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Monday, April 18, 2005

2. We must communicate the gospel as the story of God's saving mission in the world rather than as a series of abstract propositions.
Preachers have to become storytellers, covering the epic biblical drama from Creation through to its culmination with the restoring of all things under the universal reign of Christ. This is an even greater challenge than that faced by Peter Jackson in filming the three-part epic of The Lord of the Rings. In order to be good storytellers, we need vivid imaginations. Our education has trained us to analyze, criticize, and conceptualize, but, regrettably, in so doing our childhood powers of imagination have faded. That is one reason why rediscovery of the arts is so important in theological education if we are to adequately train Church leaders who are able to communicate in a culture in which image has assumed such prominence.

Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism