A Question Begging an Honest Answer
First thing to understand is that like Progressive Christianity, Evangelical Christianity is not a denomination or a single institution. It is a movement within the larger Christian tradition that emphasizes personal conversion, the authority of Scripture, the centrality of Christ's death and resurrection, and the urgency of sharing the gospel. At its best it has accomplished an immeasurable amount of good in the world. Evangelicalism has sparked revivals, sent missionaries, planted churches, fought against poverty and injustice, founded orphanages, and called millions into a transformative relationship with Jesus Christ.
Looking Beyond Labels
Evangelicals are also on many people's bash list, and in cases deservedly so. However, like all labels, they can be broad brushed with a meme and misunderstood just as easily. I want to go deeper and take an honest look beyond what bias and propaganda would provide. If for no other reason than to give someone a bit more understanding and perhaps a pause before letting fly with unrecoverable words..
At Faith Over Factions, we recognize evangelicals as family—complicated family, but family nonetheless. Many who read these words grew up evangelical. You learned to love Scripture in these churches. You met Jesus at evangelical altars and summer camps. You were taught to take the Bible seriously, to expect personal transformation, and to believe that faith should change how one lives. You learned Christianity through the evangelical lens.
We all have our own journey and the stories that go with it. No doubt many readers think we're mental for believing in God at all. I was raised Catholic and went to a parochial school. Much of my early understanding of God comes through that lens. Which is why labels need to be closely examined, They can only rarely be accurately applied to the individual. They can't describe the rich complexity of a person's individual journey. They can only flatten a person to an object. One that can be selectively loved. But humans label. God's first instruction to Adam was to name everything. We haven't slowed down since. Keeping labels in context means applying them to ideological groupings with regard to a set of known facts and then only loosely associating the individual in that context. That is what this article is for. To supply objectivity to a label that in the minds of many has been reduced to a meme.
Anyone who is paying attention knows the evangelical movement is wrestling with deep tensions right now. Some don't even consider them to be wrestling, but wholly gone over to the dark side. But that's a false narrative that I want to help dispel with this reflection. That said I do not write as a critic from the outside. I write as one who carries evangelical DNA even as I walk a path that doesn't fit neatly within the movement's current boundaries.
My hope is not to deconstruct evangelicalism but to honor its gifts, learn from its struggles, and walk alongside those within the movement who are working to recover its better angels. Because evangelicalism at its core offers truths the whole church needs—especially when large segments of the movement itself loses sight of them to the glare of gold and temporal power.
A Short History of Evangelical Christianity
The word "evangelical" comes from the Greek euangelion, meaning "good news" or "gospel." In this sense, all Christians who proclaim Christ could be called evangelical. But as a distinct movement, evangelicalism emerged from the Protestant Reformation and the revival movements of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The First Great Awakening (1730s-1740s) brought passionate preaching, personal conversion experiences, and a focus on individual relationship with God through figures like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. The Second Great Awakening (early 1800s) added camp meetings, circuit riders, and missionary zeal that spread Christianity across the American frontier and fueled movements for abolition and social reform.
By the early 20th century, evangelicalism defined itself in opposition to theological liberalism, emphasizing biblical inerrancy, Christ's literal resurrection, and the necessity of being "born again." After World War II, leaders like Billy Graham, Carl F.H. Henry, and Harold Ockenga sought to create a "new evangelicalism"—intellectually credible, socially engaged, and distinct from fundamentalism's separatism.
For decades, evangelicalism thrived as a broad coalition united by shared convictions rather than denominational structures. It produced publishers, colleges, relief organizations, robust scholarship, and a vibrant popular culture of worship music and devotional literature. It sent more missionaries than any other Christian movement and built hospitals, schools, and orphanages around the world.
Churches and Denominations Often Associated with Evangelical Christianity
Evangelicalism cuts across many traditions and is represented by hundreds of organized groups. Some of the churches and networks most closely identified with the movement include:
- Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) – The largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., known for emphasis on missions, evangelism, and local church autonomy.
- Assemblies of God – A Pentecostal denomination emphasizing spiritual gifts, personal conversion, and biblical authority.
- Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) – A conservative Reformed denomination committed to biblical inerrancy and confessional theology.
- Evangelical Free Church of America – A network of autonomous congregations united by a brief statement of faith and emphasis on personal salvation.
- Many independent Bible churches and megachurches – From Calvary Chapel to contemporary nondenominational congregations, these churches often embrace evangelical theology while resisting formal denominational structures.
- Conservative wings of historically mainline churches – Including evangelical Lutherans (LCMS), Anglicans (ACNA), and Methodists.
