Word and Spirit

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Ever since naming my blog “Word and Spirit”, I have always been on the lookout for Biblical passages and themes that relate these two topics together. Initially, I tended to think of “Word and Spirit” in a purely ecclesiological sense – a “Word and Spirit” church is one that values both sermons and spiritual gifts. Most churches who present themselves as “Word and Spirit” are trying to indicate that they have this dual emphasis on preaching and pneumatology.

But over the last years I have noticed many ways in which the Word of God and Spirit of God work together in the life of an individual believer. I began gathering material, with the intention of writing a short book that I would make freely available to readers of this blog and friends (already two people have offered to buy it if I put their names in the foreword!).

So I was looking for opportunities to develop the material by teaching it, and last Sunday I had the chance to preach at a Sunday night student event at my church. I based the talk on the metaphors of the Word of God as our spiritual food and the Spirit of God as our spiritual drink.

I had far too much to say in the time I had available (I skipped over at least 10 points!), and was worried it would come across as more of an “information blast” than a sermon, but people seemed positive about it. I’ve put my notes online in PDF format here for those who are interested: “Being Filled with the Word and Spirit“. If the mp3 gets made available I’ll put a link to it as well.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that a charismatic evangelical spirituality is simply a life filled with the Word and Spirit of God. This involves being a “self-feeder” (as Willow Creek have just “discovered”), by regularly coming to meet God in private in the Word and prayer, but also encountering God in his Word and by his Spirit in community, as we enjoy a “Word and Spirit banquet” with other believers when we meet together.

Anyway, my next steps are to organize my material into chapters, and I’ll post them one at a time on this blog as they are complete, so you can be my proof-readers and editor if you like!

Peterson on Commentaries

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I came across a great section in Eugene Peterson’s “Eat This Book” encouraging people to read commentaries cover to cover. This is something I love to do, although until I read this, I have never heard anyone recommend it. He draws a great parallel between commentators and football fans. I’ll quote him in full. (emphasis added).

It is useful for readers of the Bible to keep company with some of our master exegetes; the easiest way to do it is to use their commentaries. Biblical commentaries are, for the most part, employed by pastors or teachers in the preparation of sermons or lectures. They are treated as “tools”. But there are treasures in these books for the ordinary reader of the Bible. Among those of us who read – eat – this text not in preparation for an assignment, but simply for direction and nourishment in following Jesus, which means most of us, biblical commentaries have for too long been overlooked as common reading for common Christians.

I recommend reading commentaries in the same way we read novels, from beginning to end, skipping nothing. They are, admittedly, weak in plot and character development, but their devout attention to words and syntax is sufficient. Plot and character – the plot of salvation, the character of Messiah – are everywhere implicit in a commentary and persistently assert their presence even when unmentioned through scores, even hundreds, of pages. The power of these ancient nouns and verbs century after century to call forth intelligent discourse from learned men and women continues to be a staggering wonder.

Among those for whom Scripture is a passion, reading commentaries has always seemed to me analogous to the gathering of football fans in the local bar after the game, replaying in endless detail the game they have just watched, arguing (maybe even fighting) over observations and opinion, and lacing the discourse with gossip about the players. The level of knowledge evident in these boozy colloquies is impressive. These fans have watched the game for years; the players are household names to them; they know the fine print in the rulebook and pick up every nuance on the field. And they care immensely about what happens in the game. Their seemingly endless commentary is evidence of how much they care. Like them, I relish in a commentary not bare information but conversation with knowledgeable and experienced friends, probing, observing, questioning the biblical text. Absorbed by this plot that stretches grandly from Genesis to Revelation, captured by the messianic presence that in death and resurrection saves us one and all – there is so much to notice, so much to talk over.

Not all commentaries fill the bill – some of them are written by scholars who seem to have no interest in God or the story, but there are enough that qualify to convince me that they provide welcome and indispensable companionship to all of us readers of the text who, as we follow Jesus, don’t want to miss anything along the way.

Book Review – The Church on the Other Side (Brian McLaren)

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The thesis of this book is pretty straightforward: the times are changing, and the church had better move with the times. We are transitioning from modernism to postmodernism and the church on “the other side” of this great cultural shift will look very different to the modern church. McLaren therefore offers us twelve strategies to help us successfully navigate the change and build churches that are appropriate and relevant for the new world. “A new world needs a new church.”

McLaren clearly believes there is something very wrong with the current state of the church – “human beings are incurably religious, yet Christianity has lost its power to satisfy us”. His solution is not renewal or reformation (indeed he is critical of these approaches). No the church must be “re-invented”. He claims that there are no “blueprints”. Most evangelicals will be wondering what place he gives to the Bible as the foundation for our ecclesiology. They will still be wondering by the end, and left suspecting that the answer is “almost none”.

Many of the typical emerging church concerns are outlined. The church needs to be more honest about its failures, less dogmatic, less arrogant, less caught up with traditions (and more connected to “Tradition”), less about personal salvation and more about community now. We should focus on what unites us rather than our doctrinal distinctives and embrace all types of Christian spirituality. A nuanced Amen to most of that.

He talks about the need for a new apologetic. “Proofs” of the Christianity to make it more credible are no longer needed for a postmodern world. Rather, Christianity must be seen to be plausible by being a community people would want to join.

McLaren is very hard to pin down on doctrine (probably deliberately). His approach seems to be the politicians favourite “I can neither confirm nor deny that doctrine…”. For example, he speaks of the need to stop fighting against other religions and fight alongside them, leaving you not quite sure of his position on the exclusiveness of Jesus for salvation.

The church needs to find a new rhetoric, which is to say it needs to talk less and do more. He calls for churches to become a lot less attached to their structures, and to reject the models of leadership found in modern evangelicalism such the “Bible answer man” who will fix any doubt with a quick proof-text, or the “successful” mega-church pastor who promises you perpetual victory and prosperity.

He lists many reasons why traditional “missions” are running out of steam, and suggests new models where we think more holistically about “mission”.

The book finally closes with three chapters on postmodernism. He is convinced that it is the future, and that we should not only understand it, but embrace it. He sees it as the future not only in western culture but worldwide.

It is not hard to see why Brian McLaren is so popular. He certainly identifies a number of real problems in the church, and suggests many good ideas for improvement. However, this book left me feeling uneasy for a number of reasons.

First, while I do not claim to be in any way an expert on culture, it seems remarkably simplistic to subsume everyone under one new umbrella of “postmodernism”. I see a world containing many diverse cultures, and though “modernists” may indeed be dying out, they certainly still exist and need to be reached with the gospel.

Second, after identifying many ways in which the church has unfortunately embraced the negatives of modernism, it seems bizarre that he should be so eager for the church to reconfigure itself to be exactly what post-moderns are asking for. He somewhat cheekily suggests that he need not critique postmodernism because (grumpy old) D A Carson has already done enough of that!

Third, while making clear that he does not accept relativism, it is almost entirely unclear what he believes the basis for knowledge is. He wants to encourage creative and “messy” thinkers, to re-invent the church, to embrace new paradigms. But how will he judge these ideas? It certainly does not seem like he would offer the Bible as any kind of objective standard.

Maybe McLaren would say that this question reveals that I am stuck in a “modernist” mindset. And perhaps it does. But when one of his messy thinkers suggests that all religions lead to God, or that we should all dance round naked at the church worship service, on what basis will he accept or reject their proposals? Is the church on the other side able to detect heresy? Or is the only heresy the idea that heresy is even possible?

I would only recommend this book to those interested in understanding the emerging church’s ecclesiology. The good ideas he proposes can also be found in books by those far more rooted in Scripture. Jesus has already “invented” the church. We do not need to re-invent it, but maybe we do need to re-discover his original intentions for it, and re-configure the way we speak and act so that we are truly able to communicate the unchanging truth of the gospel to a post-modern world.

Book Review – Discovering Christ in the Song of Solomon (Don Fortner)

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This is essentially a commentary on the Song of Songs taking an allegorical approach. Indeed, the author insists that the book “is not in any sense to be interpreted literally” and “it would lead to great evil to interpret it literally”. Personally, I find that approach too limiting, but the allegorical interpretation does have good pedigree, with Spurgeon and the Puritans seeing in this book a love story between Christ and the church (and indeed between Christ and the individual believer).

The book has no introduction and is divided into 32 short chapters, which make it suitable for reading a chapter a day as a devotional guide. The early chapters in particular are very good at stirring us up to desire to know the manifest presence of the Lord in our lives. We are to treasure his presence above all things, not being content with mere religious gatherings, and not allowing even our sins to keep us from Christ.

As would be expected in an allegorical interpretation there are some rather speculative interpretations, and the author rarely admits to uncertainty over the meaning of a passage. It has a strongly reformed theology and he even manages to find references to Arminian theology in places! There are some good sections on assurance of salvation and the believers struggle with sin and its effect on our relationship with Christ.

Overall, there is much good devotional material in here, but the jury is out on the hermeneutics. It is not until chapter 7 of Song of Songs that he even considers that there could be an application for husbands and wives. But the call to love Christ more deeply and to treasure his presence is always a valuable one, and even if other commentaries may need to be consulted, I think the allegorical approach should not be lightly dismissed.

As long as it is informed by other plainer passages of Scripture, this approach brings to life Paul’s observation that the relationship between a husband and wife mirrors that of Christ and the church. I would probably however recommend that those wanting to study Song of Songs allegorically start with John Owen’s “Communion with God” or Hudson Taylor’s “Union with Christ” rather than this book. I still also consider Tom Gledhill’s Bible Speaks Today commentary on Song of Songs which takes a completely non-allegorical approach to the book to also be well worth a read.

Newfrontiers Magazine

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There is a new edition of the newfrontiers magazine out and it has just been made available on the web. The theme of this edition is the cross, and, as expected there is a strong affirmation of a commitment to a substitutionary understanding of the atonement.

I particularly appreciated two things about their approach. First is the irenic tone, even when addressing the attacks on penal substitution from within evangelicalism (see in particular Mick Taylor’s article). Second, is that the doctrine of the atonement is not reduced to, or summed up entirely in the model of penal substitution. They recognise the importance of a symphonic view, with Andrew Wilson’s great article on Christus Victor demonstrating a willingness to embrace a fully orbed biblical understanding of significance of the cross.

Another thing that caught my eye was Adrian Holloway’s brief evangelistic message. The reason I found it interesting was because it represents exactly the type of gospel presentation that many in the emerging church are criticising. It is personal rather than about community, and it has a clear focus on eternal salvation and going to heaven without really mentioning the gospel’s power to transform life on earth.

But having said that, given the small space he had available, did he do a bad job? I think not. The initial presentation of the gospel will always have to be somewhat limited in scope. We can hardly expect people to be fully educated in the entire biblical metanarrative on our first occasion of sharing the gospel with them. He managed to fit in the concepts of universal sin, the love of God, substitutionary atonement, the resurrection and eternal life all in the space of a few paragraphs. There is of course much more to be said about the gospel. But should we really be bashing each other for failing to get the entire thing into a 60 second summary?

LibraryThing & Book Reviews

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I first came across the LibraryThing website about a year ago. The idea is remarkably simple – it allows you to catalogue your books, tag them and review them. You can create a free account and manage up to 200 books to get a feel for it, but to add more you have to pay. The lifetime membership fee is very reasonable though, at $25 which works out at about £12, and I finally signed up this week.

Its a great way of keeping track of what books you have read, and also which ones you have lent to other people. I’ve still got a way to go before I will have added my entire collection. You can look at my library here. Another nice feature is that it will show you who has a similar library to you, which can be useful as you can look at the ratings people with similar tastes to you have given to books you are thinking of reading.

