Although I am an Evangelical, I am dismayed by so many Evangelical leaders in the Baptist denomination as also in the Church of England who do not welcome and learn from those who are different from them. Indeed, there are some Baptist ministers who believe that there is no place for people who do not share their views. The same is true of Anglican clerics who believe there is no place for people who are different from them. Yet when they die and go to heaven they will be in for a great surprise, because they will discover that in heaven Evangelicals will not be in the majority around the throne of God!
As I look back on my life, I was blessed with a father who was open to the insights of others who were different from him. I remember that when I was a child my father began to attend ‘Faith and Order’ meetings sponsored by the World Council of Churches. He thoroughly enjoyed meeting with and learning from theologians who had quite different views from himself. Although he wrote the definitive book by a Baptist on baptism, entitled Baptism in the New Testament (Macmillan, London 1962), in which he argued that baptism is for believers, the book bears witness of how much he learnt from others, not least in the way in which he saw baptism not just as an act of obedience and a witness to others, but a ‘sacrament’ in which God through his Spirit blesses those who are baptised. His concern for Christian unity led him toward the end of his life to contribute an article in a ‘Festschrift’ for his friend Günter Wagner, in which he made
the plea that churches which practise believer’s baptism should consider acknowledging the legitimacy of infant baptism and allow Paedobaptist churches the right to interpret it according to their consciences (Peter Laing, Berne, pp 13,14).
He once shared a platform with an Anglo-Catholic Bishop and a Roman Catholic priest and publicly acknowledged them as brothers in Christ (Fearless for Truth, Paternoster 2003, pp 135-136, by Paul Beasley-Murray). This enraged many Evangelicals, who stood outside the church to protest vehemently against his stance.
However, there was an occasion when my father publicly disagreed with Michael Taylor, a fellow Baptist college principal who at a Baptist Union Assembly questioned the divinity of Jesus. As a result many Baptist ministers took their churches out of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. My father’s response was to move a motion at the next year’s Assembly which reaffirmed the Declaration of Principle of the Baptist Union which declared that “The basis of this union is “that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures”. In no way did he publicly attack his fellow college principal: rather he met with him privately and shared his differences with him (Fearless for Truth, pp145-159). As my father said we must always respect “the opinions of others”, however much we may disagree (Fearless for Truth, pp144-159).
My father’s way of dealing with people with whom he differed influenced me. So, when in 1963 I went up to Jesus College, Cambridge, on a Sunday evening I would sometimes attend an evening service put on by CICCU (the Cambridge Intercollegiate Christian Union), the Evangelical student group; but sometimes on a Sunday evening I would go to Great St Mary’s to hear well-known people who were not normally Evangelical but were Christians with something worthwhile to say. On Sunday afternoons I attended meetings of the Robert Hall Society, the Cambridge Baptist student society, which contained a variety of students with differing understandings of the Christian faith. I was elected President of the Robert Hall Society (1965-1966). In 1965 I became the Chairman of the Cambridge Student Christian Council which was composed of representatives from other denominations of whom few were Evangelicals. I believed and still believe that the Christian world is far larger than the Evangelical world, and non-Evangelicals are my brothers and sisters in Christ.
From Cambridge I went to Manchester in 1967, where along with training for Baptist ministry, I did a PhD on The Lordship of Christ over the world in the Corpus Paulinum, studying the hymns, confessions, and creeds found in Paul’s letters. With few exceptions, no Evangelical Biblical scholar had anything to say in the books I consulted as part of my research: instead the most helpful scholars were non-Evangelicals such as American and German Roman Catholics, as well as members of the German Lutheran Church and the Swiss Reformed Church.
After ordination on 10 October 1970 I went to Kisangani, where I taught New Testament and Greek in the Protestant Theological Faculty of the National University of Congo. Here the teachers represented a variety of Christian denominations including the American Baptist Convention, the American Churches of Christ, the Dutch Reformed Church, and the Scottish Presbyterian Church. Some were Evangelical, but some were not. In spite of our theological differences, we worked together harmoniously.
From Congo I became the minister of Altrincham Baptist Church (1963-1986), in Cheshire. Although it was an Evangelical church, one of my deacons was certainly not an Evangelical. An eminent medical professor at Manchester, he was a real ‘liberal’ and found it difficult to say more than Jesus is “my leader”. Yet in spite of what was an inadequate understanding of Jesus, I never met a man who reflected more the person of Jesus. Every week he collected soiled sheets from an elderly lady and washed them himself.
