In recent years, there has been an effort among some in American popular media to “define evangelicalism down.” This dumbing down of evangelicalism strips evangelicalism of any theological commitments while understanding it primarily in terms of political engagements, specifically those of the Republican Party. This redefines evangelicalism from a historical reality rooted in the gospel to a merely provincial [i.e., American] movement bound by narrow political ideologies.
Global evangelicalism, however, is not the diffusion of uniquely American political commitments, but theological commitments having to do with the gospel. Modern scholarship on evangelicalism since the early 1980s has been remarkably homogenous on this fact if even with important distinctions. For example, American religious historian George Marsden identified a five-fold understanding of evangelicalism with evangelicals believing in the ultimate authority of the Bible, the historicity of God’s saving work, personal faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, the necessity of evangelism and missions, and the need for personal holiness. Several years later British scholar David Bebbington limited his understanding of evangelicalism to four qualities of ‘conversionism’, ‘activism’, ‘biblicism’, and ‘crucicentrism’. Then Australian Stuart Piggin, with still more brevity, condensed his framework to three: Spirit, Word, and world (Hutchinson/Wolffe, A Short History of Global Evangelicalism, 14–17). Finally, Thomas Kidd (Who is an Evangelical?) offered his own tripartite understanding of evangelicalism as “conversion, Bible, and divine presence” (5). What is remarkable about each of these “lists” is how adaptable they are across the globe. In other words, given the nature of evangelicalism as a gospel movement, it is globally transferrable.
This paper argues that preaching, given what it is and what it does, is uniquely designed for the global transmission of evangelicalism and, therefore, global evangelicalism cannot be understood apart from preaching.
The argument will proceed along the following lines. First, evangelicalism will be defined historically and seen in its global context. Second, having defined evangelicalism, the biblical case will be made for its global diffusion. Third, preaching will be defined and considered for its unique contribution to evangelicalism’s global advance.
This paper asks and seeks to answer several important research questions:
1. What is evangelicalism?
2. Is evangelicalism worth spreading?
3. What is preaching and why is it uniquely designed for evangelicalism’s global diffusion?
4. Are there historical examples of preachers who saw proclamation as the great means of the global spread of the gospel?
5. If preaching is uniquely suited for evangelicalism’s global transmission, what are the implications for evangelical ecclesiology?