I’ve also put links to my book reviews on there, and discovered that I have now reviewed just over 100 books on this site over the last 3 years or so. I’ve been trying for the last couple of years to read more books than I buy (not counting books I am given).

Which brings me to a rather disturbing quote I found in Joanna & Alister McGrath’s book on self-esteem I read recently.

As Lewis W. Spitz, professor of history at Stanford University, once said: "There are those who write. Those who can’t write cut them down in reviews, which is one way of asserting themselves against their intellectual superiors.

I think there is value in a book review, even in one that is highly critical of the book in question. But those of us who write reviews need to beware of the review being more about ourselves and our impeccable gift of discernment than about the book in question.

Book Review – Self-Esteem (Joanna & Alister McGrath)

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Self-esteem is a topic that preachers cannot ignore. We know that there are many who feel “worthless” and that the gospel must in some way address this. But does it do so by simply telling us we are in fact great so need not feel bad, or by telling us that we are sinners and so are right to feel the way we do? Both approaches have been taken, and neither seems satisfactory as a Christian approach to self-esteem.

Joanna & Alister McGrath are well placed to contribute to this debate owing to their expertise in the fields of psychology and theology respectively. The early chapters function as a primer on the secular understanding of “self-esteem”.

They provide the following working definition of self-esteem:

Self-esteem consists of a global evaluation or judgment about personally acceptability and worthiness to be loved, which carries with it pleasant or unpleasant feelings. It is strongly related to the perceived views of the person by important others in his or her life.

They then explore the different things on which self-esteem is typically based – the roles we fulfill and our performance of them, our “pedigree”, the love of others for us, and our eternal significance. There is an interesting discussion of the different reasons we ascribe to our successes and failures (whether we see ourselves as the cause or whether we see external factors as having caused them) and how this relates to our self-evaluation of worth.

There is a chapter that explores the relationship between negative self-esteem and various mental illnesses and personality disorders. One important concept they explore is that of “attachment” and “separation” in a parent-child relationship. Feelings of abandonment lead to low self-esteem, whilst a sense of attachment brings positive self-esteem.

At the mid-point of the book, they bring in a Christian critique of the prevailing secular understandings of self-esteem. Christians should neither uncritically accept or deny secular findings. However, the main weakness they note in secular approaches is the denial of the problem of sin. A Christian understanding of sin is deeply counter-cultural. Christianity offers freedom, but sin brings bondage.

Secular approaches assume that we do not need to question the way we are. We need not seek anything beyond the realm of this world. And, for the Christian, this inevitably means that those who rely upon secular therapies will remain captive to sin.

Also, secular approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy are simply content with attaining “realistic” goals, whilst Christ confronts us with absolute moral demands and calls us to be perfect. Rather than destroying the self-esteem of the Christian, our failure to achieve this has the positive effect of driving us to rely on the grace of God rather than upon our own resources. Thus our self-esteem is not based upon achievements (as in many secular approaches) but on grace.

The remaining section of the book is theological and practical, explaining that the cross is the Christian basis for self-esteem and confidence. In a great chapter on the cross, sin is likened to a disease, which God cures through the work of Christ on the cross. This healing is currently ongoing, and so our self-esteem should not be compromised by an awareness of sin. There is also a very helpful explanation of “justification by faith” in relational terms – we are in right relation with God.

The theme of separation and attachment is revisited in a chapter on the fatherhood of God. We find a deep longing fulfilled as we are reconciled to God and adopted. Another chapter works through the book of Philippians to explore how the gospel brings us a contentment and joy in all circumstances that comes as we follow Christ’s example of true humility.

