WHAT IS AN EVANGELICAL?

evangelical meaning

An evangelical is an “evangel” or “good news” person, a “gospeller”, committed to the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ. At different times evangelicals have stressed the need for Christ-like behaviour, orthodox belief, social reform, personal conversion and church renewal. Central to each of these concerns is the proclamation of the “evangel”, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Evangelical Anglicans stand in the Anglican mainstream. They strongly affirm Anglican doctrine as expressed in its “foundation documents”: the Book of Common Prayer, Ordinal, and Thirty-Nine Articles. More importantly, they
bind themselves to the standards these rest on, the teaching of Christ and his apostles as given in the New Testament, and the Old Testament Jesus acknowledged as scripture.

What is an evangelical Anglican Church?

What then are evangelical Anglican beliefs? First and foremost is

The Priority of Proclamation

The apostle Paul wrote of the gospel like this:

I would remind you of the good news (evangel) that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which you also stand, through which you are also being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you – unless you have come to believe in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:1-2)

Paul twice notes that he proclaimed the gospel. Evangelicals likewise emphasise sharing the good news of Christ. They seek to proclaim him in word and deed, action and attitude, message and lifestyle. In An Australian Prayer Book (AAPB) we pray for ministers, “that by their life and teaching they may set forth your true, life-giving word”. Evangelicals pray such a prayer warmly, applying it to each Christian in his or her ministry.

Paul also emphasizes the need to receive the good news, through faith, believing in Christ. Evangelicals likewise stress the importance of living trust in Christ, beyond bare assent to Christian truth. Many attest to a conversion experience, when faith first flowered. Evangelicals regard merely formal religion as repugnant to New Testament faith. Their prayer for all God’s people is “that they may receive your word with reverent and obedient hearts, and serve you in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life” (AAPB). All this adds up to stress being placed upon

The Centrality of Salvation:

Receiving the good news of Jesus is the way of salvation. At its centre stands the wonder of knowing – and living out – the forgiveness of sins, the new life Christ gives, and the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. Evangelicals deny that such salvation can come about through our own efforts. It is wholly a work of God’s loving grace, worked out in the practical life of faith (see Ephesians 2:8-10, Philippians 2:12¬13). These are the emphases of the next verses of 1 Corinthians 15, which spell out:

The Content of the Gospel:

I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to many (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

This gospel is “of first importance”. Paul did not invent it – it was “handed on” to him from the first apostles in Jerusalem. It centres upon the facts of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. But they are not mere facts. “Christ died for our sins” on the cross. As AAPB puts it, Jesus “made there, by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world”. Evangelicals thus stress the cruciality of Jesus Christ’s atoning death, as the focus of his incarnate life, the fulcrum upon which his saving work turns.

Evangelicals affirm Christ’s resurrection as both a past and present reality. They reject both unhelpful scepticism about the scriptures’ witness to the historic resurrection, and also any arid orthodoxy which sees the resurrection as merely a past event. They look for Christ’s return as the climax of history, when creation comes to new birth, and all in Christ, sharing his resurrection, free from sin and death, delight in the eternal life of God. Evangelicals thus place all their trust in

The God of the Scriptures:

Evangelicals affirm that new life in Christ is experienced in a personal way only’ through the Holy Spirit, who brings sinners to new birth in Christ, as children of his Father, and who equips Christ’s church for mission. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is therefore vigorously confessed as the foundation and summary of all Christian truth. Such truth is “according to the scriptures”. Evangelicals thus regard the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as “God’s Word written” (Article 20), the norm for all faith and life. They are keen to “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” them, as the Spirit’s unique means by which Christians are guided, corrected, trained, equipped and fed (see 2 Timothy 3:14-17). Evangelicals acknowledge that God’s truth is given in many ways outside the scriptures, but such truth never contradicts them, nor renders them obsolete or irrelevant. Primarily, however, evangelicals look to

The Means of Grace:

the scriptures, prayer, and Baptism and Holy Communion as the two sacraments of the gospel given to us by Christ. They reject any suggestion that such means (even the scriptures) convey divine grace automatically. Rather, the Holy Spirit takes ordinary things into “divine service” to enable us to share in the grace of God. Evangelicals therefore employ a straight forward simplicity in public worship, and are wary of ritualism or mysticism. They see the gospel means of grace, balancing grace and faith, divine initiative and human response, affirmed in the Thirty-Nine Articles and the BCP/AAPB tradition.

