timeless and timely

An interesting article from Al Hsu appeared in Christianity Today talking about the multifaceted nature of the Gospel. He looks at the history of the ways the Gospel has been conveyed to demonstrate how various people hear and respond to the One Call in different ways.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/april/17.66.html

Although I fear that his conclusions could cause some to say that any presentation of the gospel qualifies (there is still such a thing as a false gospel), I did appreciate some of his points. Namely how he points out that even Jesus used a variety of metaphors to convey THE good news, that in him the Kingdom of God has been made available to all mankind.

In that sense, the gospel is both timeless, in that it testifies about the God who never changes, and timely, in that it finds people in multiple ways (he juxtaposes the differences in Jesus' message to the woman at the well and the rich young ruler).

He does a better job explaining than I would, so I'll leave it at that.

Is our gospel too small?

I had planned to write about this topic at some point, but I just read an article by Tim Keel of Jacob's Well that frames this question much better than I ever could. I highly recommend it and hope that it will stir conversation about what how we may have unwittingly reduced the scope of the gospel.

The questions an article like this raises can be both provocative and challenging. My hope is that it will get us thinking about God, and God's mission, in much broader terms than we typically understand it.

Please feel free to post comments here regarding the article. I'd like to know what you think (either good or bad).

http://www.christianvisionproject.com/2008/02/an_efficient_gospel.html