letter from America
What does it mean to be an ‘evangelical’? In some ways this is a perennial question but recent developments in Evangelicalism, especially in America, mean that the question needs to be addressed again.
What recent developments, you say? Well, the most recent is the book Shepherds For Sale (which I have not yet read, and so upon which I cannot comment), but also the increasing tendency for the word ‘evangelical’ in popular discourse to equate with certain political opinions.
What does it really mean to be an evangelical? Is the word still useful, or should we find a different or better word? Writing in a newspaper called Evangelicals Now probably suggests that I am likely to conclude that the word is still useful. But reputable people – names mentioned to me in personal conversations I won’t pass along – of great significance in the evangelical international movement have wondered out loud whether the word is passing its usefulness.
Bebbington’s famous definition centres on conversionism, cruci-centrism, Biblicism, and activism. Another approach would be adopted by the great Welsh preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones. In ‘What Is An Evangelical?’ (a republication of three addresses given to the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in 1971), Lloyd-Jones has a much more nuanced approach. For instance, at one point, he says: ‘The evangelical is a man who always simplifies everything’. He contrasts that with the Roman Catholic tendency to make a person believe lots of things, whereas the evangelical tends towards the essence of the matter. Or, a bit later, he said this: ‘Formalism is the characteristic of the non-evangelical; freedom the characteristic of the evangelical.’ Rather surprisingly for some contemporary conversations, he adds: ‘The evangelical is always concerned about the doctrine of the church [ecclesiology].’ There’s much more to what he says; I commend this little book to you.
What is surely without doubt is that to be an evangelical must at its very most essential level mean being someone who centres their life on the evangel, that is, on the gospel. It is also worth noting, that the Reformers, and the Puritans, would talk of themselves as adopting evangelical ways of being. Yes, many historians claim the evangelical revival began in the 18th century. But the great claim of Bible people the world over is that to be an evangelical is to believe the Bible’s revelation of the gospel. To that extent, the Reformers would argue and I would agree, Chrysostom was an evangelical, and so was Augustine.
Why does this matter? Because if we’re not clear who we are, we are unlikely to have much of an impact. In church management circles it is sometimes said that if there is a fog in the boardroom there will be a storm in the pew. If we lack clarity as to our essential identity, we are unlikely to know who to work with and how to work with them. We are likely to be fractured. To use another example (shared with me by the consultant Bobb Biehl) you might be driving a Porsche, but if you are in a fog you cannot go very fast or very far. Only when there is clarity, and the fog dissipates, can you start to pick up speed.
So as we centre on Christ and His gospel, in that sense be evangelicals, then we will have increasing impact. And as to the term evangelical? It is used internationally, in Britain, America, Europe, and around the world. It’s worth keeping – even if it is also important to keep defining it Biblically.
