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Contendo o Gospel?

Escrito por Marca Camionete Steenwyk: Março 30, 2005

Parece-me que cada igreja coloca restraints em cima de como comunicam Gospel-algum bom, algum bad. Por exemplo, a maioria de igrejas não acoplarão em práticas blatantly unethical começar povos escutar uma apresentação do Gospel. Nós sabemos intuitively que é errado acoplar na prática do cult sabido como “trocar dos fishers pequenos flirty” - o intercourse sexual com a promessa da conversão.

Algumas igrejas colocaram restraints excessivos em cima de como comunicam o Gospel. Muitas igrejas durante todo a história americana têm não o allowe “pessoa da cor” a vir ouvem o Gospel em suas igrejas. Além, houve os preachers que etiquetaram em muitos de retraints morais extra em sua apresentação do gospel- “não fumam, não bebem, nem não chew, ou as meninas da data que…”

Um dos impulsos dirigindo da aproximação seeker-sensível é remover tantos como restraints como possível, de modo que os povos encontrem tão fácil como possível ouvir o Gospel. Fora deste impulso, a aproximação seeker-sensível advoga o seguinte:

  • Os povos não gostam de cruzar-se étnico nem não classificam linhas, e não são muito mais prováveis responder ao Gospel se não tiverem que cruzar tais linhas…, vamos conseqüentemente ter a igreja que é focalizada em um específico demográfico.
  • Os povos não gostam de ter o Gospel “empurrado” neles. Vamos fazê-lo tão fácil como possível para que venham-nos se quiserem a, onde podem se ouvir um simples, desobstruído, uncluttered a apresentação do Gospel (ou o que nós pensamos é o Gospel), e permitirem então que façam suas próprias escolhas.
  • Coisas da confiança dos povos que olham profissionais. Let’s have our meetings be as professional as possible, so that people can have trust in what we say. Let’s remove the barrier of mediocrity. We know that God can work through humble means, but why use humble means if excellence is at our disposal?

Are these valid examples of removing restraints? I don’t think so. If we read the Gospels, we see that Christ challenges all three of these notions. Paul also challenges all three. I think that we have so refined our definition of the Gospel (it is a set of relatively simple propositions, that once agreed upon, open up a doorway to a relationship with God the father), that we’ve felt the liberty to peel away things that we consider to be secondary–ethnic reconcilliation, the centrality of discipleship, how we spend our money, the manner in which the Gospel is presented, etc. I think it is time that we re-examine the retraints that the Gospel demands. I know that we should avoid putting extras on the Gospel, but I’m unconvinced that most Evangelicals really know what the Gospel is. Sure, there are snazzy statements in Scripture that seem to indicate that the Gospel can be boiled down to one key idea. But, oddly enough, not all of those statements speak of the same idea. Its as though those guys were talking about a mult-faceted Gospel or something.

for further reading . . .

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Comments

6 Responses to “Restraining the Gospel?”

  1. pat k on March 30th, 2005 11:33 am

    A multi-faceted gospel?! What the…?!

  2. Van S on March 30th, 2005 12:05 pm

    :o

  3. Anonymous on March 31st, 2005 8:15 pm

    theologica.blogspot.com began a discussion titled “Should all Churches be Multiracial?” based off a recent article by Christianity Today. Divergent responses follow.

  4. bryan on April 1st, 2005 12:02 am

    interesting food for thought. I have a story about this that I’ll post later. For now, it’s off to bed.

  5. david on April 1st, 2005 8:22 am

    i typically just stalk blogs and make no comments, but i really appreciate this. the question then is, “now what?” how do we fix this problem without simply creating “new niche” churches?

  6. Aaron on May 2nd, 2005 8:11 pm

    Michelle Marschel referred me to your site. I thought you might find this excerpt of interest. It’s from Mark Driscoll’s book Radical Reformission. You might like the book, it’s very interesting. I’d recommend it.

    In ninety nations, people spend less each year than we in the United States spend on our garbage bags.

    Each year more Americans declare bankruptcy than graduate from college

    We have twice as many malls as high schools.

    We spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches than on higher education

    Our supermarkets have 250 percent more items than they did twenty years ago.

    Parents spend six hours shopping each week, and fourty minutes playing with their children.

    Only one-fourth of shoppers have a particular purchase in mind when they go to the mall

    Seventy percent of Americans visit a mall each week; that’s more than visit houses of worship

    The assumption that everyone is a customer to be marketed is a great pitfall for those who proclaim the gospel, because we tend to cast God as a product, and as mainstream a product as possible. After all, scriptural teaching about the curse, death as the wages of sin, the flooding of the earth, the killing of Egyptian babies, the slaughter of erverts in Sodom and Gomorrah, and the fiery torments of hell is a tough sell even for the best of marketing firms.

    Yet today everything from sex to Jesus is pimped, since some preachers have traded in prophecy for pandering. Meanwhile, people have become so seasoned from the years of direct mail, online pop-up ads, commercials, and the endless parade of advertising on everything from billboards to ball caps that they tend to view the church as just another business and the preacher as yet another huckster.
    The Radical Reformission, Mark Driscoll. (p.170-171)

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