Tuesday, March 7, 2017

(Not) Neo-Evangelicalism

Neo-evangelicalism, according to the Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, is interested in "not only the personal but also the social dimensions of the gospel". As part of a study I did for my seminary in the USA, I sought to determine the contribution of my own city congregation to the "social dimensions". I found that 30% of the congregation were involved in trained or untrained social work. I further found that the Church's "social contribution" as a Church was equivalent to 18% of annual budget. OBSERVATION: It could no doubt have been higher, but I think that this is quite high. It is interesting to note that this happened without a neo-evangelical emphasis, as I would ordinarily think of it. The 18% needs qualification: this was the estimated monetary value of what the Church gave to the community, but only a small part of this was money.

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