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25 Most Influential Evangelicals

Feb2

I was standing in line at the grocery store today, and I noticed the Time magazine cover story: 25 Most Influential Evangelicals. Here’s the Time magazine list with my comments in parentheses:
Howard & Roberta Ahmanson: The Financiers (Maybe so, but I’ve never heard of them. Maybe they’re the stealth financiers, or maybe I’m just not well-versed in the world of finance.)
David Barton: The Lesson Planner
Doug Coe: The Stealth Persuader
Chuck Colson: Reborn and Rehabilitated
Luis Cortes: Bringing Latinos To the Table (I’ve never heard of him either, but it sounds as if he’s doing great work.)
James Dobson: The Culture Warrior
Stuart Epperson: A High-Fidelity Messenger (Name sounds vaguely familiar.)
Michael Gerson : The President’s Spiritual Scribe
Billy & Franklin Graham: Father and Son In the Spirit
Ted Haggard: Opening Up the Umbrella Group (Who? Oh, the NAE guy.)
Bill Hybels: Pioneering Mass Appeal
T.D. Jakes: The Pentecostal Media Mogul (I think he’s got some doctrinal problems, but he seems like a well-meaning guy.)
Diane Knippers: A Think Tank With Firepower (Again the name sounds vaguely familiar.)
Tim & Beverly LaHaye: The Christian Power Couple
Richard Land: God’s Lobbyist
Brian McLaren: Paradigm Shifter (I hear he’s some pomo guy. Is he any good?)
Joyce Meyer: A Feminine Side Of Evangelism ( Can anyone say “prosperity gospel”? I ‘m thankful Time left most of the prosperity gospel people off this list even though some of them are quite influential. Maybe their influence is declining. We can only hope.)
Richard John Neuhaus: Bushism Made Catholic ( A great thinker, but he’s Catholic, not evangelical.)
Mark Noll: The Intellectual Exemplar
J.I. Packer: Theological Traffic Cop
Rick Santorum: The Point Man On Capitol Hill (According to Hugh Hewitt, he’s also Catholic. Great senator. I wish he were mine.)
Jay Sekulow: The Almighty’s Attorney-at-Law
Stephen Strang: Keeper of “The Faith” (Yet another vaguely familiar name.)
Rick Warren: America’s New People’s Pastor
Ralph Winter: A Global Mission (Who?)

