It's been more than 20 years since the Evangelical coup' in American religion. What lessons should we have learned from these two decades of events?

1976
Newsweek declares 1976 the Year of the Evangelical' as born-againer, Jimmy Carter, prepares to take office and Chuck Colson's book Born Again' sells a half-million copies.

1977
Anita Bryant launches an anti-gay movement and loses her job promoting Florida orange juice. Charismatic televangelist Pat Robertson starts a new school to be called CBN University.

1978
Jesus festivals grab the media spotlight when more than 50,000 teens show up at Jesus 78 in Meadowlands New Jersey spawning more than a hundred similar festivals in the next few years, energizing the growth of the Contemporary Christian Music industry.

1979
Evangelicals decide they are no longer an across-the-tracks minority when Pollster George Gallup announces the number of U.S. evangelicals had grown from 40 million to 70 million since 1946. Evangelicals increasingly go mainstream as the main line' denominations worry about becoming side line' churches.

1980
Evangelicals help send Ronald Reagan to the White House and national revival and reform begins to compete with personal conversion as the evangelical church's number one passion.

1981
Faith healer Oral Roberts launches his City of Faith hospital in Tulsa.

1982
Many evangelical followers of Ronald Reagan level harsh criticism at Billy Graham for his visit to the Soviet Union. Jerry Falwell, however, defends Graham with the retort, I'd preach in Hell if I could get back.'

1983
Time magazine names the computer as their Machine of the year' but most evangelicals pooh-pooh the development. Nevertheless, evangelicals are the quickest to adopt the computer, and later the Internet as a ministry tool. Within five years the personal computer would be as common in local churches as mimeograph machines once were.

1984
The pro-life movement turns to violence which causes division among evangelicals about means and ends.

1985
The Super church' is now the model church and the Church Growth movement' reigns supreme among evangelical publishing and conferences. The seeker movement' and Bill Hybels are rising to prominence. Amy Grant releases her Unguarded album blazing a trail for other Christian artists to go mainstream, or become crossover artists, aiming their music toward the secular market. Some make a connection between all of these streams.

1986
Evangelicals are on a roll. Main line churches are losing members wholesale while evangelical churches are booming, especially large ones. The church growth movement is such a dominant force it is hard to imagine any movement ever displacing it. Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness' accomplishes several things besides bringing back the Christian novel among publishers.

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