Are you equipping others in evangelism? Here is an experiment for you. [I just did this with 19 seminarians in a class.] Ask them to write a statement of the essence of the gospel. (BTW – How would you state yours?] Have each one share their “essence.” Then make observations as a whole, as well as, about each individual.
What do I predict you will see?
There will be significant cultural influence in (many of) the statements of gospel essence. Many (most?) sound (predictably) like contemporary discussions of evangelism. This is not wrong in general, nor necessarily unavoidable.
There will also be a tendency toward making gospel presentations, that is, expressing the gospel as we might in our witness. This is, of course, a necessary task for the “evangelist,” but not the assignment in this case. It’s our natural tendency (reinforced by our contemporary Christian culture) to think of the gospel as a simple presentation.
While all (most?) will reflect “gospel truth,” some will sound quite different from the others. Are they communicating the same gospel? Or how is this phenomenon to be explained?
The exercise can uncover how (culturally) we understand the gospel, and how well we really grasp the essence of it.
So what is the essence of the gospel and what does it matter? Stayed tuned for my next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment