National Association of Evangelicals - History

History

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) was formed by a group of 147 people who met in St. Louis, Missouri on April 7–9, 1942. The Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy and the related isolation of various evangelical denominations and leaders provided the impetus for developing such an organization.

Early leaders in the movement included Harold Ockenga, David Otis Fuller, Will Houghton, Harry A. Ironside, Bob Jones, Sr., Leslie Roy Marston, John R. Rice, Charles Woodbridge, and J. Elwin Wright. Houghton called for a meeting in Chicago, Illinois in 1941. A committee was formed with Wright as chairman, and a national conference for United Action Among Evangelicals was called to meet in April 1942. Harold Ockenga was appointed the first president (1942–44).

Carl McIntire and Harvey Springer led in organizing the American Council of Christian Churches (now with 7 member bodies) in September 1941. It was a more militant and fundamentalist organization set up in opposition to the Federal Council of Churches (now National Council of Churches with 36 member bodies). McIntire invited the Evangelicals for United Action to join with them, but those who met in St. Louis declined the offer.

The tentative organization founded in 1942 was called the "National Association of Evangelicals for United Action". In 1943 the proposed constitution and doctrinal statement were amended and adopted, and the name shortened to the "National Association of Evangelicals".

By the 1950s, NAE's Washington, D.C., office gained a reputation as a service organization that could get things done. President Eisenhower welcomed an NAE delegation to the White House - a first-time honor for the association. At the NAE's 1983 conference in Orlando, Florida, NAE President Rev. Arthur Evans Gay, Jr. introduced President Ronald Reagan for what was to become known as his "Evil Empire" speech. The 50th anniversary of the organization was celebrated in 1992 at the annual March Convention at the Chicago Hyatt Hotel. President George H. W. Bush spoke to the World Relief annual luncheon at the invitation of the organization's president Arthur Gay, making Bush the third President to address the NAE. During the convention Billy Graham spoke for the last time at an NAE gathering, calling on evangelicals to a renewed commitment to spread the gospel.

In a move signaling its primary focus, the NAE changed its annual convention venue from hotels and convention centers to churches. In 2003, the first church-hosted convention was held at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. President George W. Bush, running for reelection in 2004, visited the NAE convention at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., via satellite link and told the delegates, "You cannot endorse me, but I endorse you." In 2004, the NAE adopted "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility" document as its framework for engagement in political action.

With a record of over 65 years of facilitating evangelical unity, witness and cooperation, the NAE is the only institutional structure and the most representative agency of American evangelicals in the 21st century.