The story is told of the preacher who had prepared a manuscript of his sermon, and in the margin of one section he had scribbled a note to himself. “Argument weak. Shout here.”
The phenomenon can be seen in many settings. Lousy rock bands often invest significantly in dry ice and laser light shows. All foam, no beer. All hat, no cattle.
In the world of evangelical post-vertebrates, the same kind of thing is going on. “Vibrant,” “dynamic,” “cutting edge” ministries are the kind of operation that want the power of the Spirit to come to them through adjectival overstatement. But once you have abandoned a commitment to the truth as it is in Christ, self-promotion is really the only thing you have left. The descriptions of what is going on start to fill up with helium balloon juice. Then the whole thing starts to float, and we have yet another “up and coming” ministry, bobbing along on the end of a string.