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Evangelical Theological Society
November 14, 2001

Defining Evangelicalism's Boundaries
While Witnessing to the Ends of the Earth
by
Rick Love, Ph.D.

The theme for this year's ETS, "Defining the Boundaries of Evangelicalism," has
profound implications for the health of the church and the spread of the gospel. As the
International Director of an evangelical mission devoted to church planting in the Muslim
world, I am particularly concerned with the relevance of this topic for world evangelization.
Where we draw our "evangelical boundaries"
1
can either help or hinder the cause of world
evangelization.
As I reflect on this issue, I find I am too often dissatisfied with both missiologists and
theologians on these types of subjects. More often than I would like to admit, evangelical
missiology, as practiced, reflects "the marriage of mediocre anthropology and shallow
theology" (Burrows 1995:175). But it is also true that evangelical theology too often reflects
a monocultural perspective without evangelistic orientation.
2
Thus, as I have argued
elsewhere, Evangelicals are genuinely in need of "missiological theologians and theological
missiologists" (Love 1995), especially as we address the issues of Evangelicalism's
boundaries.
Defining Evangelicalism
The issues raised by this topic can be vividly illustrated in a conversion I had with my
wife over lunch recently. Fran asked, "So tell me what you plan on saying about missions and
the boundaries of Evangelicalism?" I countered with a question of my own. "What do you
think is the essence of our message?" With great conviction and without hesitation, she
answered, "Salvation in Christ ­ that's it!" I said, "You're right. But if we are going to plant
churches among Muslim peoples, what else do they need to believe?" She paused. Then a
series of doctrines cascaded from her lips: "They need to believe in the authority of the Bible,
the doctrine of creation, the church, the Holy Spirit and so forth." I smiled and said,
"Precisely! Everything begins with the gospel and flows from the gospel. But there is more to
the essence of our message than salvation in Christ."
Perhaps the simplest definition of Evangelicalism is outlined in the two-point
doctrinal statement of the ETS: "The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of
God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. God is a Trinity, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory." The
1
Frontiers is also an interdenominational evangelical mission. So the writing of this paper has been a helpful
exercise in determining just how broad the evangelical spectrum is.
2
Theologian John G. Stackhouse rightly notes this glaring inadequacy: "Indeed, one of the greatest scandals of
evangelical theology in our time ­ and of academic theology in general ­ is the almost complete disinterest such
theology has for the experience and reflection of missionaries and missiologists. Yet theologians would do well
to link up the ivory tower and the mission field" (Stackhouse 2000:55). According to the preeminent New
Testament scholar, Richard Longenecker, "Christians have always been involved in contextualizing the gospel
... The most important catalyst for `thinking contextually' as Christians has always been, and is today, the
missionary enterprise of the church. It is at the frontiers of the Christian mission that the church directly
encounters other religions, other worldviews, and other cultural values, and so it is at the frontiers of the
Christian mission that the most intensive study of contextualization takes place" (Longenecker 1999:132).