Joel Edwards on 'Agenda for Change' and rehabilitating evangelicalism

|PIC1|Joel Edwards, head of the Evangelical Alliance, has just published his new book Agenda for Change in which he makes a powerful call to Evangelicals to return to Scripture, boldly proclaim Christ and become the good news people once again.

The book is one of his last major projects as General Director of the EA before he steps down in September.

Christian Today caught up with Joel to find out more about his vision for positive change among evangelicals.

CT: Your book Agenda for Change conveys a real sense of mission. It seems you had something you really wanted to get off your chest.

JE: Of all the things I've written this is the one product that feels like a mission. What pushed me to write it was the culmination of many conversations within the evangelical family over the years and a real passion to see the Christian church and evangelical witness position itself for realistic and effective ministry in the 21st century. It was actually written as a launch pad for a new phase of work within the Alliance but ironically it has turned out to be something of a parting gift.

CT: You feel that evangelicals have lost the way of proclaiming Christ's superiority. Do you think evangelicals are becoming too apologetic or PC about their faith?

JE: I think we are in danger of having to become apologetic about our faith. I don't think we actually are. The thing is that we are very comfortable with clarity about who Jesus is in the security of our church buildings and our home groups. I think we have not yet found a way of confidently presenting that clarity within the public square, within the cultural grain of a society that upholds pluralism. We haven't yet understood pluralism and how we confidently speak about who Jesus is within that.

CT: You said in your book that ecumenism is out and inter-faith dialogue is in. How should evangelicals approach this shift?

JE: I think we are still afraid of inter-faith dialogue. Ecumenism is now an old hat, although a very significant number of Evangelicals are involved in ecumenical discussions. But the environment within which the Gospel grew was multi-faith and inter-faith dialogue. The entire book of Acts is about presenting Christ invitationally and confidently within a multi faith context. The problem with Christian faith for the last 1,500 years is that Christianity has spoiled Christians so that we don't quite know how to engage with other people about our faith in Jesus.

CT: You say that it might be the turn of Christians in the UK to face persecution, a sentiment which reflects the feelings many Christians here already. What impact do you think that's going to have on the way that Christians live and worship and interact in the UK?

JE: I think persecution is a relative concept and if we stood next to our brothers and sisters in the world we wouldn't dare use that word in relation to what they have to suffer. But I think it's becoming increasingly challenging for us to present the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a community that has embraced new orthodoxies of diversity and pluralism, and I think that it will become far more demanding.

I think Christians will find in the years ahead that we present Christ at far greater cost than the security and comfort and safety with which we have been used to talking about Jesus in our churches or in the popular culture.

Once upon a time we presented Christ and were met with cynicism and disbelief. Now we present Christ and we are far more likely to be met with disapproval and sometimes hostility, especially when talking about the exclusive traits of Christ.

CT: In the Bible, whenever the believers faced persecution they also experienced great growth. Do you think there is a real opportunity for Christians here in the face of that challenge to improve on the things they are doing?

JE: I think it is consistent with the calling of the church to find itself in that kind of environment where faith under pressure produces the kind of faith that is most robust and servant-like and transforming.

CT: You argue that we have to go back to Scripture if we are to recover the term 'evangelical'. Some Christians accuse evangelicals of having a somewhat robotic, dutiful approach to mission, at the expense of conveying the Gospel's message of love. Have evangelicals lost the love at the heart of evangelism?

JE: They probably say that because it's true. Very often what people see and hear us doing as evangelicals is fighting for our own corner, defending our own church, protesting for our own rights.

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.