This is an outstanding piece by Kevin DeYoung in response to a letter to unbelievers, written by Shaine Claiborne and published in Esquire.
Kevin explains that this increasingly popular “new gospel” usually has four parts: (1) it starts with an apology; (2) it appeals to God as love; (3) it invites others to join God on his mission; (4) it is ambivalent about eternity.
Why is it so popular? (1) it’s partially true; (2) it deals with strawmen; (3) it leads people to believe wrong things without explicitly stating those wrong things [this is Kevin's most important paragraph, I think]; (4) it’s manageable; (5) it’s inspirational; (6) it’s non-offensive.
Kevin goes on to deal with a number of objections. I know Claiborne would say what he wrote is just pre-evangelism, but I think Kevin’s points are spot on and well worth considering carefully. I encourage you to read the whole thing.
(via jd's blog)
2 comments:
Yeah, this is definitely a worthy read. As strong a reminder as Claiborne gives with regards to not ignoring the poor, and striving towards peace and justice, he does beat around the bush in the letter, and on other very political topics like gay marriage and abortion. Like he said, though, it's more pre-evangelism -- I thought of it as preparing the soil before sowing the seed.
I don't agree with Deyoung's interpretations of Shane's statements regarding heaven/hell, though. Shane said in the letter that he "did not choose to devote [his] life to Jesus because he was scared to death of hell or because I wanted crowns in heaven..." Doesn't that address, then, false gospel-spreading techniques that many evangelists have used in the past? (ie. "Convert or you'll go to hell.")
The Bible tells us to treasure and pursue God's kingdom (ie. heaven), and I do remember that some alarm bells went off in Irrev when he wrote about how the gospel would affect him/others if the whole heaven/hell thing didn't exist. But if you think about it, Irrev was written for the Church! And sometimes we really DO need a reminder that at the core of everything, we aren't Christians because of heaven/hell, we're Christians because of Christ.
Re: Jesus' death (and the underemphasis of the cross/necessary change) -- Having read "Jesus For President," which for the first half is an account of Jesus' life and death and subsequent resurrection, and for the second half outlines specific parts of our lifestyles that must be changed in order to live Jesus-like, I don't necessarily agree that it is a "soft, welcoming" gospel. I guess I see Shane's role as more apostolic than evangelistic - he (as an individual) preaches mainly to churches/Americans rather than foreigners who know nothing of Jesus' story. When he writes his books, he assumes that his audience already knows something or other about Jesus' story.
I can understand people's views about Shane's writing and how it seems to "water down" the gospel, because if you skim his writings they seem to resemble those of soo many others who do "water down" the gospel. I believe that Shane wrote that seemingly-watered-down letter to provide some healing to those wounded or confused by the Church, hence the need for the apology at the beginning (which also brings Christians into a place of humility so they can't preach from a place of pride) and readjustment of the Christ-centered perspective.
Having read this letter, I do think that non-Christians would be able to understand and receive Christ better. Our job IS to fish for men and "do" the Great Commission. We can't all just pass out tracts to strangers and declare to God that our work for Him has been done.
That's my two cents. :) Call me indoctrinated or whatever, but I actually began writing this comment in complete agreement with DeYoung.. and then I re-read the letter (for the 3rd time) and re-read the response, and completely changed my mind haha.
yeah i'm a bit confused on where i stand on this too. read another thing...also on pastor jd's blog...about how as a church we are sometimes forgetting the MISSION of the church, which is foremost to share Christ and sometimes that gets lost in the midst of social activism and such which is definitely a PART of that, but just a PART.
Post a Comment