These groups differ significantly on secondary issues—worship style, spiritual gifts, ecclesiology, eschatology—but generally share the core evangelical convictions articulated below.
Core Emphases of Evangelical Christianity
Historian David Bebbington identified four defining characteristics that have become the standard framework for understanding evangelicalism(1):
Conversionism
Evangelicals believe that individuals must be "born again" through a personal decision to trust Jesus Christ for salvation. Faith is not inherited or automatic but comes through conscious repentance and acceptance of the gospel.
John Wesley described this as "having your heart strangely warmed"—the moment when doctrine becomes experience and Christ becomes personally real. This emphasis has driven evangelicalism's passion for evangelism and personal testimony.
Activism
Faith must be lived out. Evangelicals have historically emphasized missionary work, social reform, and personal discipleship. The gospel is not only believed but proclaimed and demonstrated through action.
This activism founded hospitals, fought slavery, established relief organizations like World Vision and Samaritan's Purse, and continues to mobilize volunteers for disaster relief and community service worldwide.
Biblicism
Scripture is the ultimate authority for faith and practice. Evangelicals affirm the Bible's inspiration, reliability, and sufficiency as God's revealed word.
This high view of Scripture has shaped evangelical preaching (which tends to be expository and text-driven), produced extensive biblical scholarship, and created a culture where ordinary believers are encouraged to read and study the Bible for themselves.
Crucicentrism
The cross is central. Jesus' substitutionary death for sin and His bodily resurrection are non-negotiable truths. Salvation comes through Christ alone, not through human effort or religious ritual.
John Stott wrote, *"The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man."*(2) This theology of grace remains evangelicalism's greatest gift to the church.
Where Faith Over Factions Stands with Evangelicalism
We share much of evangelicalism's theological foundation:
- We believe Scripture is authoritative—though we read it with attention to context, genre, and the arc of God's redemptive story rather than as a flat rulebook.
- We believe in personal transformation—that encountering Christ changes lives and that faith is meant to be experienced, not just inherited.
- We believe the cross is central—that Jesus' death and resurrection are the hinge of history and the source of our hope.
- We believe faith must be active—that following Jesus means concrete acts of love, justice, and service.
Where we differ is often not in the core convictions but in how they're applied. We believe biblical authority is best honored through careful interpretation that listens for God's voice rather than proof-texting for cultural battles. We believe activism includes working for systemic justice, not just individual charity. We believe evangelism is most powerful when it demonstrates love rather than demands agreement or blind obedience. We also find common ground with many who identify as progressive Christians, especially in their concern for justice and inclusion, even as we remain unaligned with any single camp.
But these are differences within a shared family of faith, not different religions. We are not trying to leave evangelicalism behind but to live out its better instincts in a way that feels honest to both Scripture and conscience.
Voices of Hope Within Evangelicalism
Even as the movement faces real challenges, there are evangelical leaders, churches, and communities working faithfully to embody the gospel with integrity. These voices give us hope:
Pastors choosing local faithfulness over celebrity culture – Countless evangelical pastors are quietly shepherding their flocks, preaching the Bible, caring for the poor, and refusing the pull of culture war activism. They may not make headlines, but they represent the movement's true heart.
Scholars defending rigorous biblical study – From Fuller Seminary to Wheaton College, evangelical institutions continue producing careful scholarship that takes both Scripture and context seriously.
Organizations focused on holistic mission – Groups like the Christian Community Development Association, Christians for Social Action, and countless local ministries demonstrate that concern for souls and concern for justice are not competing commitments.
Young evangelicals asking hard questions – A rising generation is refusing to choose between biblical faithfulness and compassion for the marginalized. They're reading Scripture more carefully, not less, and finding there a call to justice that previous generations missed.
Voices like:
- Tim Keller, who modeled urban ministry that combined theological depth with cultural engagement
- Jen Pollock Michel, writing about everyday faithfulness and embodied faith
- Esau McCaulley, bringing Black church perspectives into evangelical biblical scholarship
- Karen Swallow Prior, calling evangelicals to virtue ethics and careful cultural engagement
- Russell Moore, speaking prophetically about evangelical politics while remaining committed to the movement's theological core
These and many others are working to renew evangelicalism from within—not by abandoning its convictions but by living them more faithfully.
Honest About the Struggles
We would be dishonest not to acknowledge that a large swath of the evangelical movement has become entangled with wealth, political power, nationalism, culture wars and celebrity culture in ways that deeply contradict the gospel message. In the United States, that entanglement has often been racial as well: a long history of white churches defending slavery and segregation, resisting the Civil Rights Movement, and building whole theologies to justify racial hierarchy. Denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention were literally founded in defense of slaveholding and only formally confessed that history and their opposition to civil rights generations later.
