We all know that statistics about churchgoing in England are not encouraging. But there is a determination to change this. At GAFCON there was a seminar track on the subject of “re-evangelising the West”, and the Nairobi Communique states a commitment to “evangelising areas of our world where Gospel witness has become obscured or lost”. One would expect this of Confessing Anglicans, so its encouraging to see that the official structures of the Church of England are stressing evangelism again – a major paper is due to be presented at next week’s General Synod urging a change in culture to one of “Intentional Evangelism”: specifically proclaiming the Good News of Jesus so that people are reconciled with God and become disciples of Christ. This is being led by the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Sheffield among others.

Although not directly related to this push by the Bishops, there are two major mission initiatives being planned by church organisations in England for next year. The larger initiative, HOPE 2014, was launched recently by the Archbishop of Canterbury; it is supported by, among others, the Evangelical Alliance, charismatic Anglican youth movement Soul Survivor, the Alpha network and a number of black majority church groupings. HOPE’s aim is to encourage as many churches as possible to plan for a whole year of mission, reaching out into local communities, building relationships, giving unconditional service to residents and expressing the Gospel in words. Mike Pilavachi of Soul Survivor talks about “a passion to see our nation look different – let’s tell our nation about Jesus and do it together!”

There is a desire to combine social action with Gospel proclamation, resulting in “lasting spiritual change in the lives of individuals and transformed communities” (from the HOPE website). HOPE Director Roy Crowne, keenly aware of criticisms of common practices such as church youth groups picking up litter for a couple of hours and calling it “mission”, says “yes we’ve got to demonstrate the love of God, but we are also committed to telling the story of what Jesus has done, and our own faith story”. HOPE aims to be as broadly ecumenical as possible, not wanting to put doctrinal shibboleths in the way of united mission except a common desire to see churches grow and communities changed for the better.

Many of those committed to HOPE will not be aware of a smaller but equally vibrant initiative called A Passion for Life (APFL), which is supported by conservative evangelical Anglicans and Baptists, the student evangelical movement UCCF, the emerging Gospel Partnerships and some of the evangelical Free Churches. Like HOPE, APFL is specifically looking to mobilise churches to reach out to the unchurched, but it has a doctrinal statement as a basis for unity, and it is specifically focussed on evangelism rather than HOPE’s broader understanding of mission in word and deed. APFL is also more limited in its time scale, aiming for Easter 2014 as the climax of evangelistic effort. Under the cross-centred strapline of “Proclaiming Christ’s Passion for the Life of the World”, the web-based resources help churches to train their people in small groups for the evangelistic task in their communities.

The leaders of APFL are very aware that we are not in the 1950’s when a speaker would draw crowds, and he could assume bible knowledge in calling people to repentance and faith. Now Christians need to use creative ways to engage people, building trust and encouraging questions over many weeks and months before a formal Gospel presentation is relevant and appropriate. There is also a recognition that all sections of the church have been weak at making disciples among the traditional “white British working class” communities, and so the website contains interviews with men and women from these unchurched backgrounds, telling their story of how they came to faith during the last Passion for Life initiative in 2010.

I have no doubt that God will bless both HOPE and A Passion for Life as Christians from different churches join together in prayer and renewed action in evangelism and mission. I’m sure we will hear many stories of individuals putting their faith in Christ, of churches growing, and communities changing for the better. We should be encouraged that many Anglican churches are not only participating but taking the lead in these initiatives.

However, just in case we’re tempted to think that a new golden age is round the corner, it’s important to make some observations which reflect the need for extra vigilance and prayer.

Firstly, it remains the case, sadly, that many Anglican churches are still not engaging in mission and evangelism, and will not be participating in either HOPE or A Passion for Life. Many churchgoing Anglicans continue to see themselves not as ministers to lost people in their communities, but recipients of ministry from the Priest. More seriously, as we heard at GAFCON, many clergy have no Gospel to proclaim – perhaps as many as a quarter do not believe in God and a half are not sure about the meaning of the atonement or the fact of the physical resurrection.

Secondly, the gulf between “soft” and “hard” evangelicals is as wide as ever. Overwhelmingly, the UK delegation at GAFCON were from churches participating in A Passion for Life rather than HOPE. This shows that while both “sides” believe in mission and evangelism, conservatives tend to see sin in people and false doctrine in church and society as blocking people from God, and are wanting to associate with others around the world who believe similar things, while “open evangelicals” see this as unnecessarily negative. Rather a critical, judgemental church, failing to demonstrate God’s love visibly, is seen as the main barrier to effective evangelism. And so the continued suspicion remains between different groups of evangelicals within the Church of England and beyond.

Thirdly, it could be said that both approaches might have some success in winning individuals to Christian discipleship but have backed off from enabling the church to have a genuinely prophetic role in society. APFL affiliated churches are committed to disseminating a clear message about Jesus Christ and teaching discipleship, but unlike the generations of Wilberforce or Temple, today’s Conservative evangelicals do not perhaps have sufficient vision for the good of society outside a church made up of clearly defined believers. The Nairobi Commitment upholds “work for the transformation of society through the Gospel”, and this places a responsibility on conservative churches to do serious thinking and action in this regard, rather than just saying “when people are saved the rest will sort itself out”.

Churches affiliated to the HOPE programme on the other hand might be in danger of confusing united action for social transformation with the task of making disciples. James Catford, Chief Executive of the Bible Society, falls into this trap in an article for the Church of England Newspaper (1 November 2013) written after his participation in the launch of HOPE. He claims mission is “to be the Word…live out the life of Jesus in front of a needy and broken world”. While he stresses that Christians need to be “connected to the Source”, he does not say that the aim of mission is to get other people to leave what they are connected to so they can find life in Jesus. Rather his vision for mission is of Christians, united with one another and drawing strength from Christ, doing acts of love in the world. That is vitally important Christian work but it is not evangelism and will not in itself lead to unchurched people coming to faith.

The other problem with this approach is that because so much of the focus is on the church itself “being good news” along with the message it proclaims, and because it wants to avoid seeming judgemental and unloving at all costs, it will inevitably shy away from giving uncomfortable and challenging messages, and will end up pandering to the culture and pleading with it for an audience. For example, its much easier to say to a middle class audience that payday loan companies or energy providers should do more for the poor, than to say that middle class people should give more to charity. Its much less challenging to say “we are in favour of marriage” than “we are against the blessing of homosexual relationships”. It is more comfortable to emphasize Jesus’ message about people seeing the good deeds of the disciples and praising God the Father, and to neglect the proclamation of the authoritative rule of God, and the need to repent and believe. If the Church of England is serious about evangelism, it will have to risk being disliked for its message, rather than just aim to be liked for its actions.

This article by the Revd. Andrew Symes, Executive Secretary of Anglican Mainstream, is from the November 12, 2013 edition of the AAC’s International Update. Sign up for this free email here.