Is Terry Virgo a Conservative Evangelical?

Greatly enjoying the Evangelical Ministry Assembly this year, especially having the privilege yesterday to speak on grace, the Holy Spirit and preaching - what a joy!

My favourite comment came from Terry Virgo during a round table discussion on Wednesday when he (mischievously!) described himself as a conservative evangelical. And then immediately - and correctly - defined what the term means: someone who wants to "conserve" biblical truth, the biblical gospel, biblical church, biblical Christianity.

Terry went on to describe what it doesn't mean, but which it has come to mean for too many - "cautious evangelicalism."

I agree completely with Terry in this. Doctrinally I am a conservative evangelical, but stopped using the term to describe myself some years ago for two reasons:

1. in the eyes of too many conservatives it meant cautious as opposed to radical, often justified by an appeal that they were simply making sure that the message wasn't being changed. For some I think it therefore became identified with being dispassionate. Dispassionate Christianity ought to be a contradiction in terms

2. people made a category mistake in putting "conservative" and "continuationist on spiritual gifts" at opposite ends of the same spectrum. This effectively implied that, in their view, you couldn't be a conservative evangelical and believe in the continuation of spiritual gifts. Those two views would be mutually contradictory under this understanding. However it is a category mistake, because these terms describe different things. The first is predominantly about the person and work of Christ, the nature of the atonement and the doctrine of scripture, the second is about the person, work and doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and how he interacts with the lives of Christians and churches. That is, they do not describe the same thing and therefore do not have to be made mutually contradictory

It seems to me that many conservatives are now not doing either of these things, which makes it a label I can much more naturally pick up again, which is great. Thanks EMA and thanks Terry, for this blessing. As Hugh Palmer said in the same discussion there are those of us who hold somewhat different views on spiritual gifts who have realised afresh that we are brother and sisters, not enemies, and that the discussion is one that rightly takes place within the family rather than being a reason to disenfranchise those who aren't quite on the same page as me.

Long may the discussion and friendship continue in the glorious spirit that has been exemplified by Adrian Reynold, Vaughan Roberts, Hugh Palmer, Terry Virgo, John Coles, Liam Gollagher and others at this EMA. 

Comments

[Steve Levy]

I was a day visitor at EMA.
I enjoyed your seminar, it really was thought provoking and very helpful - the highlight of the day.

I found myself sitting next to someone from New Frontiers which was a real treat - what a perceptive man.

Keep up the good work.
Steve Levy

[Marcus]

thanks for the encouragement Steve

[Peter Ould]

Good points. Incidentally, I'm a charismatic/continuanist precisely *because* I'm a conservative. I can't read the Scriptures any other way.

[Marcus]

That would go for me too, Peter. I was driven to the conclusions theologically/scripturally rather than experientially. Which subsequently led me in practice to "eagerly desire" as per 1 Corinthians 12 and 14

[Daron Medway]

I thought the EMA this year was very good. However, I found Christopher Ash's contributions from John's Gospel rather difficult. I must admit that there is a relentless logic to Christopher's expositional approach that I find vaguely disquieting! I can't really put my finger on why but my sense is that there is still a tendency among Proc Trust 'conservatives' to directly equate fidelity to the text with a denial of experiences of the Spirit's ministry other than that which is a direct consequence of engagement with the text of Scripture. Terry Virgo's approach to the conservative evangelical identity seemed more 'wholesome' and less experientially constrained to me.

Incidentally, I thought John Piper's assessment of the somewhat stilted approach to sung worship among the uber-conservatives to be quite accurate. I too would quite like to see a bit more 'going vertical' (only an American could say that with a straight face) at the EMA!