If you want a good example of speaking prophetically to the church... start here.
One of the underlying questions behind the "should the church change along side millennials?" question is what it means to speak prophetically to the church.
As I mentioned in the comment section of the last post, there's one sense in which RHE's critique is a very familiar and reasonable one--at times in our recent history American evangelicals have abjectly failed to live up to the moral teachings of our scriptures and our tradition. It's an indisputable point, which is why Francis Schaeffer raised it in the 60s and 70s, Keith Green raised it in this video from the early 80s, Rich Mullins raised it in the 90s, and Derek Webb has been raising it for the past 10+ years.
So there's a way to register criticism, sometimes quite severe criticisms spoken in a strong, abrasive tone (go read the prophets... Amos calls the Israelites a bunch of cows and Ezekiel has some downright profane things to say in Ezekiel 23), that is actually a way of showing affection for God's people. That's not what's in dispute here. I don't think anyone is arguing that you can't criticize the church. The issue is the manner of the criticism. The question we must ask is whether or not the criticism is embedded within the fact of one's membership in a local church and a church tradition.
It's fine to speak of prophecy, but prophecy implies a place and a tradition. When the Old Testament prophets spoke against Israel, they were doing it from the vantage point afforded them by the Torah and their membership in God's people.
There are things we're willing to say about family members or close friends that would make us quite angry and defensive if said by someone from outside the family. The point in these cases isn't whether the criticism is true, but the context in which the criticism is offered.
Tolkien, for instance, was famously defensive of C.S. Lewis despite the fact that he actively disliked the Chronicles of Narnia, thought That Hideous Strength an awful conclusion to a marvelous series, and thought Lewis's apologetic works were grossly inappropriate works for a layman to write. He even said that Lewis's Anglican church was a "pathetic and shadowy medley of half-remembered traditions and mutilated beliefs."
And yet for all that you would not have found a firmer defender of Lewis and his work at Oxford than the man Lewis called "Tollers" or "Ronald." Indeed, it was Tolkien who was instrumental in helping Lewis secure a professorship at Cambridge later in life. He knew Lewis's faults well, but few people loved Lewis like Tolkien. And whatever criticisms Tolkien made happened within the assumed space of relationship and intimacy which they created over many years of friendship.
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