My Evangelical Past and Future
Growing up, as a teenager, and well into my 20’s, I often saw and presented the Gospel much like this:
However, this weekend at a church we’ve been going to for a few months in Eugene, it was presented that this isn’t the best way to present the gospels because it misses the mark on a few key points. From the sermon outline, the real gospel is about the overarching story — not just about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.
This graphic then, makes the main character “man” which is to prioritize the wrong protagonist in the grand creation story. Furthermore, by showing it’s just crossing a cross-bridge, it become transactional vs transformational.
I spent years doing ministry at camps, evangelism explosion at my church, volunteering at church youth groups, even choosing to work in public school specifically instead of specific ministry work because Iw anted to be ‘embedded’ in the wider society after reading a book in late 1990’s called Roaring Lambs which states that Christians need to be part of the broader culture ot make an impact and not in their ‘sterile Christian bubble’ (Five Iron Frenzy lyric). Yet, carpet-bagging type activities that solely focused on sin and grace bothered me.
Personally I’ve always enjoyed the bigger questions of Christianity. Such as, if we can assume God is real, then discuss and explore biblical evidence about how and why is suffering allowed to happen, or what will heaven actually be like etc. It’s the daily aspirations and steps to take to live like Jesus that I find joy in — not that time in 8th grade when I accepted an altar call.
Over the past decade in particular, more and more people have publicly said they’re ‘EXvangelical’ and I more often than not agree with them or can see how their positions of ‘fame’ in christian circles led to their wanting nothing of it (Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay in particular just asked questions and was slammed with unimaginable vitriol). If I should be called ‘evangelical’, then according to the purported demographics I should like Trump, hate illegal immigrants, and make it difficult for women to get birth control (that somehow has become only about abortion, not actual birth control+education).
I refuse to accept a gospel based on grace that leads to:
- Stigmatizes sin(which we all do!) to the point that people like pastors feel like they can’t talk to anyone about their sin.
- Makes those who know Jesus somehow better than those who don’t
- Focuses on hell over grace
So, after last week’s sermon and reflection I finally feel ‘ok’ in understanding why blatantly ‘sharing the gospel’ misses the mark in what Jesus wants us to do. It’s about engaging with culture, with the world around us as it is; not as it needs to be. Of course we should always be ready to answer questions about why we believe what we do; but we don’t need to be uncaringly shoving it down their throats.
It’s about loving like Jesus holistically — the sinners, the rough around the edges, embracing that we are sinners ourselves and being ok with that.
