What Is Evangelical Christianity?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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