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Look Inside

Contents 

Week One 

Getting Started: Post-Evangelical Experience 

Week Two 

Post Evangelical Truth: The Bible and the Voice of God 

Week Three 

God and Jesus: Post-Evangelical Theology 

Week Four 

Church and Sex: Post-Evangelical Community and  Relationships 

Week Five 

Politics and Race: Post-Evangelical Justice and Engagement with the World 

Foreword

I wrote After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity because there are so many of us who are getting lost in the  evangelical maze: inerrancy, indifference to the environment,  deterministic Calvinism, purity culture, racism, LGBTQ dis crimination, male dominance, and Christian nationalism. I  wanted to offer a clear assessment and a new way forward for  disillusioned post-evangelicals. 

I love the communal expression of our faith. In other words,  I love church. I love being with people and sharing thoughts  about God, Jesus, and how to live as Christians. But we are in  a time when we must reconsider and recast how we think and  act as Christians. In After Evangelicalism, I propose new ways of  Christian believing and of listening to God and Jesus today. I try  to help post-evangelicals know how to belong and behave, going  from where they are to a living relationship with Christ and an  intellectually cogent and morally robust post-evangelical faith. I  try to show that you can have a principled way of understanding  scripture, a community of Christ’s people, a healthy politics, and  can repent and learn to listen to people on the margins. 

Although this study guide is meant for anyone to use, it’s  especially designed for groups. It’s an opportunity to talk openly  and candidly about how we are supposed to be Christians in  our changing world. I hope you will find others with whom to  do that necessary work.  

I’m so grateful to Steve Watson, who has written this study  guide. He’s a wise, experienced pastor, has taught the content  himself, and has a good sense for how to direct conversation.  Enjoy! 

David Gushee

INTRODUCTION 

Like David Gushee, I am a Christian who was also once  an evangelical. I also pastor a church that, to be free and  faithful as we understood our call, needed to leave our  former evangelical associations behind. So both in my own life  and in work as a pastor, I wrestle with all the issues raised in  After Evangelicalism. David Gushee’s writing is one of the great  gifts and guiding lights to those of us seeking to follow Jesus  and remain Christian, while leaving some of the problems and  sins of evangelical culture behind. I have preached some of the  concepts in this book in the church I serve, taught a class based  on this material, and have recommended this book to many. Not  all the paths forward in this book are truly new. As David would  eagerly acknowledge, he is steeped in the pragmatic realities of  our time and place while also seeking to maintain and retrieve  some older, enduring qualities and practices of the faith. In all  this, David Gushee’s After Evangelicalism is both an authoritative  and humble guide for paths to a new Christianity, or at least a  renewed Christianity, for our times.  

This guide is meant to encourage people to read and reflect  together on After Evangelicalism, to help people and communities  keep moving forward in our faith. It can be used by an individual  to accompany the reading of the book, but it will be most help 

ful when used by a group. This group could be two interested  friends, a book club, a small group inside or outside of a church,  or a church class or program. Former evangelicals looking for  new ways forward, current evangelicals who have tensions with  their affiliation or faith, as well as other people—Christian or  not—who are curious about the impact of this movement, can  benefit from reading this book.  

The guide is structured in five sections, which mostly deal  with two of the book’s chapters each. Each week of the guide offers three sections. Feel free to use them or not in any combination, depending on time and preferences. There are also spaces  provided for writing in your own answers and reflections. For  the ebook version of this guide, use the note taking feature of  your reading device. 

• Getting Ready - This section provides a one or two sentence summary of the big ideas from the book as well as  questions for personal reflection and connection in advance  of the reading or discussion. This section could be used  by a group to begin a meeting or be optional material for  participants to review in advance.  
• Group Discussion - This section provides five or six discussion questions, each with a space where you can write in  responses. Each starts with a quotation and short summary  of part of the book, to help people remember what they  read or assist people in participation if they didn’t have a  chance to read all the material in advance. Feel free to use  every question or to only choose two or three to focus on. 
• Paths Forward - This section provides supplementary material for going further or deeper. There are one or two  spiritual practices people can try and an optional simple  Bible study. Parts of this section could be used by groups  who want to devote more time to this work or could be  optional material for people to work with on their own. 

SUGGESTED NORMS FOR GROUP DISCUSSION 

All groups benefit from some norms, expectations, or ground  rules for their time together, helping the conversation have a mix  of freedom and structure, and helping the conversation be open  and safe for all. Have a conversation in your discussion group  about how you’ll use these guidelines for your time. Feel free to  adapt this list or develop your own. These are short and simple  norms for discussion that I have found helpful. 

1. Respect - The material of this book hits on several deep, im portant, and controversial topics for people of faith. Seek to  share your own perspective honestly, while also seeking to  show respect for what are sure to be a divergence of views in  the room, as well as respect for others who aren’t present. Two  easy ways to do this are, first, to use “I statements” when you  share (“I think or I feel that…” rather than “this is true”).  And, second, if you have to bring up people or churches that  aren’t in the room to share your experience, speak your truth  but don’t name names.  
2. Freedom - All perspectives are welcome in the group as long  as they stay respectful to others present. For the sake of our  discussion, there are not right and wrong answers. We’re all  finding our way forward in our own way, at our own pace,  as best we can. 
3. Community - We seek to show up for others in the discus sion, so we can thank people for sharing, ask them if they’d  like to say more, offer our empathy, or if the group agrees,  ask clarifying questions about what people meant. But we  won’t offer unsolicited advice to one another or otherwise  comment on each other’s thoughts and experiences. 
4. Vulnerability - Each person is in charge of their own par ticipation. People can be encouraged to speak openly or  vulnerably, but each person should also only share what they  are comfortable or ready to share. Anyone can choose to not  speak to questions or topics they’d rather not, for any reason.  No one will be pressured to share more or ask to speak to  things they would rather not at this time. 
5. Sharing the Space - Each person will seek to limit the time  they speak, to encourage good listening and time for everyone  to participate. This means waiting for others to share if you  have already and can also mean agreeing to limits of how  long any one person will speak at a given time (two to three  minutes maximum for instance) as well as a discussion leader who will monitor the time and gently remind people to share  the time and space. 
6. Confidentiality - What is said in the group stays in the group.  Broad themes and personal experience can be shared with  others, but names and details stay private among group  participants.

GETTING STARTED 

Post-Evangelical Experience 

Introduction 

Chapter 1—Evangelicalism: Cutting Loose  

from an Invented Community 

GETTING READY 

Big Ideas 

Evangelicalism in America went from a fundamentalist rebrand  to the most powerful expression of Christianity in America to  a movement from which many people are fleeing, sometimes  while seeking to maintain an evolving, adapted Christian faith. 

Questions for Reflection 

• When you hear the word “evangelical,” what comes to  mind? 
• If you are or were an evangelical Christian, list the years of  that affiliation/association in your life. In your experience  of your own faith as well as organized religion, what are  the best and worst qualities of these years? 
• Entering these discussions, how do you feel? What are you  looking forward to talking about or discovering? What, if  anything, are you tense or concerned about? 

GROUP DISCUSSION 

As with each week, feel free to discuss each question or simply  choose one, two, or three questions that most resonate with,  encourage, or challenge your group.

1. “I feel called to help shepherd the lost sheep of post-evangelicalism,  especially the most recent exiles—so many of them heartbroken,  angry, and alienated from their churches, their families, and  their God.” (p. 9) Rather than beginning with a history or  definition of evangelicalism, Gushee names some features of  its culture and describes why many people are leaving this  form of faith.  

Have you ever been an evangelical Christian? If so, how do  you relate to these patterns of leaving or this dynamic of  exile? Does it resonate? If so, how? 

2. “A term used for a reform movement and religious rebranding within the fundamentalist orbit became the term of  choice for millions of flesh-and-blood Christians to describe  their core religious self-identity.” (p. 21) Some people define  evangelicalism through its theology—the authority of the  Bible, the centrality of the cross for salvation, the need for  personal conversion, and a calling to mission and activism.  Gushee defines evangelicalism more by its culture and history. It was an effort within fundamentalist Christianity  to be less reactive and separatist and more accessible. It is  defensive against culture and science and pluralism. And  it is mostly white, patriarchal, authoritarian, conservative  in culture and essence, and deeply aligned with conservative politics. 

What, if anything, about American evangelicalism is or  has been most appealing to you? What, if anything, about American evangelical Christianity is or has been most troubling to you? 

1. “The pattern is clear: dissent, lose, and leave (or be forced  out).” (p. 25) Gushee explains how evangelical Christianity  rarely tolerates dissent.  
2. Have you had personal experience of dissenting or disagreeing  within evangelical community that followed this pattern or  a different pattern? Have you seen it in others’ lives? 
3. “I invite you to come along with me on a journey into a  future that is post-evangelical but still centered on following Jesus, hopeful of making Christians into better human  beings, and committed to making the world a better place.”  (p. 12) Scanning the table of contents, you’ll see that on this  journey, we’ll be reviewing many powerful, important, and  sometimes controversial or painful topics.  
4. Looking at the table of contents, what chapters or topics are  you especially eager to discuss? Which, if any, are you sensitive or concerned over talking about together? What would  help you feel safe and prepared for discussing that material?
5. If you haven’t already, review the suggested group norms and  formats for discussion in the introduction to this guide. Have  a conversation in your discussion group about how you’ll use  or adapt these for your time. 

PATHS FORWARD 

Spiritual Practices 

Grief for the Old, Hope for the New 

The subtitle of this book is “the path to a new Christianity.”  Sometimes, before walking a new path, we need to make peace  with the old. When the old path has been disappointing or  worse, it’s hard to move forward freely without grief. Using  Psalm 77 as a guide, we’ll try to write our own psalm of grief  and hope for our faith. 

• Psalm 77 begins with seeking help from God while in  distress. The poet says, “I think of God, and I moan.”  When you think of God or your experience with Christian  religion and community, what makes you moan? What  experiences cause you distress? What about the state of  evangelical Christianity brings you grief? Write this into  the first third of a psalm, beginning with phrases like, “I  think of you, God, and moan because . . .” or “I think of  the church, and I’m angry because . . .” 
• Next the psalm allows doubts about God to surface, wondering if God’s love has ceased, or God has forgotten to be  gracious, or if God has changed. Where your experience  of the faith or the church has led you doubt God, or not  experience God, express that next. You can begin with 
• phrases like, “God, have you forgotten to . . .” or “God, I  doubt that you . . .” 
• Lastly, the psalmist thinks of a time when God has been  good and powerfully helpful—in their case, the exodus of  their ancestors out of slavery in Egypt—and seeks to trust  that God will be a good shepherd in their life as God was  in the past. Call to mind a situation where in your life or  the lives of your ancestors, God has been good and faithful.  Write down a very short version of that situation and ask  God that your story of faith will also reveal God’s loving  kindness going forward. 

Bible Study 

Isaiah 43:19 says, “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs  forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness  and rivers in the desert.” The context is ancient Israel’s return  from exile. Exile is a metaphor Gushee uses for people who leave  or are forced out of any religious culture or home, including  evangelical Christianity. Slowly and meditatively read this verse  several times, asking God to give you insight to perceive what  new things may be possible in your life of faith and courage to  walk into that future with God.

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