What the heck is an evangelical? It seems that everyone has put a different meaning on the word… and now no one is quite sure what it means…
Matt Steen and I talk about this from an article by Terry Mattingly:
List America’s prominent evangelicals and the Rev. Rick Warren remains near the top, right up there with the Rev. Brian McLaren, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Jim Wallis, the Rev. Tim Keller and others.
Evangelicals, of course, have been known to argue about who belongs on that list. In recent years, it has become increasingly obvious that the experts are struggling to decide who is and who is not an evangelical in the first place.
”I know what the word ‘evangelical’ is supposed to mean,” said Warren, 58, leader of the 20,000-member Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., with its many branches and ministries. “I mean, I know what the word ‘evangelical’ used to mean.”
The problem, he said, is that many Americans no longer link “evangelical” with a set of traditional doctrines, such as evangelizing the lost, defending biblical authority, helping the needy and proclaiming that salvation is found through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
(Length: 5 min 20 sec)
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I like the word Evangelical. I think its traditional meaning still holds up: someone who is living a lifestyle of evangelism based off of the traditional protestant worldview.
Words get polluted when they are misused especially in the church. Everyone who attends church thinks they are a Christian. Everyone who does something “good” thinks they are being missional. We need to define our terms so our people don’t allow them to lose their distinctions.
I wish that Todd would not limit his repertoire of Evangelicals to his favorites. Then maybe we could get a clearer perspective of the definition. Where is the Jesuit or Lutheran Evangelical in his portfolio of Religious giants? My father came from Pomerania, he was an evangelical, but his beliefs and church’s action don’t come into Todd’s radar.
You know what they say about those Pomeranians, gotta train ‘em when they are young or they’ll never stop barking.
Evangelical has a biblical root…preaching, witnessing to and living the good news. It has historical roots in Reformation, Lutheran, Zwinglian,and Calvinist. It found vibrant Expression in the Great Awakening in America and in Wesleyan movement. Much of current evangelicalism was defined but early 20th century fundamentalism, end time views and now the political religious right. Every generation needs to express evangelically in word and deed the good news of Gods love, mercy and grace. That will not best be done in rigid doctrinal battles or political gamesmanship.
Maybe the world has trouble understanding who we are (and we have trouble knowing who we are) because we spend our time debating terminology instead of living the love that Jesus said would define us…John 13:35. Just a thought…
If Tim Keller and Brian McLauren are both evangelicals, then theologically the word has no meaning.