I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why we pray the prayer
for salvation. I think a lot of it has
to do with where we’re at in the world, probably because it has a lot to do
with how we’re fed the gospel. Like in
America, it’s almost as if we pray it because it’s a free ticket to Heaven –
that’s it and no more. We spend the
rest of our lives just waiting around for death; death so we can go to Heaven
and reap the benefits of speaking a few words in our lifetime. The result?
Rotting dead people in pews.
The consequence is that we miss out on the reason for
accepting Christ in the first place.
We’re such a consumerist society that this lopsided version of the
gospel isn’t well received anymore.
Other religions have more appeal, especially with the promise at the
chance of a new and maybe better life ‘reincarnated’.
But why does it seem that this is the one catch-phrase for
most evangelists: are you going to heaven when you die? It’s so empty, really. It’s very shallow and whenever I run into
street evangelists on the street… it pisses me off because this is all their
concerned about. Some people say, “as
long as the gospel’s being preached…”
But is this really all there is to the gospel? Because I think there’s something more.
What I’m about to do I’ve never done before. I’m actually going to do a blog series. That’s right. The funny part is: it’s not my words. My friend Michael Beardslee and I were talking about this very
issue and how it affects the church.
Apparently he wrote a paper on it.
It’s a very sweet paper titled, “Reductionism Crisis: A
Gospel Stripped of Power”. It revolves
around this very issue that’s been plaguing my brain for the last few
weeks. So I’m going to share it in a
3-4 part series.
In the meantime, I’m working on another blog series on “community”. It’s something I’ve been really passionate
about in the last few years and, well, I’m going to write more about it looking
at it biblically, theologically, and practically… granted I’m sure that over
the course of the next year, I’m going to blow my own thoughts out of the
water.
I might mention that Beardo’s writing is pretty in
depth. If you have any questions as to
what something means, whether vocabulary-wise or theologically, let me
know. I would love to answer
questions. Not only will this challenge
me, it’ll hopefully challenge you.
