Walk in and hear rock music, see people wearing jeans and flip flops, and look at big video screens. Messages that focus on sex, success and decision making are also common fare. Welcome to the contemporary church.

America has a tradition of Great Awakenings -- times when we remember the Spirit blowing across our land and demonstrating God's power in people's lives. We learned to pray for these renewals because they kept the ship afloat.

The theology that emerges from this narrative asks us to take seriously the redemption of the world which God has loved to the end and is transforming into His kingdom

Are we witnessing a collapse of liberal Christianity because it's trying to adapt to contemporary liberal values? The problem with this static view of dogma is that God doesn't work that way.

What happened at General Convention? Besides beginning to think about restructuring the church and passing a whopping huge budget, we made many statements of belief in the resolutions we passed.

The trouble has nothing to do with lacking biblical grounding. It has nothing to do with lacking an identity. The trouble comes with putting these theological tenets into practice.

The real question is not "Can liberal Christianity be saved?" The real question is: Can Christianity be saved?

Conservatives like Douthat, who pine for a mythical version of a church-centered postwar world, might lament that, but I say thank God for heretics. They broaden our minds and deepen our spirits.

By Daniel Burke Religion News Service (RNS) New York Times columnist Ross Douthat doesn't mince words in his new book "Bad Religion: How We Became...