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When Kevin Mannoia resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in 2001, the association faced heavy financial trouble and was reeling from a string of controversial changes. After two years, under the leadership of interim president Leith Anderson, the NAE is now back in the black.

In March the organization appointed Ted Haggard president. Haggard is pastor of the 9,200-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and founder of the World Prayer Center and the Christian Information Network.

Haggard talked with CT assistant online editor Todd Hertz about where NAE is headed, why the organization has appointed a local church pastor as president, and how he'll make the NAE a more assertive voice for evangelicalism.

Why did you accept this job?

This is one of the most exciting times for evangelicalism worldwide. Evangelical churches are growing aggressively both in America and overseas. In the 1960s the dominant churches in most American cities were liberal churches. Now, the largest and strongest churches in most cities are evangelical.

We're better funded than ever before. We now have more missionaries, printing facilities, Bible distribution efforts, and seminaries. There's a new megachurch opening in America every two weeks, and the vast majority are evangelical.

This is evangelicalism's finest hour. It is the time for evangelicalism to assert itself in the public debate of ideas. One of my passions is to ensure that evangelicalism is thoughtfully and effectively represented. NAE needs to facilitate the body of Christ in the communication of the gospel.

How can NAE serve in that capacity?

The National Organization of Women regularly stands up in a public forum and says, "The women of America believe … " They have a very small membership in comparison to all the women in America, but they still speak for women. NAE is, to a degree, the representative of evangelicalism worldwide.

The Southern Baptist Convention, for instance, is not a member of NAE but we still speak for them since they are evangelicals and we are the National Association of Evangelicals. Because of that, we need to be participating in the discussions that are happening on Larry King, CNN, and magazines. My intention is to move NAE from being responsive to being proactive—and probably a little assertive.

Even though NAE represents all evangelicals in America by virtue of our name, we need be more proactive in encouraging people to directly affiliate with us so they can have a voice in what we're saying that they believe. Here's what I tell people: NAE represents you but if you will join NAE, then you get to have input in what we say you believe.

You mentioned the Southern Baptist Convention, do you see a role for the SBC in NAE?

The Southern Baptist Convention and the NAE need to draw closer together. Both need the other. The Southern Baptist Convention needs to connect with the rest of the evangelical body of believers, and the rest of the evangelical body of believers needs to be there with the Southern Baptist Convention.

When the Southern Baptist Convention launched their evangelism effort in Detroit, they were heavily criticized. But if it would have been an NAE member, another evangelical group could have been there to defend them. That's a function that NAE can do. Franklin Graham is in hot water over some of the things he said about Islam. It would be great for NAE to be active in helping explain Franklin's position.

Instead of ministries having to defend themselves, the representative voice for 50 million American evangelicals could step up and explain them. It would be a much stronger presence.

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June (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47