What Does "Evangelical" Mean Today?

At the 2018 EFCA Theology Conference, we discussed, “The Gospel, Compassion and Justice, and the EFCA.” In the context of loving relationships, we humbly listened and learned. Since that time, God has continued His good work in and among our movement as we seek to love God and love others—specifically in the realm of racial reconciliation. And not only did we learn in the past, but we also continue to learn in the present.

With the messages of the 2018 conference ringing and resonating in our hearts and minds, we continued that theme and those messages in our 2019 Theology Preconference: “Evangel, Evangelical, Evangelicalism and the EFCA.”

In this session, Greg Strand, executive director of theology and credentialing at the EFCA, introduced the preconference and the discussion on the term, “evangelical,” which has its roots in the gospel, the evangel, but has recently been questioned.

“What does it mean to claim to be an ‘evangelical’ today? Is the term worth retaining? Because of what is happening in our culture regarding racial, political, sexual and moral issues, some—maybe many—are questioning whether or not they want to retain the term, ‘evangelical.’ People are still processing how we think about this: how do we retain our faithfulness to the Scriptures? How do we love God and others? How do we live out the oneness created by Christ in the Church?” — Greg Strand

Listen to the full introduction in the EFCA Theology Podcast episode and stay tuned for the upcoming podcasts from the conference. If you missed other episodes from the conference, find them in the EFCA Theology Podcast archives.