Five Great Waves

Movements among Evangelicals 1960-2000

I’ve lived through five great waves of movements among evangelicals and they are generally divided into decades. By movement I mean a fresh emphasis or direction taken by a significant number of evangelicals. I don’t think of them as “fads” though each one has had a faddish side to it. I have a hunch that they are prompted by God—to correct or initiate something God wants to restore to His church. They are cumulative in a way, with one movement leading to another and all of them still evident in the church. And I’m not suggesting that all churches have experienced all of these—I know there are thousands of churches who have not yet entered the 1960’s. What I’m trying to do this week is outline what I have witnessed as the “movements of the decades” among evangelicals. Finally, I should make the disclaimer that I know most “decades” last well into the next decade and thus cannot be neatly divided by New Year’s day every ten years. (For instance “the 60’s” didn’t really start until half way through the 60’s and they extended well into the 70’s.) But using these decades loosely here are the five waves I’ve experienced among evangelicals since 1960.

1960’s—“Ecumenical Cooperation”

The 1960’s were the “age of Aquarius” when a high tide of cooperation, idealism, peace and love swept over the church and I saw it. Sure, most church folk opposed the long-haired hippies and condemned their “free love.” But at the same time many churches gathered together believing they could resolve their differences and come up with a unified church. They called this dream COCU—the Church of Christ Uniting. They rea