Gospel is quite literally "good news" but today there is lively debate about just what the good news is, exactly. The matrix above is an attempt to understand the Gospel in the intersection of Covenant and Kingdom. I'm posing the Gospel as the blue circle which, with some imagination, can shrink or grow, and can be moved up or down the axes and into any quadrant or combination of quadrants. 1 Thessalonians 1.5 gives us a full orbed description of the Gospel as it arrived via Paul. Notice how the text is spread around the poles of the matrix.
The conversation I hope to prompt by this matrix is about how the Gospel could be imbalanced if the circle is moved, and how the circle can be grown for fuller impact in and through our lives. Online teaching about this can be found at www.southsidecommunitychurch.ca Sunday teaching October 14th. Thoughts?
I have wondered in the last few years whether or not some on the planet earth are in fact here to represent a certain aspect of the gospel, at fairly extreme ends of the axes. From Billy Graham to Ravi Zacharius to Bob Dylan (did I say that) to Bono and beyond. Speaking purely personally, my goal is to hit the bulls eye. But I'm learning (some days) to accept others that are pretty far up and across the axes. (Even if sometimes in conversation it takes some explanation.) Hmm.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by your inclusion of Bob Dylan. Once when someone asked Dylan about a particular belief (after he had stopped being evangelistic) he replied, "I'm not a theologian." I liked that response and it convinced me we should talk about our actual experiences rather than try to give doctrinal explanations.
Deletereply from my friend Herb
I like the idea that various people/perspectives contribute together to a balanced "Gospel"
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