A Truncated Gospel?

As I was doing my personal study in the early chapters of Amos today, I was reminded of how God longs to interact, communicate and relate with people. However, we can take that in and receive it in different ways. Either we can take it as a personal benefit, where my salvation and relationship with God is the end all, OR that this invitation to enter into relationship with God is an invitation to be a part of His plans and purposes and mission in the world.

The debate between Doug Pagitt and Bob Dewaay touched on that as well. Often the articulation of evangelical theology (and the Gospel itself) can be in reaction to (and even in reference to) false teaching or false religions, or competitive worldviews. This reaction determines the wording of the message as “the only true way to come to God.” It seems that this can cause the Christian message to be severely truncated.

The Gospel is not merely the good news of "the way to God." It goes further in that it is an invitation for us to participate with God in His activity in the world, in His mission “to bring all things together under one head,” as Paul puts it in his letter to the Ephesians. I wonder if one of the consequences of reducing this Gospel is that mission, evangelism, social justice, etc. get pushed aside as peripheral activities of the Church or as supplementary things that really strong, elite Christians do as some sort of hobby.

We see God relating with His people in that context time and time again in the Old Testament. His purpose in setting aside a people for Himself (Israel) was to reveal Himself as God to the rest of creation, not solely for the benefit of that chosen people.

(Head over to The Weary Pilgrim for related discussion on these things.)

Categories: devotional, church, mission