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TechnoratiThe president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, spoke to The Christian Post last week during the Evangelical Leaders Forum.
The following are excerpts from the interview:
CP: You keep a pretty low-profile considering you’re the head of an organization that represents 30-million members. What is your philosophy on leadership, especially Christian leadership?
Anderson: Well actually I wrote a book on that (laughs). My philosophy is basically a leader is responsible for figuring out what needs to be done and make sure that it gets done. But it’s not about the leader, it’s not about me. It is about the message and the task.
CP: What changes or evolution do you see in the evangelical movement in America? There is a rising younger generation that is quite different in some aspects from their predecessors.
Anderson: Some of that is generational sociology independent of being evangelicals. We have a 20-something generation that is highly relational, team-oriented, and that is strongly being reflected in evangelical churches.
Specifically, it means that younger evangelicals are increasingly engaged in social justice issue and care for the poor. But it tends to be a hands on engagement more than an advocacy engagement. And it is less individualistic and more team and cooperation.
The example would be a group of 20-something that would get together and have a ministry to the homeless. They would do it together. And part of it is because it is a whole generation that grew up playing soccer together and doing a lot of things together.
CP: The NAE has been criticized by some conservative Christian groups for abandoning the core issues of the sanctity of human life and marriage to take up issues viewed as more progressive such as climate change and immigration. How do you respond to these criticisms?
Anderson: Well I would say those are primary issues to us that we are engaged in and have staff members that work significantly in these areas. Often what happens is that certain issues are focused upon and the issues that we are highly engaged in are neglected. But the reality is that we are very much committed to the issues of the sanctity of life and traditional marriage.
For example, we have two tracks here today that are on those two topics.
CP: What is the main goal of NAE in this coming year? What would the organization like to see happen in America?
Anderson: Well first of all the NAE is not about changing everything in America, nor primarily about political issues. We are primarily an association of denominations and other organizations. So we are focused on the strengthening the health of our denominations which represent a significant number of evangelicals in America.
The governmental affairs office is one part of the overall agenda and ministry of the NAE.
If anything I would say we are doing more and stronger on our denominational members than probably ever before in NAE history since 1942. Continue »
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