Gospel Conversations Reimagined: Evangelical Roots, A Thoughtful Deconstruction, Part One
If you have been following this Series of Stories, you will know that these posts began with a introduction to some of the cultural and societal changes that I believe are affecting our ability to engage in meaningful gospel conversations. Over the past several years I have conducted research and have gleaned from the work of many others to try and understand these shifts. Along the way, I have learned the importance of testing my assumptions and examining my presumptions and I am often surprised and instructed by what I discover.
One of my favorite discoveries has been the significance of historical context, and in fact, this is one of the reasons that I stress the fact that the True Story of the Whole World is grounded in history. God and the people and events we read about in the Bible—from Creation to Restoration—actually happened, and as a result, the True Story of the Whole World helps us to make sense of our story.
I have also learned that historical interpretation, and the deconstruction that follows, requires that we do our best to examine a full spectrum of interpretation and not simply rely on those with which we agree. Additionally, in order to formulate a balanced perspective, we need to examine the work of scholars and practitioners who have gone before us and of those who live among us. This requires courage, respect and humility. We are remiss to think that our interpretation of history and our current context will be free of error or without glaring blind spots.
Last week I touched on Bill Bright’s (the founder of Cru) immediate mid-twentieth-century context here. This week I am including another quick snapshot of the paradigmatic shifts that took place in religious discourse and global missions at the turn of the twentieth century to provide a marker for this part of the story. Instructively, this snapshot reveals a familiar set of controversies, the discovery of which has been enlightening.*
Not unlike today, the late-nineteenth century and early- twentieth century marked a significant disruption in the global context for missions, demonstrated by an increasing ecumenical cooperation within the global mission enterprise and evidenced in particular at the World Missionary Conference of 1910[1] (I look forward to unpacking more about this in future posts). Other notable disruptions included World War I, the growing Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy,[2] and an eventual unraveling of ecumenical and evangelical cooperation. At the same time, the Social Gospel movement[3] became more vocal, highlighting the squalid conditions in which an ever-increasing population of European immigrants were forced to work. The humanitarian needs were unfathomable and worldwide. While there is far more to unpack on this topic than this post allows, suffice it to say, I am staggered by the fact that this remains such a divisive issue in the church in America.
In the decades that followed World War I, as far as evangelicalism was concerned, the fundamentalists had retreated from culture while a newly formed group of evangelicals emerged from behind the scenes to form a conservatively ecumenical National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). Many of these leaders founded Fuller Theological Seminary (I followed this trail because Bill Bright was among the first to enroll in the seminary in 1947).[4] In addition, Henrietta Mears contributed to the theological and eschatological underpinnings of Bright’s vision to found Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC). She also helped to shape his passion for personal evangelism and his vision for Four Spiritual Laws.
Mears was a unique and very influential evangelical in the mid-twentieth century. She served as Hollywood Presbyterian Church’s (HBC) Director of Christian Education and is described by John Turner as “the power behind the throne”[5] at HBC. Remarkably, Miss Mears taught and discipled many young men who came through her College Class who became influential leaders at that time. Mears, who never disparaged the lack of recognition for her work, has always inspired me. I am thrilled that she is now being recognized for her contribution. Arlin C. Migliazzo’s The Mother of Modern Evangelicalism: The Life and Legacy of Henrietta Mears and Andrea Van Boven’s, A Little Drop of Love: Henrietta Mears, How She Helped Change a Generation and You Can Too give evidence of her ongoing influence.
Next week’s post will provide the first of three snapshots of the Great Awakenings and, in particular, the Mid-Century Awakening which traces back to Henrietta Mears and a message she gave after returning to the US from Europe just following the end of WWI. The ripple effects of this awakening had a resounding effect on Bill Bright and evangelicalism between the mid-1940s and into the early 1970s.
As I wrap up this quick snapshot of evangelical history, I am sobered by the fact that many of the early twentieth century challenges still ravage the church and consequently affect gospel perception. I am grieved by the bitter divisiveness that defines the church in America today. I believe that homelessness, hunger, COVID, racial and gender discrimination, inequity in our country are places where the gospel of the Kingdom and the Church needs to show up.
I am also hopeful as I talk to young believers who are zealous for change and are passionate for the gospel. I hope to call any believer who will listen out of the fray and into a new day—let us learn from our past mistakes and failures and bring the vibrancy of the gospel into this historical moment.
*Portions of this post are taken from: Monaco, Cas. “Bill Bright’s (1921–2003) Four Spiritual Laws Reimagined: A Narrative Approach to Meaningful Gospel Conversations For An American Twenty First Century Secularized Context,” PhD Diss, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Wake Forest, NC, 2020.
[1] The World Missionary Conference, a gathering of Protestant foreign mission societies, was held in Edinburgh, Scotland in June 1910. Under the leadership of John Mott, more than 1,200 delegates gathered from Western churches and mission societies in an effort to complete the challenge of the Student Volunteer Movement— “the evangelization of the world in our generation.” The earliest Protestant gatherings like this were held in London in 1888 and in New York in 1900. See W. H. T. Gairdner, Echoes from Edinburgh, 1910: An Account and Interpretation of the World Missionary Conference (New York: Layman’s Missionary Movement, 1910), n.p.
[2] C. T. McIntire, in “Fundamentalism,” EDT:472, describes fundamentalism as “A movement that arose in the United States during and immediately after World War I to reaffirm orthodox Protestant Christianity and defend against liberal theology, German higher criticism, Darwinism, and other ideologies regarded as harmful.” McIntire notes that fundamentalism has gone through at least four phases stretching across the twentieth century.
[3] N. A. Magnuson, “Social Gospel,” EDT:1118–19. Magnuson states, “The term ‘social gospel’ and its present association with theologically liberal, moderately reformist Protestant social thought came into use about 1900 to describe the Protestant effort to apply biblical principles to the growing problems of the urban-industrial America emerging between the Civil War and World War I” (p. 1118). He also credits Walter Rauschenbusch as “the social gospel’s most influential prophet” (p. 1119). In the late nineteenth century, Rauschenbusch and his colleagues formed Christian organizations dedicated to the cause of Social Christianity.
[4] Garth M. Rosell, The Surprising Work of God: Harold John Ockenga, Billy Graham, and the Rebirth of Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 178.
[5] “The Power Behind the Throne: Henrietta Mears and Post-World War II Evangelicalism.” The Journal of Presbyterian History (1997–) 83, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2005): 141–57. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23337649.
