The Gospel Coalition

Over the next few days, I will be summarizing and critiquing a new book by James Choung entitled True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In (2008, Intervarsity Press). Choung has been working alongside Allen Wakabayashi and others to form a new presentation of the gospel, one that takes in the scope of salvation history and the grand narrative of Scripture.

True Story is mostly fictional. The bulk of the book tells the story of a young man who is coming to grips with the gospel and its implications for this world. Today I will summarize True Story. Tomorrow, I will write about the aspects of Choung’s presentation that I found helpful. On Wednesday and Thursday, I will critique the weaknesses of the book, and on Friday, I will sum up my critique with some further questions. Some of my criticisms will not be new to James, since the two of us have corresponded briefly via email before. James has shown he is open to dialogue and constructive criticism, which is what I hope this extended review will provide.

Some of my readers may wonder why I am devoting so much space to Choung’s book as there are certainly other books vying for my attention. I believe Choung’s book will reach a wide audience, and since the book is about redefining and recasting the very core of the gospel message, it deserves a thoughtful critique.

True Story opens with a personal message from Choung. In the Introduction, he suggests that evangelicals have missed the core message of the gospel. He worries that we have neutered the gospel’s implications for earth by focusing our evangelistic efforts almost entirely on a person’s eternal destination. Choung desires to show that following Jesus is much more than just lining up an eternal home. And he hopes to prove the validity of his presentation of the gospel by looking to Jesus himself.

“While I don’t want to water down the message just to say what others want to hear, I do want to share what Jesus came to teach. If we present a faith that’s only concerned about the eternal destination of a soul after death, then perhaps we’ve missed the mark” (10).

Choung makes himself very clear in the Introduction. He is not merely addressing the ways in which we communicate the gospel message. Neither is he merely updating our presentation for a new generation. Choung is addressing the very message itself, hoping to capture “more fully the good news as Jesus taught it” (11).

How does Choung address the gospel and its presentation? He tells a story about a young man named Caleb who is witnessing to his unsaved friend, Anna. For Caleb, the traditional presentations of the gospel that he has grown up with are not working. He has had enough of formulaic evangelism (22). So Caleb begins questioning the gospel itself, due to the fact that so many people who believe the gospel message seem to lack any lasting change in their lives.

Caleb is hounded by several questions:

• Does our gospel even tell people how to live now?
• Is the gospel only about life after death? (24)
• If the gospel is only about accepting a truth, can a person go to heaven while hating Arabs? (32)
• How do good works fit into the picture?
• Shouldn’t the gospel address our lives?
• If the gospel is only about our belief in a message, are our good works just “extra credit?” (32)

Caleb’s quest lands him in the office of Professor Shalandra Jones, who encourages him to keep asking the right questions. The narrative bounces back and forth between Caleb’s conversations with his friend, Anna and his conversations with Professor Jones. Throughout the story, Caleb’s vision of the gospel becomes larger. He realizes that the gospel has much to do with the kingdom of God. The gospel includes a mission-based outlook.

Throughout Choung’s narrative, the gospel as a story unfolds into four sections. We are designed for good (Creation), damaged by evil (Fall), restored for better (Redemption) and then sent on a mission as the church to heal the world (Mission).

Once the story comes to a close, Choung takes the reader “behind the scenes” and shows how his gospel presentation differs from more traditional presentations.

First, he has moved the emphasis from a one-time decision to a lifelong transformation.

Secondly, he has moved the emphasis from the individual to the community, concentrating on the importance of the church.

Third, his gospel presentation differs in that he focuses less on the afterlife and more on the “mission life” that should characterize believers today. (195-200)

It is difficult to summarize a narrative in just a few words. Much of the actual conversations of the book will come clear in the next two posts, as I offer some words of encouragement and then some words of warning regarding Choung’s proposal.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

O Lord,
I confess that I too often disregard my responsibility
to be an instrument in your hands.
I shrug my shoulders at others’ pain.
I run away from those in suffering.

Forgive me for my spiritual laziness and irresponsibility. 
Expose my warped explanations and excuses for sin and shallowness.
Weed out my sinful thoughts and actions.
Break the sinful patterns that too often entangle me and keep me from ministering as I should.

Thank you for your kingdom, your grace, your coming to rescue your creation.
Fill me with your grace and love, 
and make me a vessel through which new creation can flow out to others.
Flood the desert of my parched heart with your living water,
and may you overflow my cup so that I will be a blessing to others.
Set me apart for your purposes.
Make me into a treasured instrument for the benefit of your kingdom.
Amen.

- Trevin Wax 

“Jesus Christ is Lord.

“That is the first and final assertion Christians make about all of reality, including politics. Believers now assert by faith what one day will be manifest to the sight of all: every earthly sovereignty is subordinate to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.

