A number one church historian has warned that the general public image of evangelicals is being distorted by US politics, at the same time as the movement experiences rapid growth and renewed vitality across the Global South.
In a wide-ranging conversation on the Evangelical 360 podcast, host Brian Stiller spoke with Austrian scholar and church leader Frank Hinkelmann in regards to the history and way forward for the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and the one-quarter of the world’s Christians who discover with evangelical faith.
Dr Hinkelmann traced the word ‘evangelical’ back to the Reformation, when the German term evangelisch was used to explain Protestants shaped by 4 central convictions: the authority of the Bible, the centrality of Christ’s atoning death, personal conversion, and lively faith.
Over time, he explained, evangelicalism became “transnational,” “interconfessional,” and “interdenominational.
Revival movements emerged in various traditions, often cooperating with mission societies, Bible societies and evangelistic campaigns.
That shared conviction led to the formation of the World Evangelical Alliance in London in 1846, initially a fellowship of people who held leadership roles inside their various agencies and denominations, reasonably than denominations.
One of its early priorities, Dr Hinkelmann noted, was to withstand emerging liberal theologies that questioned the Bible’s reliability and divinity in addition to core Christian doctrines just like the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
At the identical time, the Alliance quickly became known for defending religious liberty. It lobbied governments on behalf of Baptists, Methodists and other Free church believers barred from worship in parts of Europe, intervened for Armenian Christians within the Ottoman Empire, and even advocated for Swedish residents who risked losing their nationality for converting from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism.
Mr Stiller and Dr Hinkelmann highlighted the issue of putting precise numbers on the evangelical community. Depending on how strictly one defines the term, estimates range from 450 million to almost a billion people. The WEA generally uses a working figure of around 650 million.
Whatever the precise number, the direction of travel is evident. In 1960, researchers identified about 90 million evangelicals worldwide. Since then, the centre of gravity has moved decisively away from Europe and North America.
“I feel currently we speak of over 60 per cent of evangelicalism that’s predominantly in Africa, Latin America and likewise in some countries in Asia,” Dr Hinkelmann said, noting projections that this share could rise to three-quarters by 2050.
Unlike another religious communities, evangelical growth is driven not only by higher birth rates but in addition by conversion and discipleship, he added.
Migration is reshaping Europe’s churches as well. In Austria, Dr Hinkelmann identified, the biggest evangelical denomination is now a Romanian Pentecostal group, outnumbering long-standing native evangelical bodies combined.
In Ireland, a Romanian Pentecostal congregation built a thousand-seat church that has drawn attention from national leaders in a historically Catholic country.
He pointed to Bible Society’s research in England which found that church attendance amongst 14 to 24 yr olds has almost doubled within the last decade, with similar trends appearing in France.
New congregations are arising even in war zones: one Salvation Army church in Kyiv where Dr Hinkelmann frequently preaches has just opened a bigger constructing to accommodate growth.
Despite this expansion, Dr Hinkelmann expressed concern that American culture wars are dominating global perceptions of evangelicalism.
Looking back over the past two centuries, he argued that the present alignment of enormous segments of US evangelicalism with specific parties and political leaders “is kind of a singular situation.”
Earlier Protestant history actually included church–state entanglements, but many evangelical movements of the 18th and nineteenth centuries fought precisely for greater separation of church and state and for the religious freedom of minorities.
From his vantage point in Europe, Dr Hinkelmann said many believers are uneasy about attempts to bind evangelical identity to any national agenda — whether on the left or the suitable.
“I feel lots of us would strongly urge for clear separation between the church and likewise evangelicalism as such then, and a government,” he stated. “You have Christians in several parties.”
Ethical concerns, he suggested, must extend beyond a narrow set of social issues to incorporate economic and political justice and the impact of national policies on other countries.
He also warned against responding to secular “cancel culture” with a mirror-image version from the Christian side, insisting that evangelicals should defend freedom of conscience for others in addition to themselves.
He said: “I feel we’d like to look at that we do not implement our convictions and beliefs for which we must always stand [ … ] we shouldn’t implement them on other others either.”
He said there have been lessons from history, particularly the conflicts through the Reformation, and the treatment of the Anabaptists.
“If I implement my personal convictions, I feel we’re on dangerous grounds and we see that throughout history,” he said.
Mr Stiller noted that while US evangelicals may account for less than a small fraction of the worldwide movement, their historical influence in missions, publishing and education implies that American debates inevitably reverberate worldwide.
He quoted the late pastor and creator Tim Keller, who once asked why the remaining of the world should need to abandon the word evangelical due to the way it is utilized by roughly 10 per cent of its adherents.
Dr Hinkelmann, who has served each as chair of the European Evangelical Alliance and as a worldwide vice-chair of the WEA’s International Council, described the Alliance as a bottom-up network reasonably than a centralised institution.
National alliances exist in greater than 140 countries, often mirrored by regional bodies and native councils. That grassroots character gives the movement its vitality, he said, enabling believers to cooperate in mission, prayer and advocacy, and to talk up for persecuted Christians in difficult contexts.
In one Middle Eastern country, for instance, evangelical leaders are working with the WEA to secure legal recognition for expatriate congregations drawn from many countries.
Yet the identical structure also creates persistent financial and organisational challenges. Many national alliances struggle to fund their very own work because churches and agencies naturally prioritise their internal budgets.
Donors often prefer to support visible projects reasonably than invisible global coordination, leaving international bodies under-resourced.
With a latest secretary-general now in place, Dr Hinkelmann believes the WEA faces a critical task: constructing a leadership and governance model that serves its regions and national fellowships while enabling it to talk credibly on behalf of evangelicals worldwide.
Looking to the longer term, Dr Hinkelmann expressed optimism, especially about younger Christians.
He observes that many evangelicals of their 20s and 30s in Europe care less about denominational labels and more about finding congregations where they encounter solid teaching and real community.
That attitude, he suggested, could create latest opportunities for cooperation through interdenominational or transdenominational networks.
For those sensing a call to serve beyond their very own church or country, Dr Hinkelmann’s advice is straightforward: “For every young Christian, it’s good to cross their very own national boundaries to see the world is larger …Christianity is larger … to get to know people from other denominations … from other cultures.
“And I feel as they do that, they get also a broader perspective of what God is doing globally. And I feel that is a superb start line and subsequently I’m quite hopeful as we glance into the longer term with a young generation growing up and taking our place.”
He shared that his own path began when, as a young theology graduate, he volunteered together with his national alliance’s youth ministry, eventually moving into wider European and global roles.
Despite structural strains and political tensions, Dr Hinkelmann believes the evangelical story is ultimately one in all hope: “How well are we doing and what do you see the longer term because it pertains to global unity? I’m quite positive, you already know, because I see God at move.”
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