|PIC1|Steve Clifford has just joined the Evangelical Alliance as its new General Director, where he hopes to invest all the passion and wisdom he’s accumulated from his previous roles spearheading major Christian initiatives like Soul in the City and Hope08. Here, he talks to Christian Today about his passion for the change the church can make at the grassroots.

CT: You’ve come to this role fresh out of Hope08. Do you feel you’ve learned lessons there that will shape what you do in the EA?

SC: What initiatives like Soul in the City London and Hope08 have given me is a heart for local church but also a passion to see the good news of the Gospel communicated both through words and action. Particularly at Soul in City and Hope08, I saw the church doing the business of church, positioning themselves right at the very heart of their communities, and being good news through their actions and their words, and that combination of words and actions is really where I tick. Jesus wasn’t just a wordsmith. There was also the casting out of the demons, the healing of the sick, the feeding of the thousands. The EA is committed to changing society and what I bring to the party is a passion to champion local churches in being the agents of transformation.

CT: The term evangelical is having a bit of a rough ride at the moment. Are you hopeful that can turn around?

SC: Yes, I think that is changing. As ‘evangelical’ is viewed as a verb rather than a noun and when we are seen for being the people that are getting our hands dirty. In most places it is evangelical churches that are at the very forefront of youth work, Street Pastors, day projects for the elderly and young. I think as the evangelical church gives itself in that way and they are passionate about being good news as well as speaking good news, the word ‘evangelical’ is being redeemed.





|PIC1|CT: In your maiden speech as EA General Director you said you felt the church is gaining fresh confidence.

SC: Yes, I travelled around the UK last year and heard the stories - citywide events, schools missions with over 200 schools, enormous community arts projects. But also little grassroots initiatives like a group of 15 teenagers spending a few weekends doing up a community centre. As the church and Christians unite together that is fundamentally good news for the health and wellbeing of our nation – spiritually, physically and emotionally – and I think we need to be telling those stories unapologetically because sometimes we’ve apologised too much for ourselves. Let’s tell the stories and allow people to look in at what’s happening and make their own judgements on it.

CT: Some Christians feel we need to be more confident now than ever. Much has been made of the appointment of a Muslim to head the BBC’s religious broadcasting and court cases involving Christians in the workplace. What challenges do you see on the horizon for evangelicals?

SC: Well, I see most challenges as opportunities! Looking at the world today, it’s unprecedented. We’re facing the near bankruptcy of our financial institutions, a lack of confidence in those institutions, spiralling unemployment, gun and knife crime, global warming, debt. These are enormous issues but I sense that there is the beginning of a conversation where people are asking the question: what kind of world do we want to build for our future and for our children’s future?

Some of the givens of the 20th century are being challenged now. The measures of success have been the size of my bank account, the size and impressiveness of the home I live in, the stuff I manage to fill my home with, the holidays I have, and I think increasingly those measures of success are being challenged. There is a great opportunity for us as Christians to engage in that conversation and we’ve got some wonderful good news to bring into it, which is of a God in Heaven who loves people, who wants the very best for them, and actually has designed a way of living in relationship with him and with others that can make all the difference in the world.

CT: EA works to represent the views of Christians in Parliament. Is there still room for the Christian voice there?

SC: Undoubtedly, but we are not there by right. We’ve got to demonstrate that we’ve got something to say. We don’t live in Christendom any longer. We live in a multi-faith culture so we have to stand alongside those of other faiths and no faiths and have to be able to present our position to government and civil servants and engage in the debate on the kind of society we want. We won’t always win the argument, but we have a very valid contribution to make from the perspective of our beliefs and values. This isn’t a time for us to step back but to find fresh confidence with humility, on the basis that the church has made some mistakes - we haven’t always got it right. So we go forward, we present our case and ask people to consider the options, because in the marketplace of faith the Christian faith stands up wonderfully.