The final chapter is very practical, explaining how Christians can help develop healthy self-esteem through affirming and accepting one another, and teaching on the significance of being “attached” to Christ. There is also a very useful section on the difficult topic of criticism. Our desire to affirm and accept one another does not mean that we will never criticise, but that it is done in the context of knowing one another deeply, being committed to one another, and is to be done simultaneously with affirmation and with a view to redirecting behaviour (rather than merely condemning).

This book is a good mixture of educational (on secular theories of self-esteem), theological and practical material. It will be of particular benefit to preachers and teachers who want to address issues of self-esteem, but are unsure as to what the best approach is. The answer is of course that the gospel, truly preached and rightly understood is central to helping people to develop a right evaluation of not just what they were but how God sees them and what he intends to do in them.

Book Review – The Purpose Driven Church (Rick Warren)

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The main thesis of this book is that a local church needs to know what its purpose it, and then ensure that all it does is directed towards accomplishing that purpose. Rick Warren is of course founder and pastor of Saddleback church in America that has grown to over 20,000 attendees. He has a particular passion to reach the “unchurched” with the gospel, and this book details how he goes about this.

He is aware that “mega-churches” come under heavy criticism, which he seeks to refute early on in the book. You can grow without compromise. Indeed, he would say that a church that is not growing is actually dying. He also reports that Saddleback has not grown through “transfer growth” (Christians changing churches). In fact, 80% of their membership were baptised at Saddleback, and they saw 7,000 conversions in their first 15 years. This is certainly impressive, though sadly I imagine that not many mega-churches would be able to offer statistics anywhere close.

Another “myth” he attempts to debunk is that you can’t have quantity and quality. Of course they are not mutually exclusive, but McDonalds teaches us you can have quantity without quality. There is a real danger that the church grows wide and shallow.

One of his key strategies is being “seeker sensitive”. This involves two things. First of all, he simply means that churches should not do things that make visiting unbelievers feel awkward, confused, unwelcome or embarrassed. The language should be understandable, the welcome should be warm, the music should be of a good standard etc. In many ways, he is arguing for things that most evangelical churches have now taken on board (the book was published in 1995).

But there is a second side to being “seeker sensitive”. The Sunday meeting is actually specifically designed with unbelievers in mind. They still have worship and a sermon, but of primary importance is that the visiting “unchurched” will enjoy the worship and find the sermon useful. Saddleback run services directly targeted at believers on a different night.

It is worth considering the unique culture of America here. Rick Warren got over 200 people to attend his first meeting simply by mailing invitations and promising a church that would not be boring and irrelevant. And these were not Christians who came. Such a thing is unheard of here in the UK, and this fact should give pause for thought for anyone who would seek to copy his methods (Warren himself is insistent anyway that it is only the principles that should be copied – the particulars will differ). Evangelism in a “post-Christian” culture will look very different to this.

Warren claims that though the sermons are aimed at people’s “felt needs” this does not mean that the gospel is watered down. He argues that Jesus himself used this method. While I agree that Jesus was a good communicator, I was not entirely convinced that his messages were all as upbeat as Warren makes them out to be. For example he portrays the Sermon on the Mount as starting with “eight secrets of genuine happiness” and ending with a nice story about the importance of putting the teaching into action. It strikes me as a remarkably positive spin on some very challenging teaching!

Saddleback are very intentional about who they are targeting. They even have a name for their ideal customer (yes Warren even calls church attendees customers at times!) – Saddleback Sam is a well-off, middle-class, professional, husband and father. They design their services to be exactly what he wants. If someone objects that this is pandering to his ego-centric consumerism, Warren responds that these attitudes will be challenged after they become a believer. If people came to church with the mindset that it was merely a dispenser of religious goods and services, then we would hope that that idea would be challenged almost immediately as they find the church not to be a mirror of their culture, but a counter-cultural community.

We might also wonder why such a “nice” person was chosen, when the gospel is surely for all races and social classes. Warren seems to think that other churches can target other types of people, but that you can’t simply try to reach everyone, so you should go for the people you “most easily” reach. I found this approach uncomfortable – if every church thinks like this, who will reach the poor, Muslims, alcoholics? The fact is that the Christian population is predominantly white middle class both in the UK and in America. We cannot avoid “cross-cultural” mission even in our own cities. Having said that, it does appear that Saddleback has developed some other ministries to reach different types of people, even if the seeker service is not aimed at them.

