{"id":38877,"date":"2024-10-15T20:46:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T03:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38877"},"modified":"2024-10-15T20:46:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T03:46:35","slug":"a-look-at-the-past-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-look-at-the-past-for-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"A Look at the Past for the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was growing up, my only exposure to, what I told was, evangelicalism, was seeing someone standing \u00a0on a milk crate at the country fair with a mega-phone shouting to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or face eternal damnation. As a young teen who wanted to ride rides or \u00a0win a prize at the fair games, it was just a spectacle. I have long abandoned both my youthful idea of an evangelical and the desire to ride roller coasters. As I grew in faith and experience, sharing the good news of Jesus became important. Yet, it wasn\u2019t until I read Evangelicalism In Modern Britain, A History from the 1730s to the 1980s<\/em> by historian David Bebbington that I began to intentionally explore something that I tacitly knew but without words: what is an important part of my faith journey.<\/p>\n

Bebbington\u2019s work examined the birth and growth of evangelicalism, in England. He approached it from the perspective of what it was, what influences impacted it and how it grew throughout a 150-year period and its influence on society[1]<\/a>. The book is comprehensive so I will limit my focus on the four pillars of evangelicalism, and some of the factors that aided the spread of it.<\/p>\n

The four quadrilaterals that are basic to evangelicalism according to Bebbington are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Conversionism: the belief that lives need to be changed and people need to turn away from their sinful ways[2]<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. Activism: following the gospel requires effort in that it needs to be put into action[3]<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. Biblicism: the primacy of the Bible as the authoritative word of God[4]<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  4. Crucicentrism: the death of Jesus on the cross is God\u2019s act of salvation where he redeemed humanity[5]<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Prior to the emergence of evangelicalism, even as someone adhered to all the teachings of a church, a person would still wonder if they would qualify to live eternity with God. The Evangelical movement changed that. Those who adhered to the Evangelical Quadrilateral, could have assurance of their salvation[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    An area of concern for me in Bebbington\u2019s evangelical quadrilateral is the concept of activism. Bebbington\u2019s theory affirmed that faith must be put into action. It required effort. This reminded me of a talk given by Dr. Jason Clark in Sept. 2023 in Oxford for the Portland Seminary students. He was talking about our motivation not to sin. One thought was that a good reason not to sin was to follow required rules out of obedience. The commandments say don\u2019t do something, so you don\u2019t. Yet, he posited that we aim not to sin because we love God so much that we don\u2019t want to damage the relationship we have with God or another person who would hurt because of sinfulness[7]<\/a>. \u00a0It seems to me that the same premise might be applied to acts of service, kindness or other activities that would be considered activism.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it be lovely if Christians were so thankful for the many blessings of God that the joy poured out in service and kindness to others rather than from a sense of duty? \u00a0Yet, there is concern that even though evangelicals believe that salvation lies with faith alone, it has swung back to seek evidence of assurance through good works[8]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    There are a myriad of reasons why people do or do not attend church. Some suggest wealth brings distraction because things that can be purchased and entertainment are always available. Yet, poverty \u00a0could impact both church attendance and non-attendance. Some families whose resources were so limited that they could not purchase food and clothing for their family may have been embarrassed they couldn\u2019t give money to the church or purchase clothing that would be considered acceptable to wear to church[9]<\/a>. Additionally, , in the nineteenth century, the practice of renting pews was common. Those who could not afford to rent a pew were relegated to seats behind pillars or in the back[10]<\/a>. The church thus was segregated by wealth. Yet, some people were drawn to church because of the help they could get from people who seemed philanthropic[11]<\/a>. \u00a0Additionally, while evangelical religion was an avenue for upward mobility, it was by pulling people out of their circumstances rather than entering into their world[12]<\/a>. During times of crisis, such as the cholera epidemic of 1832, the need for church swelled. \u00a0Yet, after Covid-19 it dropped. Patterns change. Could it be our digital world is causing even more distractions?<\/p>\n

    This book reminded me of a meaningful time of my life when I was part of the Fun In The Son conferences for about 15 years. We’d have about 1000 youth and their leaders for a week at the beach each summer. The kids would come from the northeast USA for\u00a0 fun, games, music, and inspired speakers. Our goal was to preach the Gospel and give teens an opportunity to believe in the saving grace of Jesus\u2019 life, death and resurrection. Because the conference was youth group focused, the students would go back to their home churches with youth pastors who would help nurture that faith.<\/p>\n

    Bebbington\u2019s discussion of how capitalism was connected to Evangelicalism felt disturbing, yet believable. I wonder what growing disparities economically and politically will mean for evangelicalism today. Will people still be able to hear the gospel amid the clamor? Dr. Clark\u2019s commented toward then end of class on Monday, Oct. 14th<\/sup> that the Holy Spirit can use even capitalism to bring people to faith (paraphrase) was an encouraging reminder that the bottom line for me is that no matter the method or mistakes, if we keep our eyes on Jesus, our imperfections might not get in the way of people coming to Jesus.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> D.W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism In Modern Britain, A history from the 1730s to the 1980s (New York, Routledge, 2002),\u00a0 ix.<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Bebbington, 3.<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Bebbington, 11.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Bebbington, 12-13.<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Bebbington, 14.<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/a> .Bebbington, 42.<\/p>\n

    [7]<\/a> Jason Clark, Portland Seminary DLGP Oxford Advance, September 2023.<\/p>\n

    [8]<\/a> Clark, Jason Paul, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship\u201d (2018). Faculty Publications \u2013 Portland Seminary<\/em>, 76.<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/digitalcommons.georgefox.edu\/gfes\/132<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    [9]<\/a> Bebbington, 112.<\/p>\n

    [10]<\/a> Bebbington, 112.<\/p>\n

    [11]<\/a> Bebbington, 120.<\/p>\n

    [12]<\/a> Bebbington, 111.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When I was growing up, my only exposure to, what I told was, evangelicalism, was seeing someone standing \u00a0on a milk crate at the country fair with a mega-phone shouting to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or face eternal damnation. As a young teen who wanted to ride rides or \u00a0win a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2979,12,467],"class_list":["post-38877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlpg03","tag-bebbington","tag-clark","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38878,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38877\/revisions\/38878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}