Conservative Evangelicalism
Encyclopedia
Conservative Evangelicalism is a term used in Britain to describe a theological movement found within Evangelical
Protestant Christianity
, and is sometimes simply synonymous with Evangelical within the United Kingdom
. The term is used more often in the first sense, but conservative evangelicals would themselves tend to use it in the second.
Conservative evangelicals are sometimes called Fundamentalists
but typically reject that label and are keen to maintain their distinct identity, which is strongly Reformed. In this sense, Conservative Evangelicalism can be thought to be distinct from Liberal Evangelicalism, Open Evangelical
ism and Charismatic Evangelicalism
.
Some conservative evangelical groups oppose women ministers or women preachers in mixed congregations.
) were distinctively Conservative Evangelical in the Anglican and university spheres respectively.
The Conservative Evangelical movement was small, and as such largely defensive. In part because "In academic circles it was almost universally assumed that a CE view of the Bible was dead." The Keswick Convention
, which would later have a very significant role in the shaping of Conservative Evangelicalism in the UK was a small outpost of Evangelicalism still thoroughly committed to the sufficiency and authority of the Bible.
. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
made an unexpected call for evangelicals to unite together as evangelicals and no longer within their 'mixed' denominations. This view was motivated by a belief that true Christian fellowship requires evangelical views on central topics such as the atonement and the inspiration of Scripture. The meeting was chaired by Anglican evangelical John Stott
. Lloyd Jones and Stott were the two leading figures within the conservative evangelical movement at that time, Lloyd Jones being a key figure to many in the Free Churches and Stott likewise amongst evangelical Anglicans. The two leaders clashed spectacularly as Stott, though not down as a speaker that night, used his role to urge Anglican clergy not to make any rash decisions, saying that Lloyd-Jones' opinion went against history and the Bible.
The following year saw the first National Evangelical Anglican Congress
, which was held at Keele University
. At this conference, largely due to Stott's influence, evangelical Anglicans committed themselves to full participation in the Church of England, rejecting the separationist approach proposed by Lloyd-Jones.
These two conferences effectively fixed the direction of a large part of the British evangelical community. Although there is an ongoing debate as to the exact nature of Lloyd-Jones's views, they undoubtedly caused the two groupings to adopt diametrically opposed positions. These positions, and the resulting split, continue largely unchanged to this day.
, which saw the importation of some of what had previously been Pentecostal distinctives into the other mainline Protestant denominations (but at this stage, largely within the Evangelical constituency). The impact of this movement was so large that "By the 1970s, it was said, the majority of younger evangelicals in the Church of England were charismatic in outlook."
The Conservative Evangelical movement can now be said to have a clearer definition over against Charismaticism. But the two movements could never be clearly separated as "Many congregations included a charismatic element... This was partly because the more extreme groups tended to leave and form their own congregations, and partly because a charismatic element was more often accepted as a possible constituent of a broader fellowship, even by those who did not share its emphases."
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Protestant Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, and is sometimes simply synonymous with Evangelical within the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The term is used more often in the first sense, but conservative evangelicals would themselves tend to use it in the second.
Conservative evangelicals are sometimes called Fundamentalists
Fundamentalist Christianity
Christian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
but typically reject that label and are keen to maintain their distinct identity, which is strongly Reformed. In this sense, Conservative Evangelicalism can be thought to be distinct from Liberal Evangelicalism, Open Evangelical
Open Evangelical
Open Evangelical refers to a particular Christian school of thought or Churchmanship, primarily in the United Kingdom...
ism and Charismatic Evangelicalism
Charismatic movement
The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt...
.
Some conservative evangelical groups oppose women ministers or women preachers in mixed congregations.
Before the Second World War
By the 1930s, the term conservative evangelical was being used in distinction to Liberal evangelical. The points of distinction largely being that while Liberal Evangelicals "maintain some of the other typical evangelical emphases, do not maintain, and often repudiate, the total reliability of the Bible and usually do not preach substitutionary atonement, even if they stress the cross in a doctrinally undefined way." Movements like the Anglican Evangelical Group Movement and the Student Christian Movement could be described as Liberal Evangelical, the former organization glad of the title "Liberal Evangelical". Organizations such as the Bible Churchman's Missionary Society and the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelicals Unions (now UCCFUCCF
Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship , formerly known as the Inter-Varsity Fellowship , is a UK-based evangelical Christian charity that operates on university campuses....
