{"id":33106,"date":"2023-10-02T10:30:29","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T17:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33106"},"modified":"2023-10-03T06:37:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T13:37:20","slug":"my-evangelical-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/my-evangelical-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"My Evangelical Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A history from the 1730s to the 1980s<\/em> D.W. Bebbington examined the four qualities of Evangelicalism: conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism.[1]<\/a> The book placed my experience of coming to faith in perspective and illuminated my understanding of the Christian and theological world into which I was born. Raised in the Lutheran tradition I understood the impact of the Protestant Reformation. Coming to a more personal faith in university I became active in charismatic and evangelical church ministries. I felt the tension between these traditions adopting a blended perspective emphasizing world missions, spiritual formation, and contemplative practices. Reading Bebbington has led me to examine my lingering evangelical anxiety embedded in long standing questions regarding how to live a congruent, spirit-led, contemplative, and evangelical Christian life.<\/p>\n

Conversionism and assurance: For Evangelicals, confidence comes from assurance of salvation, justification, and the emboldened perspective that \u201cGod is on our side.\u201d[2]<\/a> As a young person I struggled to accept God\u2019s love. It was in honest encounter with God and the assurance of his forgiveness and love that gave me the desire and courage to share my faith. My salvation was a slow journey of encounters not a single event that led to assurance. Though anxiety regarding my salvation was relieved new anxieties for loved-ones, my inadequacies about sharing my faith, and my role in the transformation process of others arose.<\/p>\n

Activism: Dr. Jason Clark notes, \u201cFor Bebbington it was this new anxiety, and focus on the doctrine of assurance, that generated the activism that was distinct to Evangelicals.\u201d[3]<\/a> Bebbington acknowledges, \u201cThe missionary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was the fruit of Evangelical Revival.\u201d[4]<\/a> Evangelicals moved into communities and foreign mission fields. The desire for the conversion of others led Evangelicals to place emphasis on action, holding services, preaching, and the practical ministry of caring for the poor and outcast. I was inspired by the faith and service of the missionaries I knew and those whose biographies I read. My anxiety regarding such a step of faith was fueled by concerns about how to minister well without burning out. Bebbington validates these concerns noting the \u201cWorn-Out Ministers Fund\u201d of nineteenth-century Wesleyan clergy who operated under the belief that time was \u201cscarce\u201d and an unreasonable pace was the norm.[5]<\/a> This was the missions world I stepped into, minus the fund!<\/p>\n

Biblicism: Action meant training in preaching was emphasized over theological education.[6]<\/a> Early Evangelicals believed the Bible to be the inspired word of God, affirmed its\u2019 essential message, and encouraged devotional use. However, divisions over inerrancy and literal interpretation emerged beginning in the 1820s.[7]<\/a> I wonder how this early schism contributes to the anxiety and polarization we see within Christianity today. Can I manage my anxiety in today’s polarizing environment? Considering Evangelicals who are walking away from or deconstructing their faith how might I contain and attend to their experiences? Personally, I struggle with a measure of regret having attended seminary after rather than before completing my full-time missionary service.<\/p>\n

Crucicentrism: According to Bebbington, \u201cThe standard view of Evangelicals was that Christ died as a substitute for sinful mankind.\u201d[8]<\/a> Atonement for sins brought the reconciliation of humanity to God and fuels much of evangelical activism and service. Atonement is crucial to Evangelicals who seek to live sanctified and holy lives. I sense anxiety here, too. How does evangelical activism and the protestant work ethic cloud the sanctification process? Is the cruciform life merely giving up personal sin or the deep work of self-emptying? Does burnout trump appropriate self-care and the biblical command to rest? How often do I deny my God-given limitations in efforts to prove my worthiness? These questions deserve my regular reflection.<\/p>\n

In Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship, <\/em>Dr. Jason Clark seeks to establish how anxiety and assurance is a pathway that opens up the relationship between capitalism and Evangelicalism.[9]<\/a> This produces another layer of anxiety within the evangelical experience. Clark explains, \u201cPersonal narratives of the autobiographical, and stories of the inner life now held sway for emerging Evangelicals. Those who had experienced this inner assurance were able to communicate those stories throughout new emerging capitalist market opportunities by speaking, travelling, and publicising amongst other activities.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

Evangelicalism and capitalism is an uncomfortable alliance. I have witnessed the benefits and dangers personally and within my context in Southeast Asia. I am guided by Jesus’ words to the pharisees in Mark 12:17, \u201cGive back to Caesar what is Caesar\u2019s and to God what is God\u2019s.\u201d As a follower of Christ and a leader I wrestle with the anxiety of reaping the benefits of the capitalistic systems while steering clear of its\u2019 dangers. Conversely, there are similar benefits and dangers of living in governing and economic systems that lack the freedoms capitalistic societies claim. Traps and pitfalls abound so entwined are these systems. I am reminded of Will Foster’s statement during his presentation at Christ Church, \u201cAll leadership is autobiographical.\u201d[11]<\/a> I am impacted by the connection between Evangelicalism and capitalism into which I was born and must be mindful of the slippery slopes of each.<\/p>\n

Maintaining my evangelical roots requires me to attend to the anxieties that come with being a follower of Jesus in a world that desperately needs assurance of the love and concern of God. In political and economic systems that both open and close doors for the gospel I must be discerning, act prayerfully, and maintain what Edwin Friedman described as a non-anxious presence.[12]<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. D. W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A history from the 1730s to the 1980s <\/em>(London: Routledge,1989), 3.<\/li>\n
  2. <\/a>Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, 7.
    \n<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. <\/a>Jason Paul Clark, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship\u201d (DMIN diss., George Fox University, Newberg, 2018), 58. https:\/\/digitalcommons.georgefox.edu\/gfes\/132<\/li>\n
  4. <\/a>Bebbington, Evangelicalism, 12.<\/em><\/li>\n
  5. Ibid.,11<\/li>\n
  6. Ibid., 12.<\/li>\n
  7. Ibid., 13-14.<\/li>\n
  8. Ibid., 15.<\/li>\n
  9. <\/a>Clark, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism,\u201d 49.<\/li>\n
  10. Ibid., 62.<\/li>\n
  11. <\/a>Will Foster, Oxford Advance presentation to doctoral students, September 25, 2023.<\/li>\n
  12. <\/a>Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix<\/em> (New York: Church Publishing, 1999), 16.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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