The gospel

[Les]

I realize that this is a broad question but I am currently wrestling with the question "What is the Gospel?"

I am an ordained Baptist pastor in Australia and I drive a taxi 4 nights a week and seek to talk to people about God whenever an opportunity arises. I interact with very much unchurched people and so the "traditional" propositional model of evangelism is not going to work very well.

I am seeking ways to connect with their stories, build friendships when I can and slowly build a picture of the love of God and the "realness" of God.

I have the go ahead from the Baptist Union to plant a missional community to reach the pub/club subculture of our city. It is exciting, challenging and scary to be ministering into such an environment.

If anyone has reflections on this issue please join in the conversation as I believe it is imperative in this day and generation that we wrestle with what is the good news and how we can best share it. Even though the majority of members are from North America I still believe we can learn from each other in this area.

[Ben]

Tim Keller has had some excellent things to say on this.

Here is a quote(HT):

The gospel has been described as a pool in which a toddler can wade and yet an elephant can swim. It is both simple enough to tell to a child and profound enough for the greatest minds to explore. Indeed, even angels never tire of looking into it (1 Peter 1:12). Humans are by no means angels, however, so rather than contemplating it, we argue about it.

A generation ago evangelicals agreed on “the simple gospel”: (1) God made you and wants to have a relationship with you, (2) but your sin separates you from God. (3) Jesus took the punishment your sins deserved, (4) so if you repent from sins and trust in him for your salvation, you will be forgiven, justified, and accepted freely by grace, and indwelt with his Spirit until you die and go to heaven.

There are today at least two major criticisms of this simple formulation. Many say that it is too individualistic, that Christ’s salvation is not so much to bring individual happiness as to bring peace, justice, and a new creation. A second criticism is that there is no one “simple gospel” because “everything is contextual” and the Bible itself contains many gospel presentations that exist in tension with each other.

There is also a great mp3 from Tim (session 6 - Dwelling in the Gospel) here

[Les]

Thanks for the link to the MP3. I also checked the full article at "Christianity Today". I'd be interested in your personal thoughts as well, Ben.

The so-called simple gospel also falls into the realm of propositional statements and I think we need to hold onto the essential truth of the gospel but travel with people on a journey and, in doing so, bring the gospel into the relationship.

This is not as simple as it sounds as it involves a long-term commitment to unchurched people and it means that we have to not be simply friends but also means that we shouldn't simply treat friends as evangelistic projects. I am still wrestling through what this all means.

On Sunday I was invited for a birthday drink in the CBD and all of the other guests were in their 20s and unchurched. I was introduced to two girls who were friends of the birthday girl and they "had heard all about" the taxi driving pastor. I am connecting in the community but still figuring where and how to bring in and demonstrate the gospel message.

[matt n.]

Hey Les,

I am new to this group so just saw your post back in August. I have pasted some information below that might help. Some great books to read are, The Continous Conversaion of the Church by Guder, The Soul of Ministry by Ray Anderson, The Mediation of Christ by Torrance, The Church Between Gospel and Culture by Hunsberger and Van Gelder. You may also consider reading Exiles by fellow Aussie Michael Frost and The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch.

Anyway, you are right to ask this question because before we can ask what is mission, evangelism, church, we need to start by asking what is the Gospel. Our understanding of the Gospel leads to our definition of mission, evangelism, and even church.

So…What is the Gospel?

Markers of the Gospel

God’s self-disclosure—the misso dei
Evident throughout the biblical story:
seen in the creation story—image of God
seen when God calls out Abraham—covenant
seen when God comes to Joseph in dreams
seen in the life of Moses (the burning bush)
seen in the incarnation of God in Christ

God’s Incarnation—The Christ
Christ is central to the Gospel
How do we know God? (Matt 11:27)
A god who suffers

The Atonement
encompasses Incarnation through resurrection
Christ “humanized” humanity…restored the image of God in humanity
Christ’s divinity sanctified his humanity and concurred death
God the father justified Christ by raising him from death and in so doing bound our salvation in Christ.

Define Salvation?
Is salvation just Individual? Or relational also…for the whole world.
2 Cor 5: 17-19
Gal 3: 8
Eph 1: 3-14
Rom 5:18
1 Tim 2:4
Phil 3: 8-16

The Gospel is the mission of God, it is about reconciliation and relationship, it culminates in Christ, who is the mediator between humanity and God. Christ is both the message and the message. He is the revealer and the reconciler. The Gospel is Christ. John 3:16

The Core of the gospel is evangelization—the communication of the gospel.

The key here is witness—witness draws together proclamation, community, and service.

We are called to incarnate the Gospel.

The Church and the Church’s Purpose
The biblical narrative points to the fact that the church is those gathered by the Spirit in Christ. The church is not an institution or building, the church is a people. The church therefore is the body of Christ empowered by the Spirit of Christ. The foundation of the church is Christ. Christ is the cornerstone. This understanding of Christ is what Peter refers to when he calls Jesus a “living stone”. Christ decides upon whom he shall build his foundation. A foundation without a cornerstone is not possible. We are “living stones” because of Christ.
The early church emphasized Christ as the Messiah, the incarnate God, who was crucified, raised from the dead and ascended to heaven. They understood church as the body of Christ called to a mission of witness in the world. Darrell Guder in his book, “The Continuing Conversion of the Church” writes about the early apostolic church living out the gospel by focusing on witnessing to the good news of Christ. It was the shift from persecuted church to Constantinian church, which cemented a swing away from witness through proclamation, to the gospel becoming more of a “truth system” and method for living (Guder 2000: 106-107).
This reductionism of the gospel led to a significant shift in the purpose of the church. No longer was the purpose of the church to be Christ’s body in the world, risking its faith in reconciling witness to Christ. The new purpose of the church became building an institution guarding the “truth system” gospel via “orthodox” belief. The church developed into a giver or taker of salvation and relationship with God.
Yet the gospel is not a system of self-preservation. The gospel is Christ. Christ is both the message and the messenger (Kraus 1993: 93). In this sense, Christ is the living cornerstone as well as all the other stones it takes to build the body of Christ, for we are not living stones unless we are in Christ. This helps us discern the incarnation and resurrection of Christ as central to the redemptive plan for the world (Anderson 1997: 113). We begin to understand the concept of the missio Dei, the mission of God, and the churches role in the continuation of the mission of God through Christ. The same Christ that lived, died on the cross, was resurrected, and ascended empowers the church to a ministry of witness and reconciliation through the Spirit of Christ (Van Engen 1991: 108). The church is to be the body of Christ in the world, and its purpose to be the continuation of the reconciling mission of Christ (Van Engen 1991: 17).


Let me know if you have more questions and I will be happy to try and answer.