We have not been seen sufficiently to be agonising about the wellbeing of the entire society, and we have not been agonising about the pain of our world. We have been protectionist. And that kind of evangelical persona, that evangelical character, is both inconsistent with what evangelicalism has been historically and with the mission of the church in the world, which is to present a ministry in which, as Mike Morris once said, some will be saved but everyone should benefit.
We want an evangelical that is quietly confident in Christ, passionate about serving the entire community and who defends the wellbeing of all people. That’s not the kind of evangelicalism that people recognise but part of rehabilitating evangelicalism is getting them to capture that picture of Christian witness. That’s what I mean by rehabilitating it.
CT: A lot of non-Christians, whether rightly or wrongly, have a rather skewed image of what evangelicals stand for. How can evangelicals get the balance right? How should they reconcile the need to speak out on issues that should be spoken out on with the need to not scare people off?
JE: It’s a mistake to suppose that the credibility of the Gospel and the durability of truth depend on defending moral positions. It doesn’t. Truth doesn’t depend on our morality or our politics. And I think we have to develop the confidence where we say, ‘Hey, everybody knows what we believe about those things,’ and we even have to develop the confidence to say on these occasions that we won’t even make a response.
We don’t have to send out a press release about homosexuality and we don’t have to defend evangelical Christian morality on every instance. And if we reinvested our resources, creativity and energy in fixing the wider problems of the world it would help people to hear us more clearly, at which point you talk about some of the moral issues. But there is a time to be silent, even on important things.
CT: Evangelicalism has shifted quite considerably from a focus purely on Scripture and mission and evangelism, to a renewed focus on social engagement and activism. Are you concerned that the shift might go too much the other way and disconnect social engagement from Scripture?
JE: No, I’m not actually. I think all of the above are happening simultaneously and I think that’s one of the great joys of evangelicalism and that’s why I think the prospects of rehabilitating evangelicalism are so good.
I really have no interest in venerating a word. I am not interested in building shrines to an adjective. What I am talking about are the ingredients of the people who believe in the Bible, the cross, in social action. That is ‘evangelical’ when they are happening together.
I think it is so exciting that over the last 10 years we have never done social action so pervasively. We have never done prayer so imaginatively and pervasively. Everybody is talking about Global Day of Prayer in a few days time. That was unimaginable a few years ago.
So what we are seeing is a resurgence of evangelical identity through evangelism, social action and increasing commitment to prayer and the word. All these things are growing up together. It is a very exciting time.
