From Pragmatism to Doctrinal Commitment

Corporate worship is central to Evangelical Christianity. This paper outlines the ways in which and reasons why Church of the Highlands, a prominent Evangelical church in the southeastern United States, has found in “sacrament” a pathway toward deepened theological exploration and renewal of worship, while at the same time encountering significant tension around emphasizing this atypically-Evangelical theological concept. The paper aims to demonstrate how a close reading of a specific Evangelical community can be a means of more effective engagement with Evangelicalism within the academy that avoids overgeneralizations and recognizes the tradition’s diversity.