Also slightly odd was their discipleship program. This involved people graduating through four stages, each complete with its own covenant (for example the first one is to tithe, have a quiet time, and attend regularly). This sounded a little formulaic and even verging on the legalistic, but it has to be said that it is way beyond what most churches require of new members and does at least demonstrate a genuine commitment to spiritual growth rather than merely an infatuation with “numbers” that many mega-churches are accused of.

In fact the chapters on helping members mature and minister to others are perhaps the strongest in the book. They take seriously the importance of commitment, and one of the things I liked best was his aversion to bureaucracy and committees. He would much rather people spent their time in ministry. He also believes that members should be empowered to initiate new ministries as they have a heart for them, rather than leaders coming up with ideas and looking for staff.

Rick Warren is certainly a pragmatist. This will leave some readers wondering whether he puts results before uncompromising faithfulness to the gospel. This is the first of his books I have read, and to be honest I wish he had taken the time to articulate what he understands the gospel to be. I appreciate his passion to see people saved, and to see them become mature. There is undoubtedly much to be learned from this book. But at the same time there is much that should not be copied, even if it is working at Saddleback.

Gospel and Suffering

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In what sense is the gospel “good news” for those who are suffering? This question is at the heart of the debate that is going on about the gospel amongst the evangelical and emerging church.

Rob Bell said in a recent interview in a tearfund magazine that “Making sure people have water and proper medication IS the gospel”. Of course he is reacting against the much maligned “personal gospel”, but I do sometimes wonder whether the emerging church is headed directly towards a purely “social gospel”.

So here are some thoughts on how the gospel addresses suffering. This hasn’t been developed too much, so feel free to critique it in the comments.

The gospel is good news in the present and the future. It alleviates suffering in the present, and eradicates it in the future.

1. Good News in the Present

The gospel is good news in the present because it transforms lives. This addresses suffering in three ways:

First, it transforms the lives of those who are already believers, causing us to love others and lay down our lives to serve them. This results in us finding practical ways that we can help and love those in need. It finds expression as Christians sacrificially give of their time and money to be a blessing to others.

Second, it transforms the lives of those who are suffering, as they respond to the gospel and become followers of Jesus. Even in the midst of their suffering they can know “joy unspeakable” (1 Pet 1:8). They are also empowered by the Spirit, and supported by the community of God’s people to live in a new way. The gospel sets people free from self-destructive addictions, obsessions, phobias, guilt, and insecurities, opening the door for them to enjoy life to the full, even if their external circumstances may not have changed.

Third, it transforms the lives of those who cause suffering. The gospel is just as much for the violent and unjust as it is for the victim and the outcast. Society responds to criminals by locking them up, but the gospel offers them victory over the temptations and sinful patterns of behaviour they once found themselves in bondage to.

2. Good News in the Future

The so-called personal gospel, that offers us hope of eternity in the new heavens and the new earth even after we die, cannot and must not be relegated to being merely a side issue. There is a very strong eschatological theme that runs through the whole Bible. Our salvation is now but not yet. We long for the heavenly city that is to come (Heb 13:4). Our justification by faith in Jesus, though true in the present, will be the unshakable foundation of our deliverance from the “wrath that is to come” (1 Thess 1:10).

The gospel does include a proclamation of both a coming King and a coming judgement. Therefore it does have personal implications, which will determine whether our future will mean glorification or condemnation. This is why Jesus and the apostles always urged people to “repent and believe” as a response to the gospel.

Word and Deed

If as evangelicals we are to embrace the “whole gospel”, then we must both proclaim and enact the good news. To show love in action as well as to speak the truth in love. As I said in my previous post, let’s not short-change people with a partial gospel.