Historians have shown how segregationist theology and white-identity politics shaped much of white evangelical life in the South and did not simply vanish when the laws changed.
Christian nationalism has gained strength and momentum in evangelical circles. The movement that once emphasized "dying to self" has for the last 50 years been grasping at cultural dominance through wealth, spectacle and political power. Churches that preached servanthood have begun to pursue influence. Pulpits that once preached grace have become campaign platforms. Saints have become soldiers in social media culture wars that neither edify the body of Christ or magnify His testimony to the world. In far too many cases, that culture-war posture has linked the name of Jesus to white resentment, nativism, and racially coded fears about crime, immigration, and “losing our country,” cementing the public perception that “evangelical” means white, nationalist, and hostile to people of color.
These are real failures, and they've driven many away—not because they rejected Jesus but because they couldn't reconcile what they saw with what they were taught. We have addressed this failure in detail in other articles on this site. Books, reports, and testimonies from within the church have documented how deeply these complicities with nationalism and racism runs, and how much repentance and repair are still needed.
But these struggles are not the whole story. And they're struggles the church has faced before. The prophets called Israel back when temple worship became corrupted. The Reformers called the church back when the gospel was obscured. Renewal movements rise whenever institutionalized faith loses its way.
The question is not whether evangelicalism will weather this crisis but whether it will respond with repentance and return to its core calling by broad rejection of Seven Mountain Mandate and Christian Nationalist ideologies, and by telling the truth about its history with race and power instead of defending it.
The Path Forward Together
Evangelicalism's future depends on recovering what made it powerful in the first place: the scandalous grace of a God who saves by sacrifice, not coercion. A Bible read with both reverence and humility. A faith that transforms individuals and communities. A mission rooted in love, not fear.
Faith Over Factions walks a path that overlaps significantly with faithful evangelicalism. We may use different language on some issues. We may emphasize different aspects of Scripture's witness. But we share the conviction that Jesus is Lord, that Scripture guides us, and that the gospel calls us to both personal holiness and public justice.
We are not building walls between ourselves and evangelical Christians. We are extending a hand—to those still within the movement who feel isolated, to those who've left but still carry its gifts, and to those working for renewal from within.
The first piling for any bridge between evangelicals and progressives is understanding that the church is bigger than any single movement within the circle of faith. And the gospel is powerful enough to survive our failures and renew even what seems lost.
If the erring branches of evangelicalism can return to the cross—not as a tribal marker or ideological avatar, but as the place where God's love overcame violence—it has a future. And if it cannot, God's work will continue through other vessels. But our prayer is for renewal, not replacement. For repentance, not retreat. For a return to the humble, costly, transformative faith that first made evangelicalism a beautiful expression of Christianity.
And perhaps we can walk that path together.
Footnotes
David W. Bebbington first articulated these four characteristics—conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism—in Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989), 2-17. This framework has become the standard academic definition of evangelicalism.- John R.W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (InterVarsity Press, 1986).
FAQ: Your Questions Answered
Evangelicalism spans hundreds of denominations, thousands of congregations, dozens of nations, and centuries of history. Describing it completely in a single article is a little like describing the ocean by handing someone a cup of water — true as far as it goes, but inevitably partial. The article above offers a honest framework, but frameworks have edges, and your experience, your questions, and your story may live right at those edges. That's expected. That's welcome. If something in the article raised a question it didn't answer, if a definition felt incomplete, or if your experience of evangelicalism doesn't fit neatly into any category offered here — ask. Use the contact form or drop a question in the comments. We read everything, we answer what we can, and your questions genuinely shape what gets written next. No question is too basic, too hostile, or too complicated. The goal here has never been to hand you a tidy package — it's to think honestly together about a faith tradition that has done enormous good, caused real harm, and is still very much a work in progress. Just like the rest of us.
Both movements value biblical authority and personal conversion, but they part ways on engagement with the broader culture. Fundamentalism, which emerged in the early 20th century, emphasizes strict doctrinal separation — from denominations that compromised on certain beliefs and from secular culture broadly. Evangelicalism, especially in its post-WWII form, sought to re-engage culture, dialogue with scholarship, and build institutions (colleges, publishers, relief organizations) rather than retreat from the world. The "new evangelicalism" of figures like Billy Graham explicitly defined itself against fundamentalist separatism. In practice today, the lines blur — some congregations called evangelical are functionally fundamentalist in posture, and vice versa.