) were distinctively Conservative Evangelical in the Anglican and university spheres respectively.
The Conservative Evangelical movement was small, and as such largely defensive. In part because "In academic circles it was almost universally assumed that a CE view of the Bible was dead." The Keswick Convention
Keswick Convention
The Keswick Convention is an annual gathering of evangelical Christians in Keswick, in the English county of Cumbria.- History :The Keswick Convention began in 1875 as a catalyst and focal point for the emerging Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom. It was founded by an Anglican, Canon T. D....
, which would later have a very significant role in the shaping of Conservative Evangelicalism in the UK was a small outpost of Evangelicalism still thoroughly committed to the sufficiency and authority of the Bible.
1960s
A key event in the development of British conservative evangelicalism was the 1966 National Assembly of Evangelicals, a convention organised by the Evangelical AllianceEvangelical Alliance
The Evangelical Alliance is a London-based charitable organization founded in 1846. It has a claimed representation of over 1,000,000 evangelical Christians in the United Kingdom and is the oldest alliance of evangelical Christians in the world....
. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a Welsh Protestant minister, preacher and medical doctor who was influential in the Reformed wing of the British evangelical movement in the 20th century. For almost 30 years, he was the minister of Westminster Chapel in London...
made an unexpected call for evangelicals to unite together as evangelicals and no longer within their 'mixed' denominations. This view was motivated by a belief that true Christian fellowship requires evangelical views on central topics such as the atonement and the inspiration of Scripture. The meeting was chaired by Anglican evangelical John Stott
John Stott
John Robert Walmsley Stott CBE was an English Christian leader and Anglican cleric who was noted as a leader of the worldwide Evangelical movement. He was one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974...
. Lloyd Jones and Stott were the two leading figures within the conservative evangelical movement at that time, Lloyd Jones being a key figure to many in the Free Churches and Stott likewise amongst evangelical Anglicans. The two leaders clashed spectacularly as Stott, though not down as a speaker that night, used his role to urge Anglican clergy not to make any rash decisions, saying that Lloyd-Jones' opinion went against history and the Bible.
The following year saw the first National Evangelical Anglican Congress
National Evangelical Anglican Congress
The National Evangelical Anglican Congress is an infrequent conference for evangelicals in the Anglican Communion. All congresses to date have been held in England, but have attracted delegates from other countries. They have been notable events which have had significant implications for both the...
, which was held at Keele University
Keele University
Keele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...
. At this conference, largely due to Stott's influence, evangelical Anglicans committed themselves to full participation in the Church of England, rejecting the separationist approach proposed by Lloyd-Jones.
These two conferences effectively fixed the direction of a large part of the British evangelical community. Although there is an ongoing debate as to the exact nature of Lloyd-Jones's views, they undoubtedly caused the two groupings to adopt diametrically opposed positions. These positions, and the resulting split, continue largely unchanged to this day.
1970s
From the war up until the 1960s Conservative Evangelicals had been less of a distinct group within Evangelicalism than they had before the war. The contributions, during the war, of CS Lewis to the Evangelical cause helped to blend the lines between Conservative Evangelicals and others committed to Evangelical distinctives from outside the movement. The stand taken by Stott and Lloyd-Jones against the Liberalization of Christianity in the 60s, meant that the biggest disagreements between Evangelicals were over how to maintain Evangelical distinctives in the light of the increasing shift of the major denominations toward Liberalism. However, there were distinctions and disagreements within Evangelicalism that went beyond this. With the dawn of the 70s Evangelicals "were less united than they had been on church policies and on some theological issues." One of the most significant of which was the rise of the relatively young Charismatic movementCharismatic movement
The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt...
, which saw the importation of some of what had previously been Pentecostal distinctives into the other mainline Protestant denominations (but at this stage, largely within the Evangelical constituency). The impact of this movement was so large that "By the 1970s, it was said, the majority of younger evangelicals in the Church of England were charismatic in outlook."