First of all, such a list depends on the question you’re asking in the first place. Which evangelicals are influencing politics and the culture at large? Or which evangelicals have great influence among evangelicals and are beginning to influence the culture at large? Here’s my list of “evangelical influencers.” the names I hear among evangelicals every Sunday (and during the week):
1. Rick Warren,. Yes, Saddleback and Willow Creek have been tremendously influential, for better or for worse, and now The Purpose Driven Life is literally everywhere. Unlike some reformed kibbitzers, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The book presents the gospel and preaches to our me-centered culture that “it’s not about you.” So what if it’s not a full course in reformed or even Baptist theology.
2. Jay Sekulow. Yes, he’s helped evangelicals to see that they too can use the court system to win some victories.
3. JI Packer. He’s the “old man” whose wisdom is still influencing evangelicals through his book Knowing God and through his other writing.
4. Mark Noll. Yes, his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind gave a lot of people food for thought and started a push toward evangelical scholarship that is being carried on at schools like Baylor University and Wheaton and Biola, to name a few. I hope.
5. Richard Land. Politically very influential, and he influences other evangelicals’ political opinions.
6. Tim and Beverly LaHaye. Unfortunately, I think LaHaye has been tremendously influential. I don’t agree with his eschatology, and I’m not sure about his theology. But he is influential, no doubt.
7. Bill Hybels. Ditto Rick Warren without the best-selling book.
8. Billy and Franklin Graham. Of course. Franklin is carrying “compassionate conservatism” around the world through Samaritan’s Purse.
9. Michael Gerson. The president’s speech writer. Of course.
10. James Dobson. If these were listed in order of influence, Dobson would probably be number one. I hope he will tone down the “you owe us” rhetoric with President Bush, but as far as his radio program and the information that FoF gives out, I have few problems. And most evangelicals have even fewer than I do.
11. Chuck Colson. Yes, I see him as a man who struggles with power and the pride that is power’s accompanying temptation, but nevertheless has used his influence to do a great deal of good in the prisons, in the world, Sudan in particular, and in calling evangelicals to think about worldview and apologetics.
12. Doug Coe. I don’t know much about him, but I’m willing to go along with Time and say that he probably does have a great deal of influence in Washington evangelical power circles.
13. David Barton. I can’t believe Time came up with this name, but I agree he’s tremendously popular among evangelicals, particularly my particular sub-sub-culture, evangelical homeschoolers.
So, my list overlaps Time magazine by about half of the names. Who would I add to replace the ones I dropped?
14. D. James Kennedy. He’s still around as far as I know, still active in politics and in Evangelism Explosion, argueably the most popular tool for evangelism among evangelical churches.
15. R.C. Sproul. He has been an influence on Chuck Colson and also on many, many evangelical who have heard his radio program or read his books.
16. Tony Evans. Dr. Dobson sort of sponsored him several years ago, but now he’s made a name for himself with, again, books and a radio program. He’s a good preacher.
17. Ted Baehr. Editor of Movieguide a guide to popular movies from a Christian point of view.
18. Mike Farris. Former president of Homeschol Legal Defense Association and tremendously influential in that sub-sub culture I mentioned above. He’s controversial even among homeschoolers, but definitely influential. He is now president of Patrick Henry College, a colege that was designed with Christian homeschoolers in mind
19. Tony Campolo. He’s a little on the liberal side, politically speaking, which means he speaks to all those “other” evangelicals who aren’t political conservatives. Actually, there are a lot of those guys, even if the MSM seems to classify all evangelicals into one political party.
20. Marvin Olasky. Editor of World magazine and architect of the idea of “compassionate conservatism.”
21. George Barna. “Barna . . . is to evangelicals what George Gallup is to the larger culture. Pastors frequently cite his statistical findings in sermons, and his many books about church ministry sell consistently.”
22. Rich Stearns. President of World Vision. i don’t know much about the man, but I surely do hear about the organization almost daily on Christian radio, in magazines, etc.
23. Phillip Johnson. Author of Darwin On Trial and spokesman for the Intelligent Design movement.
24. Ravi Zacharius. Christian apologist and leader. He has recently made an attempt to reach out to Mormons.
25. George W. Bush. He’s certainly an influential evangelical.

I’m not saying my list is better than Time’s list. I just know about the influence of the people on my list, whereas I’m just now hearing about some of the people on the Time list. There are also a lot of “second tier” leaders who may become the really influential people in the future, at least within evangelicalism: Beth Moore, Dave Ramsey, Henry Blackaby, Douglas Wilson, Gary Bauer, Nancy Pearcey. Whom do you see influencing the evangelicals and the culture around you?

This Bothers Me

Jan29

From an interview with Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston and author of a recntly published book about living the Christian life:

FR: What book are you currently reading?

JO: I don’t have one in particular. I read my Bible everyday and I have a whole group of study books, but I don’t have one in particular.

I know there are nonreaders out there, but should they be writing books and leading churches?

Feast of the Baptism of Jesus

Jan13

Theophany: [n] a visible (but not necessarily material) manifestation of a deity to a human person

Orthodox Christians call the event of Jesus’ baptism Theophany because God appeared in Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Catholic Christians celebrate the feast to remind themselves of their own baptism and the vows made at that baptism. I thought this was a meaningful prayer for all who have been baptized into Christ, even though I hold to believers’ baptism rather than infant baptism.

Almighty, eternal God, when the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan, you revealed him as your own beloved Son. Keep us, your children born of water and the Spirit, faithful to our calling. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

See Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22, and John 1:39-34 for accounts of Jesus’ baptism.