Evangelicals gladly use both time-honoured and newly composed prayers of the church, but free prayer is more their style. Baptism is practised as the sacrament of the Spirit’s regenerating work, the outward and visible sign of dying and being raised in Christ, received through faith. It is thus a “new birth rite” rather than a “birth-right”, not to be cheapened by either lack of discipline, or formalism. In the Holy Communion evangelicals “feed upon Christ in their hearts by faith”, receiving the bread and wine as the outward and visible sign of Christ’s body and blood. This sacrament has traditionally been observed by evangelicals as a precious time of fellowship with the Lord Jesus, requiring careful spiritual preparation. In recent years its congregational significance as the Lord’s Supper has been recognised, open to all who love Christ, to be celebrated with thanksgiving (“eucharist”) for God’s gifts.

The Fellowship of Believers

Evangelicals confess the church as the fellowship of all in Christ, expressed in local churches. They receive the catholic faith of the first four Councils as the enduring credal formation of scriptural truth. Evangelicals regard the Reformation as a major turning point in the history of the church, when it began to be re-shaped in the light of the scriptures. They acknowledge the Wesleys and Whitefield as their more recent spiritual forebears. Evangelicals see reform, revival and renewal as ongoing needs in every church. They emphasise the ministry of all Christians, so that lay ministries are a feature of evangelical church life. They look to their bishops, priests and deacons to be pastors, teachers and enablers of the ministries of the whole people of God (so Ephesians 4:11-14), but reject views of ministry which imply elevating some Christians over others.

Evangelical emphases on knowing the scriptures, and training for gospel-based ministries, are provided for in theological colleges such as Ridley and Moore. Evangelicals strongly support mission through such bodies as the Church Missionary Society, the Mission of St. James and St. John, the South American Missionary Society and the Bush Church Aid Society. The Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion enables evangelicals to meet and work together in the world-wide network of Anglican
churches.

Evangelicals work together through inter-denominational movements such as Scripture Union, the Christian Unions in tertiary colleges, international agencies such as the Evangelical Alliance (especially their relief and development arm, TEAR), World Vision, and interdenominational missionary societies such as the Overseas Missionary Fellowship and Interserve.

Evangelicals in a Nutshell

are “gospellers”, keen to share the good news of Jesus, the crucified Christ and risen Lord. They turn instinctively to the scriptures to find truth, join in prayer and public worship with directness and simplicity, and look expectantly to the Holy Spirit for guidance. Evangelicals question anything which displaces the centrality of the gospel of grace, dilutes faith and obedience, obscures the uniqueness of Christ, disputes the teaching of the scriptures, or simply makes things so complex that Christians get confused! So evangelicals confess the catholic faith of the reformed church. Above all, they seek to live for God – Father, Son and Spirit – in all of life.

Further Information

^{can be obtained from
EFAC (Victoria) Secretary,
Ridley College
PARKVILLE 3052 www.efac.org.au}

^{The following works provide a sample of significant evangelical theological writing.}

^{W. Griffith Thomas, Principles of Christian Theology (Church Book Room Press, 1931): a classic commentary on the Thirty-Nine Articles.}

^{Donald Bloesch, Essentials of Evangelical Theology (2 Volumes, Harper and Row, 1976): key themes treated fairly in outline.}

^{Colin Buchanan, Anglican Worship Today (Collins, 1980): a well-presented evangelical perspective. Colin has also established Grove Books, who publish series of booklets on Ministry, Ethics, Liturgy, Pastoral Care, Spirituality and Evangelism.}

^{James Packer, What Every Christian Should Believe (Hodder): an introduction to the Catechism.}

^{John Stott’s works, constitute a substantial body of writing, including commentaries, theology, mission and ministry: for example,}

^{Basic Christianity (I.V.P.): a classic statement.}

^{Christian Mission in the Modern World (Falcon).}

^{One People (Falcon): church and ministry issues.}

^{Leon Morris is the most prolific Australian evangelical author. His works include commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, 1 & 2 Thessalonians and Revelation, The Atonement (IVP), The Cross in the New Testament (Paternoster), and New Testament Theology (Eerdmans).}

^{Other significant evangelical Anglican authors include Michael Green, John Goldingay, Philip Edgcombe Hughes, Alister McGrath, Elaine Storkey and George Carey.}

^{If you are looking for evangelical anglican churches near me, then check out St Phil’s. You won’t be disappointed. We are standing for biblical faithfulness as the reformers did.}

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