Here are some things people say when they find out you’re an Evangelical Christian:

“Oh, you’re one of them? But you dress so normally!”

“An Evangelical, eh? Do you know how to read?”

 “You Evangelicals are like the Taliban. You try to force your beliefs on the rest of us.”

“Evangelicals are bigots. They want to oppress women” (translation: we believe in traditional marriage and oppose abortion-on-demand).

Journalist John Dickerson has written about these stereotypes. When he started working in a secular job, “my co-workers thought all evangelicals were close-minded, backwoods, abortion clinic–bombing cult types.” He says that over time they came to see he “was a thinking, sane, cool-headed, and cooperative co-worker.”

These unfair views are widespread. They don’t represent who we are or what we believe. But they are common.

So, we Evangelicals can whine about how wrong this is. Or we can live-out our faith. That’s how we’ll begin to change minds.

But first: just what is an Evangelical?

What “Evangelical” Means

The word is from the Greek evangelion, “glad tidings, good or joyful news.” In ancient Greece, the word was used not for “any bit of good news, but something quite major, for example a victory, or a peace settlement — something deserving a … celebration or public festivity.”

In Rome, the word “took on a religious meaning: the announcement of the appearance or accession to the throne of the ruler.”

Evangelicalism has more people of more varied economic and racial backgrounds than the “mainline” Protestant groups.

However, the New Testament gave the word a different meaning. It was used of something an eyewitness might see — and something he would want to tell about.

The modern Evangelical movement has its roots in the Protestant Reformation. By trusting in Christ’s atoning work on the cross, Martin Luther wrote, “I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.” “Born again”: Sound familiar?

In today’s United States, Evangelicalism is much more in tune with historic Christian teaching than so-called “mainline Protestantism.” It has more followers and people of more varied economic and racial backgrounds than the “mainline” Protestant groups, as well.

What We Believe

So, just what to Evangelicals believe? The late John Stott answered this in a 2006 interview. “For evangelical people,” he said, “our authority is the God who has spoken supremely in Jesus Christ. And that is equally true of redemption or salvation. God has acted in and through Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners.”

Historian David Bebbington has written that there are “four qualities that have been the special marks of Evangelical religion: … the belief that lives need to be changed … the expression of the gospel in effort … a particular regard for the Bible … (and) a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.”

There have been other attempts to define Evangelical faith. A major one was 1974’s International Congress on World Evangelization. This meeting drew more than 2,400 Evangelical leaders from 150 countries. It produced the Lausanne Covenant, a thorough statement of historic Protestant theology.

In 1989, an “Evangelical Affirmations” conference in Chicago “united over 600 evangelical scholars, pastors and ‘outstanding lay leaders’ to clarify and reaffirm the essentials of Evangelical identity.” It produced a 1990 book, Evangelical Affirmations, which expressed Evangelical views on theology and culture.

How We Live

The National Association of Evangelicals and LifeWay Research recently conducted a major survey. It sought to determine how Evangelicals explain their faith. They found that an Evangelical affirms:

• The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.
• It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.
• Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.
• Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.

I would add one more: A dead man rose from the grave and is alive today. Jesus is his name.

Most Evangelicals are compassionate people who give of time, treasure, and talent. Evangelicals’ financial giving can be proven, as my former colleague Pat Fagan and I showed in a 2015 Washington Post column. Then there are the thousands churches and Evangelical ministries to people in every kind of need, here at home and around the world.

There are outliers, of course: men and women who are loud and offensive. Some have public voices that make them seem more representative than they are. But they are the minority.

How do we shatter the stereotypes? By returning good for evil.

How do we shatter the stereotypes? By returning good for evil. By talking about the normal things of everyday life. By taking an interest in what goes on at work. By being cheerful, honest, and competent employees and colleagues. By having a sense of humor. By encouraging the people around us. By not being ashamed of the gospel when chances arise for us to share it.

An Evangelical is, as John Stott said, “an ordinary Christian.” But the there is nothing ordinary about our Savior. He’s worth celebrating, sharing, and living for.