Then after six years as Principal of Spurgeon’s College (1976-1982), a large Evangelical Baptist theological college in South London, I became the senior minister of Central Baptist Church, Chelmsford (1973-2014). Here I developed good relationships with many non-Evangelical ministers in the town, who included a Roman Catholic priest and an Anglican priest from the Cathedral, and none of the other three were Evangelical. Every January we preached in one another’s churches, and the most positive response to my preaching was in the large Roman Catholic church.
Now in retirement I worship in Chelmsford Cathedral, where Evangelicals are just a small minority, and none of the Cathedral canons would describe themselves as Evangelicals. Yet, when they preach, I always gain new insights from God’s Word as contained in the Bible. Indeed, a gay Canon who left us in December 2024 proved to be an extraordinary Biblical expositor and is probably one of the best preachers I have ever heard. Now many Baptist ministers would probably have nothing to do with such a man, but I learnt more from this Canon than – with the exception of my father – I have ever learned from a minister.
To sum up, I strongly believe that Evangelical leaders need to welcome and learn from those who are different from them.
Thank you, Paul, for another encouraging sharing of your experiences. I too value the preaching of the other Paul who always ‘took the bull by the horns’. I sent my appreciation to him as soon as I realised that he would not become the ‘new’ dean. Indeed, I recently asked his advice re commentaries on the book of Revelation when Alan was preaching on a day that a passage from that book was included in the readings. I had an instant, pithy, explained response with two suggestions. But God had the last laugh as we eventually realised that Alan already had two commentaries on Revelation & I had one (clearly never opened but bought just pre Covid with good intentions). In addition (because Alan finds it very difficult to use the internet due to his poor sight but can read commentaries on a large desktop digital reader he has) I acquired the commentary in the series Alan has for some time found helpful & the two ‘more Catholic’ ones suggested by the other Paul. Alan has found the other Paul’s suggestions valuable but tells me that all the commentaries disagree with each other. What a surprise!! Unlike the majority of Anglican clergy in Swansea, who only ever preach on the Gospel reading, Alan always tries to include all the readings in his address, even if they are only mentioned as periphery, though he will often major on the Old Testament reading and link it in to the other readings.
We hope that you and yours are keeping well.
We are planning to spend a couple of weeks in Chelmsford in June but who knows whether we will make it. If we do, we will certainly try to worship at the Cathedral more than once.
Bendithion
Elaine Griffiths
Thank you Paul, I agree with your line of thinking. I am grateful for my evangelical grounding of a biblical faith in Christ, but am aware of the acrimony that often arises amongst us. I have felt led to engage in the wider Christian church, which also has given me the odd occasions where my voice can be heard.
When in Wandsworth, the borough council wanted to put on a service in Battersea Park to commemorate 2000 year since the birth of the church on Pentecost Sunday, my fellow Anglican suggested no preaching was appropriate, I disagreed and as a result was asked to find an appropriate preacher. Dr Michael Quicke kindly came along and fulfilled the task.
I would certainly not consider myself an evangelical but I hope that all of us might in our own way attempt to pass on the good news ( as you know well, the meaning of the word). Our very varied approaches are so valuable as we are all such different individuals and I do believe that all our attempts to pass on the good news can be used when offered wholeheartedly with genuine concern for those with whom we are interacting.
As Christians we are of course called to treat everyone with love and respect. We are also called to listen with respect to other Christians who have a different interpretation of the Bible and to agree to differ on issues which are unclear or of minor importance. We are called to strive for Christian unity.
However, there is a balance between unity and truth. We cannot sacrifice truth to unity. Evangelicals believe that the Bible forbids gay relationships as they are contrary to God’s plan in creating male and female.
Indeed this has been the view of mainstream churches over the centuries including the Anglican church. However, in recent years the Anglican Church has shifted its view which has made it difficult for Evangelicals to remain within it.. This is one of the issues which Rico Tice the co-author of Christianity Explored, touches upon in the interview on You Tube entitled ” I did not leave the Anglican Church; the Anglican Church left me.”
Evangelicals, on the other hand.,have on the whole remained true to the Biblical prohibition of same sex relationships. It is therefore difficult to see how leaders in an Evangelical Church can simply agree to differ with a church minister in a gay relationship and ,for example, invite him to preach. The problem is that the preacher has chosen to live a lifestyle totally at odds with the teaching of the Bible. In fact, the more eloquent the preacher, the more glaring the problem becomes.
I became a Christian in an Anglican Church but,as I cannot accept recent changes in Anglican theology, I would decsribe myself as a former Anglican. In the same way surely those who no longer accept the Evangelical position on same sex relationships should describe themselves as former Evangelicals.