by Christopher Took

On last morning (Tuesday 23 September) of the fourth National Evangelical Anglican Congress, the Revd Professor Alistair McGrath, Principal of Wycliffe Hall, challenged evangelicals to rediscover the power and freshness of the Cross in their lives and mission.

"One of the sadnesses is not so much our nation has rejected the cross, it's that it actually doesn't know enough about it to reject in the first place," said Professor McGrath. "The challenge for us is to convey its freshness, its life changing capacity. Sometimes as evangelicals we preach the Cross to others, but we are reminded it bears on us as well."

In the first part of his talk, Alistair McGrath talked about the way the Cross challenges us. "One of our concerns is that as evangelicals we have grown in strength, grown in power, and with that I think come some temptations, and we need to be alert to these and know what to do in their face."

Reporting that the proportion of evangelical ordinands in Church of England theological colleges has now exceeded 70% for the first time, he warned against boasting, reminding his audience that 'success' came consistently through faithfulness and obedience in repentance. "Power is something that can be seriously misused."

In warning against the misuse of power, Professor McGrath used an example from Canada. "What we are seeing in New Westminster is an intellectually bankrupt liberalism which has lost the argument and in its desperation forces itself on others...this is the unacceptable face of liberalism. We need to let it be known that this is a liberalism which has lost its way, lost its arguments and can only sustain itself by sheer political power. Part of our responsibility is to make sure that this doesn't happen here."

Alistair McGrath then spoke about the priority of the Cross in the lives of Christians. He quoted Martin Luther - 'where your heart is, and where your security is, that has become your god' - saying these words invited us to re-examine ourselves in order that we may re-assert the place of the Cross at the centre of our lives as individuals and as a movement.

"If we take our focus away from [the Cross] we will become distracted and lose that central resource which brings us our reason for being here and going into the world with something we know has the power to transform it," said Professor McGrath.

In his final section, Alistair McGrath reminded his audience that the Gospel does not rest on human wisdom, and as it is grounded in God it is not something that is ever going to go out of date - "the Gospel is true and it is relevant and it is guaranteed as such by God himself."

Professor McGrath concluded by referring to Paul's word in 1 Thessalonians 5:24 as encouragement for any who are feeling overwhelmed by the challenges God has placed before his church: 'The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.'