What is Essentially Evangelical?

Jonathan Stephen of FIEC and Melvin Tinker of St. John's, Hull, Anglican church, answer questions about a recent initiative among conservative evangelicals.

EN: Tell us about Essentially Evangelical.

JS: EE is a network of Christian believers who stand for historic, biblical evangelicalism and its contemporary application. On that basis we aim to work together in whatever ways will help in the building of Christ's church.

MT: We adopted a statement that we wanted to 'bring churches back to the Bible and the Bible back to the churches.' For all the protests to the contrary, we believe this is the fundamental issue. Many would want to pay lip-service to how 'biblical' they are and yet in practice allow other things to occupy a central place - either 'worship' (read 'praise') or a cold 'evangelical' orthodoxy which is far removed from the spirit of the NT and those who stand in the evangelical tradition like Whitefield and Spurgeon - so a subculture gets in the way of the Bible. We long for full blooded evangelicalism in faith and practice.

How did it come about?

JS: To put it briefly, a number of us were finding that wherever we went Christians were lamenting the fact that the Bible was being edged out of supposedly mainstream evangelicalism. The ways in which this was happening and the specific examples that were quoted just seemed to pile up. It was obvious that many professing evangelicals were paying no more than lip-service to the authority of Scripture, and we believed there was a need for some kind of focus for those who weren't sold out to experience-based super-spirituality. At the same time, we didn't want to join the chorus of protest emanating from a culturally-disengaged right-wing ghetto!

Anyway, back in '97, a few of us, including Brian Edwards, and John Rosser, invited about 35 Christian leaders from a wide variety of church backgrounds to a private conference with the aim of seeing whether others felt as we did and, if so, what could be done about it. There was a real sense of excitement on that first occasion - which led to the official launch of EE.

MT: What I found especially exciting and promising about that first conference was that for the first time since the 1966 'split' you had people together in the same room, clearly united around God's Word, passionate about getting the gospel out and humbly seeking God's grace to assist each other in doing it.

Why another evangelical parachurch organisation?

MT: The idea is not to set up some super-organisation - we have several of those already. We hope that throughout the country mainstream evangelicals at grass roots level can help each other, having that gospel unity which in principle we are all committed to, and seeking to win a nation for Christ by his grace. EE has a distinctive ethos. We want to see church planting, train gospel workers and so much more. This is not to reinvent the wheel but provide the network so people can have access to resources and help each other get on with the job. Our next conference at High Leigh on June 14-15 hopes to take this process one step further. (There are still some places available. )

JS: We don't believe there is any other network that occupies the particular ground that we do.

Isn't this further fragmentation?

JS: It's hard to imagine how evangelicalism could be more fragmented than at present. We hope to draw together biblically-centred evangelicals and maybe help to dispel the 'I, only I, am left' Elijah-spirit that commonly prevails among them. There are a lot of despondent believers out there who need encouragement.

Is it not odd having Free Church and Anglicans together?

MT: For us it is not a matter of denominational loyalties coming first, we are essentially evangelical, that is what unites us and we need to respect each other, to work out what that means in each other's situations and lovingly support one another. The plain fact is we need each other. Take a look at the figures recently produced by Peter Brierley. We are all in a declining situation. The FIEC churches have seen severe losses as have many others. True Anglican evangelical churches have seen some growth, but only by 2% in ten years! So no room for complacency there. The country is becoming increasingly pagan, and our commitment to the truth leads us to be committed to each other.

JS: It only seems odd because of the sad history of the past 30 or so years. Before that, evangelicals from all denominations met as a matter of routine in many settings. From my point of view, the Stott-Packer line, as it's been called, was a tragic diversion which continues to mislead many Anglican evangelicals into placing denominationalism above true gospel unity. On the other hand, many Free Church evangelicals are still unaware of an increasing number of Anglicans rejecting this policy. The influence of the Sydney diocese and Moore College folk is playing a significant role. I want EE to support this. Let's drive in the wedge in the right place!

What next?

MT and JS: That's the big question! To be honest, we have our fears for EE. If its only success were to promote a forum of biblically-centred evangelicals who were previously only vaguely aware of each other's existence, then, however worthwhile that modest achievement might be, we would be pretty disappointed. Those of us who called that first conference were dreaming much bigger dreams. In fact, Jonathan presented a paper on that occasion outlining how such a network could be the catalyst for an informal association of Bible churches which would be able to include all those fully committed to biblical authority. I have expanded a little on these ideas in a booklet produced for this year's Caister called Bible Churches Together. (I also answer there some of the fairly outrageous criticisms of EE that appeared in a recent issue of The Sword and Trowel.) With one or two others we are also are working on a booklet for the next conference dealing with these issues.

Unless EE is willing to put the church question back at the heart of the agenda, then it could easily become just another parachurch organisation. We are amazed that true evangelicals are as indifferent to investigating biblical ways of expressing visible unity between churches as they often appear to be. Some are unaware of the issues at stake, others are just plain cynical. Few seem to realise just how ripe the times are for a bold initiative in this direction.

One encouraging sign has been the desire of some minister fraternals to want to meet under an EE banner because they feel it best expresses where they are or would like to be. We are always pleased to speak to such groups and explain more of the vision.

For more information about Essentially Evangelical and how to join this growing network, or for conference enquiries, please contact EE, c/o St John's Church, Clough Road, Hull HU6 7PA.

What is Essentially Evangelical?

An interview with Jonathan Stephen and Melvin Tinker about a new initiative among conservative evangelicals

EN: Tell us about Essentially Evangelical.

How did it come about?

Why another evangelical parachurch organisation?

Isn't this further fragmentation?

What next?

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