The Conservative Evangelical movement can now be said to have a clearer definition over against Charismaticism. But the two movements could never be clearly separated as "Many congregations included a charismatic element... This was partly because the more extreme groups tended to leave and form their own congregations, and partly because a charismatic element was more often accepted as a possible constituent of a broader fellowship, even by those who did not share its emphases."
Affiliations and Groups
- ReformReform (Anglican)Reform is an Evangelical organisation within Anglicanism, active in the Church of England and the Church of Ireland. Reform in England describes itself as a "network of churches and individuals within the Church of England, committed to the reform of ourselves, our congregation and our world by the...
is an association of conservative evangelical Anglican churches - The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical ChurchesFellowship of Independent Evangelical ChurchesThe Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches is a network of over 500 independent, evangelical churches mainly in the United Kingdom that preach an evangelical faith...
is a British association of mostly conservative evangelical churches - AffinityAffinity (Christian organisation)Affinity describes itself as "a growing network of many hundreds of Bible-centred churches and Christian agencies throughout Britain and Ireland". It was founded in 1953 as the British Evangelical Council and in 1981 numbered over 2,000 churches. The organization stagnated in the 1980s following...
is another British association of mostly conservative evangelical churches - Some Anglican churches are conservative evangelical
- Some Baptist churches are conservative evangelical; often they are independent or part of smaller denominations (eg the Grace BaptistsGrace Baptist AssemblyThe Grace Baptist Assembly is designed to facilitate the fellowship of Particular Baptist churches. It was first organised in England in 1980, when the Strict Baptist Assembly and the Assembly of baptized churches holding the doctrines of grace voluntarily agreed to cease their organisations and...
) as they see the main Baptist associations as being compromised.
Publications and publishing houses
- Evangelical Times
- Evangelicals NowEvangelicals NowEvangelicals Now is a monthly evangelical Christian newspaper based in Surrey, England. The magazine was started in 1986 by Bob Horn, and the current editor is John Benton, who is also the pastor of Chertsey Street Baptist Church in Guildford...
- Evangelical PressEvangelical PressEvangelical Press is a small Christian not-for-profit publisher of books, newspapers and tracts. It is based in Darlington in the United Kingdom and Carlisle, PA, USA, with employees also in Africa, France and Belarus. It serves a reformed conservative evangelical constituency...
- Banner of Truth TrustBanner of Truth TrustThe Banner of Truth Trust is an evangelical and Reformed Christian non-profit publishing house, structured as a charitable trust and founded in London in 1957 by Iain Murray and Jack Cullum. Its offices are now in Edinburgh, Scotland with a key branch office and distribution point in Carlisle,...
Theological Colleges
- London Theological SeminaryLondon Theological SeminaryLondon Theological Seminary is an evangelical college located in Finchley, London, England.It was founded in 1977 by a group of ministers led by Martyn Lloyd-Jones who was chairman of the Board of Trustees until his death in 1981. It trains preachers and pastors for the Christian ministry. Its...
- Oak Hill Theological CollegeOak Hill Theological CollegeOak Hill College is a theological college located on Chase Side in Southgate, London, England. It is one of the largest seminaries in the UK....
- Wales Evangelical School of Theology
- Wycliffe Hall, OxfordWycliffe Hall, OxfordWycliffe Hall is a Church of England theological college and a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located on the Banbury Road in central North Oxford, between Norham Gardens and Norham Road.-Overview:...
Conferences
- Evangelical Ministry Assembly
- Keswick ConventionKeswick ConventionThe Keswick Convention is an annual gathering of evangelical Christians in Keswick, in the English county of Cumbria.- History :The Keswick Convention began in 1875 as a catalyst and focal point for the emerging Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom. It was founded by an Anglican, Canon T. D....
- New Word AliveNew Word AliveNew Word Alive is an annual conference originated by a partnership of the UK Christian organisations UCCF and Keswick Ministries. The conference is focussed on Bible teaching, corporate worship, and family time. The conference is a continuation of the former Word Alive event which ran within...
- London/Northern Men's and Women's Conventions
Churches
- All Souls Church, Langham PlaceAll Souls Church, Langham PlaceAll Souls Church is an Anglican Evangelical church in central London, situated in Marylebone at the north end of Regent Street on Langham Place, just south of BBC Broadcasting House. As well as the core church membership, many hundreds of visitors come to All Souls, bringing the average number of...
