Not-So-Deep Response #4
The "gospel" as it's presented most of the time in the controlled witnessing environment that passes for "evangelism" in the western church is basically, "trust God or go to hell." While there might be truth in that statement, it isn't the Good News as Jesus preached, and it tends to turn people into Christians out of fear rather than a real passion and repentance before God, and it gives us a license to sin because "once saced always saved - at least I'm not going to hell."
The gospel is so much more than escaping future eternity in the lake of fire. It's about living life now in Christ, living as a Kingdom-citizen as described in Matthew 5-7. It's about loving God and loving others, asking questions and teaching others, maturing together and personally getting to know God better. When we scare people into believing Jesus, we lose the power of His love to make even more radical changes in their lives. And that's a real problem, with so many personal and community-level changes needed in our lives and our worldview.
posted by Rick @ 8:09 AM
1 Comments:
Jn 17:3, eternal life is not heaven, it's now, knowing God and Jesus, not knowing just the angry aspect of his nature. 2 Peter 1:5-7, By knowing him we cultivate the love needed for others, but it's a process. Col. 2:2, community is being knitted together not just scaring or guilting people into our churches.
deinately a minimalist perspective and there's A LOT more to it, maybe I'll add a post. Thanks for helping us re-think the GOOD news.
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