Reading on the Out of Ur blog/site (http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/06/is_your_gospel.html) and came across this discussion of "gospel" by Scott McKnight. He was contrasting an "anemic" gospel with the following description of a more "robust" gospel. Great thoughts. I think he also does a good job of placing the church/faith community in a prominent place within this gospel. Although many of us see the church negatively with its many poor expressions of gospel, there's a foundational sense in which the true church is and will always be God's primary vehicle of grace and transformation. (from this point down is extracted from McKnight's interview/post)
1. A robust gospel cannot be “tractified” (meaning, reduced to a formula).
2. God made you as an eikon (Greek for “image”) to relate in love to God, to self, to others, and to the world.
3. The “fall” cracked the eikon in all directions.
4. Bible readers cannot skip from Genesis 3 to Romans 3.
5. Genesis 4-11 reveals the “problem” of sin: the climax is a society of eikons trying to build their way to God.
6. Genesis 12 begins to restore the eikon by a covenantal commitment and forming the family of faith. The rest of the Bible is about this elected family of faith.
7. The “problem” is finally resolved in “four atoning moments”: the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
8. The “locus” of resolution is the family of faith: three big words in the Bible that describe this family of faith are Israel, the Kingdom, and the Church.
This understanding of the gospel does not marginalize the church, but instead makes the community the heart of God’s work in the world. Is McKnight’s more robust gospel better than the pervasive "4 spiritual laws" version? Is the tract gospel the source of our diminished ecclesiology and individualism? Are we even open to a wider discussion about the nature of the gospel, or is such a thing taboo—to only be permitted in “emerging” circles?
1 comment:
I think that that "tract" form of gospel has been responsible for simplifying the gospel into a manageable, pretty little package that really gives us a limited picture of the whole person of God. It limits us to a one, maybe possibly two-dimensional view of God and salvation. Through it we see the peaceful, loving God and sometimes the God who judges sin. But we lose the adventurous God, the warrior God, the Spirit who calls us to experience life outside of our little Christian "bubble".
Sorry, long-winded I know, but another of my soap boxes. Especially in light of what is going on with our ministry right now. And to answer your question posed in my comments, no grace had been offered yet, but my husband and I are planning on calling out some problems in the very near future if need be. I am tired of being more afraid of man's opinions than of God's. I am done playing the church game.
Post a Comment