New Evangelical Alliance Director: Evangelicalism is Not about Homophobia, Hating Women

The Evangelical Alliance has announced new leadership in its organization.

Chine Mbubaegbu, 30, has been appointed the Alliance's director of communications, while 35-year-old Gavin Calver – currently national director of Youth for Christ (YFC) begins his position as director of mission/England at the Alliance in June 2015.

Mbubaegbu told Christian Today the evangelical worldview is under attack as many try to define conservative Christians by divisive issues.

"I do get frustrated by the caricatures of evangelicals in society as homophobic, judgmental women-haters and that evangelicalism is synonymous with televangelism,” said Mbubaegbu. “That's simply not what evangelicalism is supposed to be about.”

"When the word evangelical is used in any other context, it simply means someone who is passionate about a certain thing and is keen that everyone knows about it. That's what I want evangelicals to be known for: being passionate followers of Christ, keen on seeing his good news impact every area of society – with our hearts turned towards those facing injustice or who are forgotten and excluded."

Of Nigerian descent, Mbubaegbu contends the modern day Church is failing at reaching the younger generation.

"Often those who leave the Church cite irrelevance, hypocrisy and the perceived judgmental nature of churches as reasons why they'd rather not attend; although they still think Jesus is great. And so this is a major area of concern for the Alliance. It's one of the reasons we launched threads [a network for young adults] two years ago. It's been more successful than we would have hoped and is an attempt to show our generation that our faith has something to say about every area of our lives."

Publication date: December 17, 2014