Big Problems? Big Solution

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Justin Taylor posted a link to a YouTube video in which Pete Du Pont gave a brief lecture on how we should tackle the “world’s biggest problems”. He said that rather than prioritizing the problems, we should be prioritizing solutions, according to how cost-effective they were. This meant that projects preventing AIDS and malnutrition should be prioritized above reducing global warming as they allow us to make a much bigger difference, for a comparatively small financial cost.

His approach seems to be common sense enough, although no doubt there will be plenty of counter-arguments from those who don’t like his suggested priority order. What interested me is that the world’s biggest problem and greatest solution were (unsurprisingly for a political / economical talk) not mentioned at all.

I am of course referring to sin and the gospel. Sin is not only our biggest problem, it also is our only problem, since it is the root of all other problems. Of course I am not saying all suffering is a direct consequence of someone’s sin (or even someone else’s). But from a Christian worldview, we can and should assert that sin is, whether implicitly or explicitly, behind all suffering and evil in the world. Because of “the Fall”, everything is broken.

But if sin is our biggest problem, then throwing money at the problems of our world isn’t going to fix anything. Thankfully we have a better solution. In economic terms, this is the most cost-effective solution imaginable! In the gospel we genuinely have good news that touches on all the problems in our world. Problems that didn’t even get a mention in the lecture such as loneliness, greed, selfishness, hatred are directly addressed by the gospel as lives are transformed and people placed in community. Even the most severe consequence of sin, our impending judgement by a righteous God, is dealt with by the gospel as we are forgiven, made righteous and given the gift of eternal and abundant life.

But does the gospel address any of the problems that were discussed in the lecture? HIV, malnutrition, poverty, global warming, all may be alleviated in some way through political and economic solutions, and this is good. But if the gospel really does address the root of all human problems, then we should expect to see it making a difference even in these areas. The church should therefore be at the forefront of addressing these issues. In part, that will be through simply giving and serving those who are needy, and encouraging governments to make wise and effective policy decisions. It is this kind of social engagement that many in the emerging church are rightly calling evangelicals back to.

But it must go further, because the gospel is only really good news if lives are transformed. We all know that even if we could somehow make everyone healthy and wealthy, we would still have the problem of sin spoiling things for us. We also know that it is ultimately futile to try to persuade people to behave like Christians, without the Holy Spirit’s empowering.

What does this mean for the church? It means that if we really care about the problems of our world, we will want to give people the gospel, because it is the gospel that addresses not only their spiritual but physical and emotional needs. It is when lives are transformed by the gospel that we will see progress on issues such as AIDS, poverty, and even the environment.

This means that the church cannot content itself with merely lobbying politicians to do the right thing. We must freely give what we have been freely given. Even so, we must be careful. There are three ways we can short-change people with the gospel.

First we keep the gospel to ourselves, enjoying the worship, fellowship and fun of our churches. This is all too common a failing of churches and Christians of all varieties, no matter how good a talk we talk. It is not enough to expect the needy to come to us. We must go to them.

Second we reduce the gospel into a set of propositional truths, which, if believed, will indemnify us against hell, and secure our entrance into heaven. This is the over-simplified gospel that the emerging church has rightly critiqued the evangelical church for.

Third, in reaction against the purely eschatological gospel, we turn the gospel into simply being nice to people, as though it were of little relevance whether or not they come to be born again. In effect it turns the gospel into another political / economic solution. This is where I fear some in the emerging church are heading.

Jason Clark has been asking whether the emerging church is a passing fad or a paradigm shift. There are many things about it that I hope are fads that will quickly pass. But we do need a paradigm shift about the gospel. It offers more than new beliefs – it offers new life. It is not about religion but a restored relationship with God himself. This is a gospel that is worth sharing and will make a genuine difference in our world.

If we really do have the greatest solution to mankind’s greatest problem, it is time for us to unleash it on the world, proclaiming the gospel in word and deed.