A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Calvin Brown is the Executive Director of the Renewal Fellowship.
These Evangelical Churches of Ours, Mackey, Lloyd, Wood Lake Books, Winfield, B.C., 1995.
Lloyd Mackey’s book deserves to be read by every Presbyterian who seeks to understand evangelical faith in Canada today. He uses the Canadian image of a mosaic to describe the variety of religious expression that evangelicals in Canada experience. He defines Evangelical not merely in the American Fundamentalist sense, which often carries with it a particular attitude, but in the broader traditional sense of all who believe that “Jesus saves from whatever it is that keeps people from knowing, honouring, enjoying and being empowered by God.” Lloyd, like many Evangelicals, is not comfortable with “button holing” people with the direct “Are you saved?” approach, yet he has a heart that wants those who do not know Jesus personally to find salvation in him. Seen from a Presbyterian perspective, he notes as ministers who have helped him in his understanding of the wider meaning of Evangelical Bill Perry, Ken Wheaton, John Vissers and Ian Rennie – the last two as being influential in Canadian Evangelicalism far beyond our own church.
This book is not primarily an academic paper on the subject of evangelical churches in Canada but a personal testimony of Mackey’s faith journey and many of the things that have touched and taught him along the way. He deals with the current issues among Evangelicals, their place within various denominations (including those who most would not consider Evangelical), the parachurch organizations, and publications including our own Presbyterian Record and Channels magazines. He not only describes the scope of Evangelicalism in Canada but describes it warts and all but without the rancour of those who look only for the negative. He fluctuates between careful explanations for the uninitiated and “insider” comments about the “laughing” phenomenon, referring to the Toronto Vineyard experience.
Most importantly, his conversational style models the evangelism he promotes, and in the end, he gently encourages his readers to seek a personal relationship with Jesus and his church.