What does it mean to be an evangelical, and why should we care?
Some will remember a time in which the term “evangelical” was often used in a derogatory manner. One might want to dissociate from it, or barely admit they were one, or used to be one at some earlier point in their life before they became “more nuanced” about things. These days, however, the term “evangelical” is far more popular. Some might even say it has been colonised and broadened out to include so much “breadth” that it is at risk of losing all meaning.
This is episode 1 of our new podcast (the vision for which I first introduced here). In this first “proper” episode, Nathan Paylor and I talk through some of our own story as evangelicals over the last two decades, including the influence of various movements and figures that have arisen within evangelicalism in the time we’ve known one another, and the different issues that arise when wrestling with the problems evangelicalism (and evangelicals!) may introduce.
Here's some of what we got into…
- Is "evangelical" overused?
- Is "evangelical" still helpful?
- Guarding *and* proclaiming the truth
- Emerging Church toxins
- Exvangelical deconstruction
- TGC-centredness
- The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
- The state of British evangelicalism
- Leadership cowardice and compromise
- Defensiveness and offensiveness
We talk through the need for a more robustly evangelical approach in the years ahead, concerned not merely with "guarding" the truth, but going on the offensive in "proclaiming" the truth when and how it needs to be proclaimed.
I’m told the podcast is now available on various podcatchers, but here’s the video: