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{"id":39045,"date":"2013-04-08T00:06:08","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T05:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=39045"},"modified":"2013-04-08T05:58:46","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T10:58:46","slug":"the-gospel-david-fitch-and-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2013\/04\/08\/the-gospel-david-fitch-and-i\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gospel: David Fitch and I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>We are not discussing gospel today just because someone says we should. There is a widespread conviction that what many understand the gospel to be is not what the gospel is \u2014 in other words, many think we have to begin all over again and construct our theology and our praxis on the basis of the gospel.<\/p>\n

One of the most common letters I get from readers asks this question: \u201cSince the old gospel of the four spiritual laws [or something along those lines] isn\u2019t square enough with the Bible, with the Bible\u2019s Story and with the kingdom vision of Jesus,\u00a0how now do we evangelize? What do we say?<\/em>\u201d And, what do you think of their four on-ramp kernel ideas for gospeling today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the finest introductions into this discussions can be found in David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw\u2019s book called\u00a0Prodigal Christianity: Ten Signposts into the Missional Frontier<\/em><\/a><\/strong>. In the chp called \u201cSignpost Six\u201d they examine \u201cGospel,\u201d with the subtitle \u201cMaking all things right: the journey into redemption.\u201d Their four on-ramps \u2014 see below \u2014 are excellent examples of where to go when evangelizing in a post-thin-gospel era.<\/p>\n

But before we get to their four on-ramps, they begin with a typical story: a man named Dustin prays to discern what God is doing at Starbuck\u2019s where he works, a woman asks for his confidence to tell him her story about life imploding at the core, and he\u2019s not sure where to go because he\u2019s learned \u2014 what Fitch and Holsclaw \u2014 little more than the 16th Century gospel designed to meet 16th Century\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

Then they poke around into Brian McLaren\u2019s \u201ckingdom\u201d gospel about what God wants to do for this world\u2026 and then they contend that both tell good things but neither tells enough. What the first excludes the second includes, what the second includes the first excludes \u2014 so they are arguing for a holistic gospel. The former is shaped totally toward guilt and the second too much toward what we do to establish kingdom justice.<\/p>\n

They point toward Tom Wright and yours truly as exponents of a holistic gospel. \u201cThe Son \u2026 is reestablishing a kingdom of renewal, reconciliation, and blessing\u201d (86). The gospel deals with \u201cspiritual separation from God, relational alienation from others, physical and emotional estrangement from oneself\u201d (87). Their focus is a little more on the impact of the gospel \u2014 the holistic saving impact \u2014 than on christology first and foremost, but their emphasis on a holistic healing is more than welcome. They also focus on Romans 1-5 in a Tom Wright mode of explanation.<\/p>\n

In an effort to make the gospel work in our world they met as a congregation for eight Sundays to discuss this and found four on-ramp approaches for evangelizing a kingdom gospel:<\/p>\n

1. \u201cGod is reconciling you in all your relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. \u201cGod is at work.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. \u201cGod has put the power of sin to death and is calling you into life.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. \u201cGod is calling you into mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d add one, and make it first: \u201cPride, selfishness, and the Ego deconstructs us but Jesus, and life under King Jesus, the King \u2014 the Lord \u2014 the Savior, restores us under God to a new kind of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"