The Church Formerly Known as Protestant

Is Protestantism fatigued? Host Rev. Chris Gordon sits down with Rev. Dan Borvan of Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim and Rev. Adam Kaloostian of Ventura Reformed Church to diagnose the weariness of Western Protestantism. They start with the cultural malaise of our moment: constant digital distraction, rising anxiety, lost generational optimism, creeping nihilism, and a mobile society that makes it hard to put down roots in one local church for decades. From there they turn to the deep distrust of institutions that has spilled over into how people view the church.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:22 Welcome Back Dan Borvan & Adam Kaloostian
02:00 Update from Ventura Reformed Church
02:50 Bob Godfrey: "Protestantism Is Fatigued"
03:57 Protestantism Is More Than Ideas: The Centrality of the Church
05:20 A Tired and Anxious Culture
06:07 Permanent Partial Distraction
07:13 Lost Optimism and the Next Generation
08:53 Artificial Intelligence Fears and Rising Nihilism
09:16 Mobility and the Local Church
10:22 Losing Long-Term "Trench Work"
11:25 Distrust of Institutions
15:03 The True Church as a Trustworthy Institution
15:27 When Protestant Particulars Are Lost
16:45 How the Definition of Protestantism Broadened
17:29 What Are We Protesting? The Original Protest Against Rome
18:27 Nathan Hatch and the Democratization of American Christianity
19:18 Revolutionary Ethos and Low-Church Ecclesiology
19:55 Consumerism, Revivalism, and Industrialization
20:17 Leaving the Church to Pick Up a Cause
21:22 From Creedal Faith to Activism: Finney and the Second Great Awakening
22:15 The National Association of Evangelicals (1942)
22:44 Activism as an Energy Drag on the Church
22:56 Denominational Activism Then and Now
24:15 Parachurch Causes Without Distinctives
26:09 "The Real Thing Happens Out There"
26:44 Is the Local Church Boring Compared to Saving the World?