Holy Days and Holidays

Jan9

We are not Catholic. We are Southern Baptists who recently joined an Evangelical Free Church. I was raised in a church that did not celebrate any holidays except for Christmas and Easter. However, a long time ago I read two books by Martha Zimmerman, Celebrate the Feasts and Celebrating the Christian Year. These books changed my whole perspective on holidays and celebrations. Jewish holy days were meant to be teaching times, reminders of what God did for the nation Israel and of his continuing mercy, and the Christian liturgical year and the holy days celebrated in connection with that calendar were instituted for the same purpose. I love celebrating and remembering amd learning, and I don’t mind borrowing from the Jewish calendar or from the Catholic or mainline Protestant liturgical calendar to do so. I believe God can use these special days to remind me of his everlasting goodness. So this year I added both Jewish holy days and Christian liturgical feasts and holy days to my iCal calendar And I’ll be sharing some of those with my blog readers–in addition to authors’ birthdays which I see as more occasions for celebration and remembrance. We can celebrate The Great Story, as C.S. Lewis called it, and the many stories that are pale reflections, but nevertheless reflections, of the creative power of the Living God. And it behooves us to learn to celebrate and remember for that is what we are called to do for all eternity as Christians at the Great Banquet of our Lord.

Communicating Christmas

Dec12

I wrote this short piece for an Advent devotional booklet that my church printed several years ago:

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6

I used to read my second grade classes the story by Laura Ingalls Wilder, “Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus.” The story describes Laura’s and Mary’s Christmas gifts in these words:

“They never even thought of such a thing as having a penny. Think of having a whole penny for your very own. Think of having a cup and a cake and a stick of candy and a penny. There had never been such a Christmas.”

I always had to try to explain to my second graders that Laura and Mary were happy about their gifts. I’m fairly sure that many of those seven year olds never did understand how anyone could possibly be happy about a Christmas where the gifts were, in their eyes, so pitifully small and insignificant.
I think there’s a similar communication gap between Christians and the rest of the world. When you get right down to it, the birth of a baby in a stable is a fairly insignificant event. The fact that the baby grew up to be a man, taught and healed people for about three years, and then was killed, is not all that impressive, especially when you ignore or disbelieve certain parts of the story such as the resurrection. We Christians say that the birth and life of this particular child, Jesus, was a unique event, the focal point of human history. The rest of the world, perhaps not taking much time to investigate the matter, is mystified over all the joy and hope we Christians say we derive from our faith in Christ.
It’s a matter of values and expectations. To make at least some of my second graders begin to understand Laura Ingalls’ Christmas, I asked them some questions: “What do you expect to get for Christmas? What gifts have you received before that made you happy? Why did those gifts make you happy?” I got some interesting answers. Maybe, if we want others to begin to understand our faith and joy in Christ, we could ask some questions: “What gives you joy? Why do these things make you happy? What do you expect God to be like? Who do you think Jesus is?” We might get some interesting answers–and close the communication gap just a little.

Advent

Nov29

Doug WIlson has some good thoughts about advent and the celebration of advent here and here
Summary: He says that we aren’t going back to a time before Christ came when we celebrate Advent, but rather we are telling the story of the incarnation to the world each year when we celebrate. Mr. Wilson says it much better than I do.

Columbo or Socrates or Franklin?

Sep21

Dawn Treader calls this the “Columbo method” of apologetics after the TV detective. Ben Franklin got it from Socrates, but he didn’t use the method for Christian apologetics but rather to gain his point in religious and political debates:

“I was charm’d with it, adopted it, dropt my abrupt Contradiction, and positive Argumentation, and put on the humble Enquirer & Doubter. And being then, from reading Shaftsbury & Collins, become a real Doubter in many Points of our Religious Doctrine, I found this Method safest for my self & very embarrassing to those against whom I used it, therefore I took a Delight in it, practis’d it continually & grew very artful & expert in drawing People even of superior Knowledge into Concessions the Consequences of which they did not foresee, entangling them in Difficulties out of which they could not extricate themselves, and so obtaining Victories that neither my self nor my Cause always deserved. I continu’d this Method some few Years, but gradually lef it, retaining only the Habit of expressing my self in Terms of modest Diffidence . . .”

This “humble questioner” approach can be helpful in putting people off their guard, but it does cut both ways. Answer carefully the questions unbelievers ask you. (I’ve been reading Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography for our American Literature class.)