their head in the sand and screaming, "This is as it has always been!"