Gospel delivey system

In sharing the Good News, why do we always start with bad news?

The logic seems to run that ‘for this cures that I am going to prescribe, there has to be a disease. Let me convince her that she is ill, so that she’ll long for treatment. Let me break her down and make her totally helpless so that she will seek for a savior’.

Many times this technique works and we have the so called ‘four steps to salvation’, ‘pray the salvation prayer and you are saved’, etc. My reason of discontent with this is that we know no other way of communicating the gospel. Gospel delivery has been narrowed to a technique to be mastered and the gospel contents a therapeutic pill to be swallowed.

It is rightly said that there are as many ways to come to Christ as there are people. ‘Christians are faithful but irrelevant’. I believe that we can join any conversation and carry it along to share the Good News, if Christ is the Lord of all.

C.S Lewis came to Christ when he was ‘surprised by joy’. G.K Chesterton was overcome with feelings of gratitude for being alive when there was skepticism all around. Ken Blanchard was told it is the best deal.

Our gospel sharing starts with The Fall but the Bible starts with creation. To go back to the doctrine of Creation will open up wonderful avenues for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. I will give some examples: insufficient but as pointers.

1. To friends in the Arts
Music or painting does not become gospel music or Christian painting just because the song lyric or the portrait contains explicit Christian messages. God is the author of all things good and beautiful. He could have created a totally utilitarian world. More than that, he made it beautiful as well: even beauty without utility for the sake of creativity. A wild flower blooms and dies without having any one to enjoy its beauty or sell it in the market. How has it served its purpose?

2. To friends in Science
There is a rationality, intelligibility, meaning and order in the universe which makes scientific studies possible. Modern Science emerged through the ‘demythologizing of nature’ which came about not through the secularization of the scientific enterprise, but through a wide dissemination of the Christian doctrine of Creation. God is not threatened but he delights when his image bearers study his ‘book of Nature’ and exercise his given power of creativity in acts of novelty. At the entrance to the famous Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge are inscribed, “Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who takes pleasure in them”. It is unfortunate to pit science against Christianity like Creation vs. Evolution when both have the same Author. To touch this hot topic slightly, Creation speaks of ontological (nature of existence) origins, while Neo-Darwinism or the Big Bang tries to unravel the chronological (order in which events happened) origins.

3. To friends of other faith
The sun, moon and stars are created objects and not divine beings which dictate our lives. There is no rival gods or helpers in the work of creation. The world is not intrinsically evil and salvation an escape from reality. Though marred by sin later on, the resounding phrase, ‘it is good’, ‘it is good’ reminds us that the world possesses and intrinsic worth and meaningfulness. Existence itself is declared blessed. Humankind is not an after-thought, created to serve the gods, but the climax of all creation.

4. To friends in the state and society at large
Why do human beings have rights? What is the basis of human dignity? Are the sexes equal? What is the relation of man with the rest of creation? These are questions which are common to Christians and non-Christians. There are issues of equality, justice, morality, environment, where we work together with people outside the Church. We will find moments when we share why we do what we do, and why we believe what we believe.
If we have entered into a conversation in any way mentioned above (there are so much more), it should not be difficult to go on and share about the love of Jesus Christ; his life, death and resurrection.

Sources:
• www.veritasforum.org , Os Guinness’ lecture at Berkeley: A thinking man’s quest for meaning and faith.
• Rebuilding the matrix, by Denis Alexander.
• Gods that fail, by Vinoth Ramachandra.
• Stefan Eicher’s lecture at North Delhi Evangelical Graduates Fellowship: Faith and Art.

Indra Vihar, 2008