, London - Duke Street Baptist ChurchDuke Street Baptist ChurchDuke Street Baptist Church is a conservative evangelical Church located in Richmond, South West London.- External links :***...
, Richmond - Jesmond Parish ChurchJesmond Parish ChurchJesmond Parish Church is a parish church in the Church of England situated in the Jesmond suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, England.- History :...
, Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne... - Metropolitan TabernacleMetropolitan TabernacleThe Metropolitan Tabernacle is a large Reformed Baptist church in the Elephant and Castle in London. It was the largest non-conformist church edifice of its day in 1861. The Tabernacle Fellowship have been worshipping together since 1650, soon after the sailing of the Pilgrim Fathers...
, London - St Helen's BishopsgateSt Helen's BishopsgateSt Helen's Bishopsgate is a large conservative evangelical Anglican church, in Lime Street ward, in the City of London, close to the Lloyd's building and the 'Gherkin'.-History:...
, London - St Ebbe's Church, Oxford
- Holy Trinity Platt ChurchHoly Trinity Platt ChurchHoly Trinity Platt Church , is in Platt Lane, Rusholme, Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Hulme, the archdeaconry of Manchester, and the diocese of Manchester. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building...
, Manchester - Christ Church, Fulwood, Sheffield
Individuals
- John BlanchardJohn BlanchardJohn Blanchard is a Canadian television director and producer.He is best known for his directorial work on the sketch comedy series SCTV, The Kids in the Hall, CODCO, MADtv and the talk show The Martin Short Show for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Talk Show.He also...
- Steve JamesSteve James (christian musician)Steve James is a Welsh Anglican priest. From 1993 to 2006, he was Rector of Bebington Parish Church, and has been Rector of Holy Trinity Platt Church, Rusholme, since October 2006. He is a noted singer and song and hymnwriter and succeeded Michael Saward as current chairman of Jubilate Group.He...
- rector of Holy Trinity PlattHoly Trinity Platt ChurchHoly Trinity Platt Church , is in Platt Lane, Rusholme, Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Hulme, the archdeaconry of Manchester, and the diocese of Manchester. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building...
, Manchester - Philip HackingPhilip HackingPhilip Henry Hacking is a retired Anglican minister, itinerant evangelical speaker, bible teacher and occasional author.-Career:...
- Dick Lucas
- Peter Maiden - International director of Operation Mobilisation and Trustee of Keswick Ministries
- J. I. PackerJ. I. PackerJames Innell Packer is a British-born Canadian Christian theologian in the low church Anglican and Reformed traditions. He currently serves as the Board of Governors' Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia...
- Vaughan RobertsVaughan RobertsVaughan Roberts is the Rector of St Ebbe's Church, Oxford, United Kingdom., an evangelical Anglican church, subscribing to a traditional eleven point evangelical doctrine. In 2009, he became president of the Proclamation Trust.-Life:...
- rector of St Ebbe's church, Oxford - Jonathan Stephen
- John StottJohn StottJohn Robert Walmsley Stott CBE was an English Christian leader and Anglican cleric who was noted as a leader of the worldwide Evangelical movement. He was one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974...
- rector emeritus, All Souls Church, Langham Place - Rico TiceRico TiceRichard Ian Tice is an Anglican churchman and writer, co-author of Christianity Explored. He is currently Associate Minister at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London, and is well known in the UK as a speaker at evangelical Christian conferences and an evangelist of national standing.-Early...
See also
- EvangelicalismEvangelicalismEvangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
- Conservative ChristianityConservative ChristianityConservative Christianity is a term applied to a number of groups or movements seen as giving priority to traditional Christian beliefs and practices...
- Fundamentalist ChristianityFundamentalist ChristianityChristian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
External links
- Clayton TV - Bible based TV resources to train and encourage Christians
- GraceNet UK - contains a large directory of conservative evangelical churches
- The Latimer Trust - About Us - Conservative evangelical thinktank, has a link to their basis of faith showing some conservative evangelical distinctives
- Association Of Grace Baptist Churches (South East)