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Here are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

Reinventing Evangelism, part 1

I stumbled upon this magazine from Fuller Seminary a couple of weeks ago looking at the challenge of evangelism int he 21st century(link from here. This is a great selection of articles, very helpful constructive and worth a read! The last article is a kind of summary, so I thought I would 'serialise' it here. It is written by Eddie Gibbs [who wrote Church Next, among others], and is called "Reinventing Evangelism". He summarises it into 10 points - so that'll be 10 posts!!

1. We need to be energized by a fresh realization of the radical and comprehensive nature of the gospel.
As we have already noted, the gospel is first and foremost about God. It arises from the way that God relates to his creation. The good news is concerned with the reign of God, anticipated by the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, and inaugurated in the coming of Christ. In him was announced and embodied the kingdom, spreading throughout the world by the proclamation of the good news, until his reign is guaranteed with his return to earth. Thus, the opening statement of the gospel is not that God has a wonderful plan for my life, but that he has a wonderful plan for the world - a plan in which I am invited to share. This was the message that Paul and the first - century believers preached all over the Mediterranean world. The death of Christ secures our forgiveness. His resurrection, ascension, and impartation of the Spirit provide the objective grounds and subjective assurance of our reconciliation and adoption into the family of God. Once we are "born from above" (Jn. 3:3-8) we become part of God's new creation by virtue of our being "in Christ" (2 Cor. 5:17).

A corporate, holistic and global gospel message is all that will do to do justice to the work of Jesus. The trouble is that we have minimalised it into 'my' relationship woth God, 'my' forgiveness of sins, 'my' ability to get into heaven. We find ourselves, rather, caught up it a great and wonderful plan for the world, a plan of redemption and recreation for all things. A gospel that is good news for the poor, that brings justice, that brings hope - the hope of resurrection that started with Jesus and ends with all things! A resurrection life that starts now in us and through the work of the Spirit. A resurrection life that is breaking out into every area of life and society.

Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism

Posted by: Mark | 7:12 am |

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Saturday, April 16, 2005

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