The Supremacy of Christ & the Gospel in a Postmodern World
or The Gospel Belongs in the City but it Won't Fit in Your Holster
After studying for and taking three tests today, the grass along my neural pathways is kind of brown and withered, so blogging Tim Keller may be a mistake. However, its the kind of mistake that this blog has never hesitated to make before.
The structure of Tim Keller's talk was fairly complex, so I'm not going to try and reproduce it. You can grab the full audio, though: The Supremacy of Christ & the Gospel in a Postmodern World, Tim Keller. I'll hit the high points, with commentary on what turned out to be gotcha moments for me.To ignore the huge rifts in the postmodern landscape is like entering the Grand Canyon with a bottle of Sprite for hydration.
Keller laid the framework for his message by describing the post-Christian atmosphere of America, where people no longer need to be "awakened" to Christ, but instead must be infected with the gospel despite previous inoculations. Thus, approaches that wield spiritual truth like a blunt instrument are no longer effective.
Why? Because American society is cynical where truth, guilt, and meaning are concerned. Absolute claims are viewed as restrictive power plays. Guilt is a psychological artifact to be scorned. Words are slippery and untrustworthy.We are looking for ways to present the core, propositional doctrines of sin, grace and faith within the creation-fall-redemption story arc of the Bible.
I'd note here that these huge rifts in the postmodern landscape can and should be bridged, but to ignore them is akin to entering the Grand Canyon with a bottle of Sprite for hydration. I shy away from the mindset that wants to treat postmodern biases like they are sacred cows, but I also wince at people who seem to be ignorant of the fact that we're living in the middle of a stockyard. So to speak.
Tim Keller went on to lay out what he sees as six vital elements of postmodern evangelism, and they were excellent. I, however, am going to play the part of the ogreish professor at this point, and tell you to "read the book" - although in this case, you can just download the MP3, which is easier. I'm charting my own course from here on out, noting several themes that Keller detonated. So then, here are high points from "postmodern evangelism":
- The gospel is not the simple "Gerber stuff" of the Bible. Instead, it is the beautiful, sophisticated core that undergirds all theology. Thus, the gospel is what we are always dying for, and the need, theologically, is for great creativity as we discover how deeply ingrained the grace of Christ is in every aspect of life - and in every culture. Paradoxically, the gospel sometimes shines most brightly in the darkest of settings (bittersweetness).
- We need to present the gospel in its full splendor, which does not necessarily lend itself to a four-point outline or a five-minute talk. Biblically, this means that we are looking for ways to present the vital, propositional doctrines of sin, grace and faith within the creation-fall-redemption story arc of the Bible. Truth in the frame of biblical story. (I could hijack this point by talking about Lewis and Tolkien here, but I'll hold myself back.)
- The gospel needs to be taken to cities - and Christ is under-represented in America's urban hubs. Masses of lost people should arouse our concern, and there is an element of Godly strategery in targeting population centers, where culture and opinions are shaped. When Israel was deported to Babylon, the NYC of the Middle East, God ordered his people to put down roots and become urbanized. Likewise, as Paul traveled through the Mediterranean world, he hit all the big tour stops. As the cities go, so goes the nation.
- If God is going to use you for the gospel, he will first bring you down. Ala Jacob, the tell-tale sign of a person who meets God may be a pronounced limp. Then grace will be worked into the deeper lines of your life, and Christ's strength expressed in your weakness will make you, not just your words, a sign of the gospel. Until God breaks you, you won't be much of an evangelist. I can't help thinking that for most of us, this will come as excellent news.
5 comments:
The problem with postmodernism is it denies the concept of a flawed human soul. It cannot accept that there is something like "original sin," an understanding of which is necessary before the truth of the Gospel can be understood.
Why this is so, in the face of everything we see today is a mystery to me.
Cheers.
A few thoughts, not intended as counter comments, but as what my first impressions were as I read.
The gospel is not the simple "Gerber stuff" of the Bible. Instead, it is the beautiful, sophisticated core that undergirds all theology.
My first thought was that as Christians, we need to know and be familiar with, the whole of Scripture. I'm personally much more familiar with the New Testament than the Old, and much of my knowledge of the Old is based on childhood memory, corrupted by simplistic soft-backed flannel-graph figures framing static scenes from isolated stories. I have a poor grasp of the flow of Old Testament history, and if I am honest, have actually felt on occasion that the Old Testament was just God, killing time until Christ arrived on the scene (oh, and to fill the time, he had them sacrifice some animals, and occasionally, just for kicks mind you, threw them into captivity, HA HA!)
We need to present the gospel in its full splendor, which does not necessarily lend itself to a four-point outline or a five-minute talk.
I won't go into too much depth here (like I did with my flannel-graph diatribe above), but suffice it to say that my first thought was of Leviticus 10:1 and the death of Nadab and Abihu. I try to keep this verse before my eyes when I am thinking of ways to proclaim the Gospel, so that I do not step outside the bounds that God has established. It is worth noting that Aaron's son's did not die for breaking God's commandments, but for doing that which he had not commanded.
That's my 2 cents, my first impressions. I plan on downloading the talk and listening to it, Lord willing, some time this weekend.
Thanks for that summary. I guess my response again to this line of doctrine explained=gospel is to point out how unbiblical it is. we are worse than those who wanted to build a fence round the law of Moses.
The gospel is nothing more nor anything less than Jesus.
sam l carr said:
The gospel is nothing more nor anything less than Jesus.
Maybe this will just fuel the argument that a comment on a blog is an inadequate way to plumb the depths of the Gospel, but here goes:
Within the context of this discussion, I have no idea what you mean by that.
>The gospel is nothing more nor anything less than Jesus.
I agree that starting with the gospel message of "Jesus is Lord and Savior" is meaningless to un-Christianised, biblically-illiterate 21st century people.
"Jesus is Lord and Savior" will lead to repentance and faith (like it did in Acts 2:36) but it is not where we should start for people without the Christian worldview.
We need to present the background to the gospel - the message of the Bible - from Creation, Fall, Sin, Redemption before coming to Jesus's death and resurrection.
Have a look at how some Australians are doing evangelism to Post-Moderns with their 'Introducing God' course - www.introducinggod.org.
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