Let’s be honest. Christians are predominantly seen by the broader culture as critics, judges and unwilling/unable to contribute to society building. Unfair or not, it’s the perception. Perception has become reality in the culture’s narrative around us. Then into this narrative, we tell them Jesus has ‘good news’, which means telling them God loves them, they have a sin problem and that repenting and believing in Jesus is the path out of that problem.

I’m being over simplistic to make a point – Is the “Good News” Jesus brings merely a proclamation of a persons’ sinful state, followed by a message of how to address it so that their soul can go to heaven? Is that it? Is that all Jesus can offer to this crappy world we have to live in? I already follow Jesus and I don’t even find this traditional ‘gospel’ message to be good news! It is truth, but it’s not “Good News” in the fullest terms God intended.

Into the varieties of religions, spiritualties, philosophies, behaviours, lifestyle preferences, and other ways people choose to find meaning and fulfillment in their lives, is what we communicate about Jesus a better alternative to their efforts to find meaning?

It is great news to this world if we’d stop truncating the gospel and missing God’s Grand Story.

The grand story of God isn’t that Jesus’ work on the cross was the end game to address the sin problem Adam & Eve started. The work on the cross was the DOOR to reconcile and restore not only humankinds’ spiritual relationship with God, but also the physical Creation, which was also marred along with humanity. We Western believers are still hampered by a traditional Western Christian view of salvation that emphasizes “my relationship with God” in the present and “going to heaven” in the future. In this view, life really doesn’t begin until after death. No sense engaging too much in a decaying and corrupted world when it’s all going to hell anyway. Therefore, the most important thing to do on earth is telling the message of the ‘gospel’ and get as many as possible to accept the message about their sin and receive Jesus.

Problem is, we miss understanding that God’s plan through Jesus is to reconcile all things, not only in the future, but also in the NOW. Students of Christian history know about Gnosticism. We thought it was historical & in the past, but it’s contemporary. Gnosticism denigrates the material world in favour of the spiritual. It’s about an internal, spiritual relationship with God that in practice ignores the physical connection between Christianity and the world. However it isn’t supported by Scripture. It shows up in contemporary Christian churches when they emphasize only engaging with projects and people if a ‘salvation’ presentation or outcome is somehow ensured. That’s a truncated gospel.

The Gospel is the Good News that God, despite the sin that separates us and that has also negatively affected his Creation, has provided a way to restore both. God plans to finish what He started before sin entered the equation. When we lay down our selfish & sin-affected lives, acknowledge our inability to get to God on our own and choose to submit to and follow the ways of Jesus, the full restoration process begins NOW. Jesus’ Way brings good news to a broken world because His way leads us to:

Demonstrate loving relationships in our marriages, to refugees, to the marginalized…
Care for the poor, the sick, the forgotten…
Do our part to manage & clean up the environment God created...
Work to help our city or town prosper...
Address political and social policy for the benefit of all...
Ensure that people are treated equally and with respect...
Freedom from guilt and shame in our relationship with our Creator...
Experiencing what real abundant living actually means, even in a fallen, hurting world...

Every one of these things I have mentioned and so many more are affirmed in the Bible as ways of being/doing God expects His followers to demonstrate! It’s not just about a ‘message’ to deliver. It’s about a way of life to live. That life when lived, IS Good News.

Rodney Stark stresses in his book The Rise of Christianity that Christianity’s 40% growth per decade during the first three centuries A.D. can be credited to Christians’ deep involvement in the fabric of their culture:

Christianity served as a revitalization movement that arose in response to the misery, chaos, fear and brutality of life in the urban Greco-Roman world. . . For what they brought, was not simply an urban movement, but a new culture capable of making life in Greco-Roman cities tolerable.

Our own culture could use a change for the better. Let them know we are Christians by our loving ways. Show and tell them the Good News is about an abundant life that is possible in and through following the Jesus Way.

Harv Matchullis; Executive Director

Watch the Encompass website events page for upcoming seminar offerings on “Engaging Neighbourhoods”: a practical workshop to help you and your small group become embedded and engaged in living the ways of the Kingdom of God in your geographical and/or social neighbourhood.

https://encompass-partnerships.squarespace.com/encompass-events

Is the Christian Gospel Actually "Good News"?