The phrase comes from Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in John 3, where He says a person must be "born again" (or "born from above") to enter the kingdom of God. In evangelical theology, it refers to a spiritual transformation — a moment or process by which a person moves from spiritual deadness to spiritual life through faith in Christ. It involves recognizing one's need for forgiveness, trusting in Jesus' death and resurrection as the means of that forgiveness, and surrendering one's life to Him. Evangelicals generally believe this is not automatic, inherited, or produced by religious ritual, but is a genuine personal response to the gospel. The experience varies widely — some people can point to a single moment; others describe a gradual awakening.
Inerrancy is the belief that the Bible, in its original manuscripts, is without error in everything it affirms. It's important to note that most evangelical scholars apply this carefully — they acknowledge different literary genres (poetry, apocalyptic literature, historical narrative), the need for good interpretation, and the role of language and culture in how truth is communicated. "Inerrancy" doesn't mean every sentence is a scientific statement or that all biblical numbers are meant literally. Where evangelicals differ is on whether the Bible's teaching on theology, ethics, and its historical claims can be trusted as authoritative. A looser term, "infallibility," is preferred by some evangelicals who want to affirm the Bible's trustworthiness without committing to every technical implication of inerrancy.
Evangelicals generally hold to justification by faith alone (sola fide) — the idea that a person is made right with God not through good works or religious performance but through trust in Christ's atoning work. Most believe in a bodily resurrection and a final judgment, with eternal life for those who are in Christ and eternal separation from God for those who are not. Views on hell vary — from eternal conscious torment, to annihilationism (the unsaved simply cease to exist), to a smaller minority who hold forms of conditional immortality. What happens to those who never hear the gospel is a genuinely debated question within evangelical theology, with answers ranging from "only those who explicitly confess Christ are saved" to views that leave more room for God's mercy in those cases.
Christian nationalism is a political ideology that holds that America was founded as a Christian nation and should be governed according to Christian (often specifically Protestant) principles — that national identity and Christian identity should be fused. It is distinct from mere civic Christianity (believing faith has a public role) or from Christians who are politically active. At its more extreme edges, it advocates for laws derived from a particular reading of Scripture, for the privileging of Christianity in public life, and sometimes for the restoration of a mythologized Christian past. Most evangelical theologians explicitly reject Christian nationalism as a confusion of the kingdom of God with earthly political power — a temptation the New Testament warns against repeatedly. The concern among critics is that it instrumentalizes faith for national or ethnic identity rather than the other way around.
This is a common perception, and like most stereotypes it contains both truth and significant distortion. Historically, evangelicalism produced robust scholarship — figures like C.S. Lewis, Alvin Plantinga, N.T. Wright, and Francis Collins (the geneticist who led the Human Genome Project and identified as an evangelical Christian) don't fit the anti-intellectual caricature. The tension with science is most acute around origins (evolution and the age of the earth), where evangelical communities hold a range of positions — from young-earth creationism to evolutionary creationism (sometimes called "BioLogos"). The perception of anti-intellectualism is reinforced when populist or politically driven voices in the movement dismiss expertise, but this is not representative of evangelical thought at its best.
Far from it. The global evangelical church is enormous and growing rapidly, particularly in the Global South — sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, South Korea, China, and parts of Southeast Asia. In many respects the center of world evangelicalism has already shifted away from North America. African and Latin American evangelical churches often hold theologically conservative views on Scripture and sexuality while being far less entangled with American-style political conservatism. The conflation of "evangelical" with "white American Republican" is largely a media and political artifact — it doesn't reflect the worldwide movement, which is far more diverse in ethnicity, culture, and political expression.
Many people are in exactly this place. The important thing to name is that the political entanglements of American evangelicalism — the culture wars, the nationalist drift, the celebrity pastors — are not the core of evangelical faith. They are distortions of it, and many evangelicals would agree. If what drove you away was a confusion of the gospel with political power, you weren't rejecting Jesus — you were rejecting something that had been wrongly attached to His name. There are evangelical communities that are working to disentangle those things: smaller congregations, historically Black churches, multiethnic evangelical churches, and communities formed around figures like those mentioned in this article. A return doesn't require accepting the package deal. It may mean finding a smaller, quieter, more faithful expression of the tradition. That can take time, and it's okay if it does.
This phrase is evangelical shorthand for something the Bible describes in various ways: abiding in Christ, walking by the Spirit, communion with God. In practice, it typically involves regular prayer (talking to God and listening), reading Scripture as a living word rather than a historical artifact, participating in a faith community, and an ongoing attentiveness to how one's daily choices align with one's values. For evangelicals, it's less about following a religious code and more about an ongoing relationship — trust, honesty, gratitude, and dependence directed toward a personal God who is present and active. Like any relationship, it looks different for different people and in different seasons.
