2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist—Religion

Evangelicalism in America has cracked, split on the shoals of the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath, leaving many wondering if they wantto be in or out of the evangelical tribe. The contentiousness brought to the fore surrounds what it means to affirm and demonstrate evangelical Christian faith amidst the messy and polarized realities gripping our country and world. Who or what is defining the evangelical social and political vision? Is it the gospel or is it culture? For a movement that has been about the primacy of Christian faith, this is a crisis.

This collection of essays was gathered by Mark Labberton, president of FullerTheological Seminary, who provides an introduction to the volume. What follows is a diverse and provocative set of perspectives and reflections from evangelical insiders who wrestle with their responses to the question of what it means to be evangelical in light of their convictions.

Contributors include:



- Shane Claiborne, Red Letter Christians

- Jim Daly, Focus on the Family

- Mark Galli, Christianity Today

- Lisa Sharon Harper, FreedomRoad.us

- Tom Lin, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship

- Karen Swallow Prior, Liberty University

- Soong-Chan Rah, North Park University

- Robert Chao Romero, UCLA

- Sandra Maria Van Opstal, Grace and Peace Community

- Allen Yeh, Biola University

- Mark Young, Denver Seminary

Referring to oneself as evangelical cannot be merely a congratulatory self-description. It must instead be a commitment and aspiration guided by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. What now are Christ's followers called to do in response to this identity crisis?



Sandra Maria Van Opstal is a second-generation Latina pastor, an activist, an author, and a powerful leading voice on the intersection of faith and justice. She is executive director of Chasing Justice, a movement that mobilizes Christians to livejustly. Sandra's distinctiveness comes from working in both local and global contexts as a practitioner and an academic. She has reached audiences around the world on topics of reconciliation, global justice, and worship.







Shane Claiborne is a preacher, writer and lover of Jesus. He attended Eastern University, where he studied sociology and youth ministry. Claiborne is cofounder of The Simple Way and is currently a part of The Alternative Seminary in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania. He serves on the board of the Christian Community Development Association. He is the author of The Irresistible Revolution and coauthor of Jesus for President. Catch up with him at thesimpleway.org.







Allen Yeh (DPhil, Oxford) is dean and vice president of academic affairs at International Theological Seminary near Los Angeles. He is the author of Polycentric Missiology and the coeditor, with Tite Tiénou, of Majority World Theologies.







Mark Labberton is the former president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He previously served as Lloyd John Ogilvie chair for preaching and director of the Lloyd John Ogilvie Institute for Preaching. Prior to that, Labbertonwas senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, California. He has also served as chair of John Stott Ministries. Today he continues to contribute to the mission of the global church as a senior fellow of the International Justice Mission. He is the author of The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor and The Dangerous Act of Worship.







Galli is the managing editor of Christianity Today magazine. He previously edited Christian History. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and for 10 years served as a Presbyterian pastor in parishes in Mexico City and California. He has written books on preaching, prayer and the challenges of pastoral ministry, and is a contributing writer to The Christian Millennial History Project. He is married with three children.







Tom Lin is the director of the Urbana Student Missions Conference and vice president of missions for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. He has planted a student movement in Mongolia with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, helped plant sixteen campus fellowships in the U.S. and spoken to thousands about missions. He is the author of Losing Face Finding Grace, and he also serves as the vice chairman of the board for Wycliffe Bible Translators and as the Lausanne international deputy director for North America.







Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah (ThM, Harvard; DMin, Gordon-Conwell; ThD, Duke) is Robert B. Munger Professor of Evangelism and Church Renewal at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books including The Next Evangelicalism, Many Colors, and Prophetic Lament, and he is the co-author of Unsettling Truths. Rah has extensive experience in cross-cultural preaching and has been a main stage speaker at the Urbana Student Missions Conference, the Congress on Urban Ministry, the Urban Youth Workers Institute Conference, the CCDA National Conference, the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary National Preaching Conference, the Fuller Missiology Conference, the Justice Conference, and Verge, Catalyst, and Calvin Worship Conferences.







Robert Chao Romero (PhD, University of California at Los Angeles; JD, University of California at Berkeley) is associate professor in the Departments of Chicana/o Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. He is the author of the award-winning The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940, Jesus for Revolutionaries: An Introduction to Race, Social Justice, and Christianity, and Mixed Race Student Politics.



Introduction: Still Evangelical? (Mark Labberton)

1. Will Evangelicalism Surrender? (Lisa Sharon Harper)

2. Why I Am an Evangelical (Karen Swallow Prior)

3. Recapturing Evangelical Identity and Mission (Mark Young)

4. Immigration and the Latina/o Community (Robert Chao Romero)

5. Evangelical Futures (Soong-Chan Rah)

6. Theology and Orthopraxis in Global Evangelicalism (Allen Yeh)

7. Remaining to Reform (Sandra Maria Van Opstal)

8. Looking for Unity in All the Wrong Places (Mark Galli)

9. Evangelicalism Must Be Born Again (Shane Claiborne)

10. The Importance of Listening in Today's Evangelicalism (Jim Daly)

11. Hope for the Next Generation (Tom Lin)

Notes

Contributors