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Name of Evangelical Alliance: Evangelical Alliance Ireland
Principal Leaders:
General Director – Sean Mullan
Operations Director – Tom Slattery
Address:
Evangelical Alliance Ireland
Ulysses House
22-24 Foley Street
Dublin 1
Ireland
E-mail: www.evangelical.ie
Telephone: +353 1 8881111
Description:
Evangelical Alliance Ireland (EAI) is a movement of individuals, churches, organisations from within all streams of evangelicalism in Ireland. Built on relationships, it celebrates the diversity among evangelicals. It is governed by a Steering Group and is a limited charitable company. Evangelical Christians are to be found in all streams of orthodox Christianity as well as in independent Evangelical churches but we are about 0.7% of the population.
Our Vision for Ireland:
Our vision is that “the Kingdom of God becomes UNAVOIDABLE in every sphere of Irish life”. Our vision of unavoidable Christianity is that at every turn, in every place, the Christian message would be seen, heard or encountered in some way that people could not help but “trip” over it! TV debates would ask for an evangelical voice; politicians would seek evangelical input; media would publish evangelical views. Community bodies would have evangelical involvement. Universities would teach courses on biblical values. Art galleries would display the work of evangelical artists. Companies would operate not for profit alone but also for a higher purpose. Evangelical architects would design new buildings and public spaces with Christian values in mind. Issues such as justice, peace, wholeness, truth, mercy and love would become part of the public debate.
What we are doing:
Since the concept of an evangelical Christian movement was first mooted in 1999, much has happened. Some major items of the last few years have been:
Much prayer and seeking the leading of God from 1999 through 2004, when leaders sensed the call from God to develop a national movement of evangelicals
> Launched EAI in May 2004, having produced Principles of Cooperation and Statement of Faith
> Membership enlisted
> Many major events organised
> Training and equipping in areas such as media and financial management
> Staff hired and a centre city office rented
> Working Groups currently active in Prayer, Social Justice, Networking, Theology, Media and Research
> A website developed and regular newsletters, e-zines and booklets published
> Research on evangelicals in Ireland carried out and published
> Media opportunities such as radio interviews, TV news items, Late Late Show involvement, news articles and letters in national newspapers on a number of occasions
Opportunities and Challenges:
In order to begin to work toward the long term vision EAI has established an initial three year plan. There are two major public pillars to this plan. There are also two supporting elements to the plan. The two public pillars are:
1. Mobilisation of the evangelical church to effective engagement - We will deploy the leadership of EAI to mobilise the church to effective engagement in Irish society. This will be done in three ways:
a) Envisioning
b) Enabling
c) Consulting
2. Proactive involvement in national media - A higher level of involvement in the national media will give EAI the opportunity to practice engagement within Irish society at the most public level. Here engagement will be modelled and at the same time the contribution would help create a better environment for the church engaging at a local level. So EAI aims to establish a proactive presence by evangelicals in press, radio and TV. It will continue to give an evangelical comment on and reaction to public issues. Now however, it will also seek a pattern of regular writing in the national media and regular involvement in radio/TV. An evangelical column in the national press, regular presence in radio/TV and a national evangelical magazine are among the ultimate goals we have here.
Prayer:
With such a small proportion of the population (0.7%) it is a challenge to have sufficient resources to carry out our big vision – but we know God is on our side.
- A movement of God’s spirit in our land
- Resources to enable us to realise the vision (volunteer network; finance; staff; infrastructure).
- Boldness to live and proclaim the message of God’s kingdom.
- That we will see the vision realised.
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