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Meeting the congregation

Martyn Percy applauds a close encounter with Evangelical thinking

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Evangelical Identity and Contemporary Culture: A congregational study in innovation
Mathew Guest

Paternoster Press £19.99 (978-1-84227-440-8)
Church Times Bookshop £18

THIS IS the latest volume in Paternoster’s welcome and estimable series that focuses on Evangelical history and thought. The author, Mathew Guest, who is a leading scholar in the emerging field of congregational studies, has produced a timely analysis of identity and innovation in contemporary Evangelicalism. His study is based on St Michael-le-Belfrey in York, a pioneering church in just about every sense, and one that has enjoyed periods of ministry under David Watson and Graham Cray.

Guest’s study is rooted in ethnographic and sociological method — what the author describes, in a rather understated way, as “immersion and observation”. The book is all the richer for this, as it allows Guest to probe carefully the identity of a single congregation, all the while drawing inferences and conclusions that have significance for the wider Evangelical cultural milieu.

Guest pays tribute to the way in which congregational members welcomed him, were open to the questions he was asking, and in no way seemed defensive. A sign, then, that the case-study is a composed and mature congregation that is open to exploration. But, equally, one might compliment the investigator, who clearly built up substantial trust and rapport with the congregation he was studying.

The consequence of this is that the narratives and vignettes reflected in the text feel fundamentally reliable.

The book, though, has a subtle subtext too, which from time to time surfaces in fascinating and quite overt ways. Guest notes that Evangelical identity is currently struggling with several problems that form an interesting nexus of issues that will need to be addressed by future congregations and their leaders. These include the question of how much cultural accommodation can be tolerated, and the emerging problem of heterodoxy — if not in beliefs, at least in practices.

Then there is the extent to which Evangelicalism can still be said to be growing — or is it, in fact, now experiencing a slow but steady period of decline, marked by the simultaneous broadening and atomisation of the movement? This phenomenon is rather masked by the emergence of smaller movements that are more intensive in their identity. Although they have invested heavily in the rhetoric of mission and evangelism, they are actually more concerned with inreach than outreach, and seem to be more focused on reshaping Evangelical identity.

This book is an excellent study of contemporary Evangelical identity. It is warm, yet critical: empathetic, yet analytical. It provides a fascinating account of how ecclesial movements evolve to fit their environment. And, pleasingly, this kind of study takes us well beyond notions of “liberal” and “conservative” as reliable markers and indicators of ecclesial life.

Guest’s study demonstrates something deeper: namely, that any congregation is essentially adaptive. It will do what it takes to survive and flourish.

Canon Professor Percy is Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon, and of the Oxford Ministry Course.

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