“The Church is the bearer of that claim. Because the Church is pledged to the Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus, it must maintain a critical distance from the all the kingdoms of the world, whether actual or proposed. Christians betray their Lord if, in theory or practice, they equate the Kingdom of God with any political, social or economic order of this passing time. At best, such orders permit the proclamation of the gospel of the Kingdom and approximate, in small part, the freedom, peace, and justice for which we hope.”

- Richard John Neuhaus, 1981 founding statement of the Institute on Religion and Democracy

The new Southern Seminary student journal, Adorare Mente has been released. I contributed the article on Luther and Zwingli’s views of the Lord’s Supper.

Scot McKnight weighs in on the current discussion of what being “evangelical” means.

Do you need more space or do you need less “stuff”? Read Bill Blair on the idolatry of constant accumulation.

Interesting pictures of how portion sizes have changed in 20 years. I noticed this last year when I asked for a small drink from Hardee’s and found it was what I would have considered “supersized.”

Nathan Finn answers the question: Will the Southern Baptist Convention split over Calvinism?

What is the purpose of Sunday School?

Russ Moore on why we need more than a VeggieTales Gospel.

Al Mohler on sex-selection abortions.

Top Post this Week at Kingdom People: Book Review: Why We’re Not Emergent

Last week, I wrote about doing the preparations for a mission team from my church to come and do ministry in the Romanian village I worked in every weekend. A few days into the trip, I was discouraged.

I began to feel emotionally and physically exhausted. Plus, one problem weighed heavily upon me. The Pediatric team was not being utilized properly. Because no one had gotten the word out, there were very few children for them to see. Their potential had been wasted. I felt like all this was my fault.

I was also upset because some members of the team, on the Romanian side, had let me down. Many of the details had not been coordinated well enough in advance, and furthermore, the village pastor had not been as approachable or organized as was necessary for a trip of this magnitude. Still being “new” in Romania, I was not able to do all that I would have wanted to do to help. All of this turned out to be very disappointing, and I felt like that much of the trip was being wasted.

As the week went on, I began to grow bitter about the events taking place. The Romanians I had counted on were letting me down left and right. I felt helpless to resolve some of the situations. I was tired of being the contact person between two languages and cultures. I could barely focus on my long-term ministry in Romania when the short-term trip was squeezing the life out of me. And what’s more, I was embarrassed that things had not run more smoothly for the American group that had come.

Because I was discouraged and exhausted, Satan was blinding me from the great things that were taking place.

• A revival was beginning in a small village church along the Hungarian border. For years, no one had given the church any attention, and their numbers had dwindled down to just a handful. Now, the church was filled with visitors and many trusted Christ. (I would later spend many a Sunday in this village, encouraging the faithful.)
• Though the Pediatric team had not been heavily involved in ministry, the other medical and evangelistic teams saw great success.
• The eye-glass team fitted hundreds of Romanians for glasses.

The saying goes: “The Devil’s in the details.” Perhaps that’s true in more ways than one. The devil can sometimes use the details in order to distract us from the bigger picture. Things went wrong that week, yes. But many things went right. Many people trusted the Lord. God worked in a wonderful way, and yet I could not rejoice because the few things that went wrong had trumped my joy over what all God was doing.

By far, the most important event that week was the conversion of one of the teenagers that we had spent many months praying for. I’ll get to that next time…

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

One of the books given to all who attended this year’s Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville was Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be (2008, Moody Press) by Ted Kluck and Kevin DeYoung. Out of the great number of books we received that week, Why We’re Not Emerging quickly moved to the top of the list in my reading schedule.

I had my doubts about the book: Would this be a book that misrepresents the Emerging Church and its representatives? Or would this be a book that provides a thoughtful critique? Thankfully, the authors take the second route, and they have a little fun along the way.

The authors of Why We’re Not Emergent focus on the “who” of the Emerging movement, not the amorphous, ever-changing “what” that the movement’s followers believe. So DeYoung and Kluck interact with pastors and writers from within the heart of the movement as well as the periphery: Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Dan Kimball, Scot McKnight, Doug Pagitt, and others.

The result is actual dialogue. The authors do not merely throw hand grenades into the Emerging Camp. They listen thoughtfully to the Emerging perspective and then very simply explain “why they are not emergent.”

Pastor Kevin DeYoung provides the substantive look at the Emerging Church. Ted Kluck provides the humor. The two authors take turns writing. After reading a chapter of extensive research and commentary, you then enjoy a humorous chapter that pokes fun at much of the faddishness of the Emerging movement. I rarely enjoy books that change up the style so much, but for a book on Emergent, the eclectic positioning of the chapters provided insight as well as some entertainment. Listen to Ted Kluck’s tongue-in-cheek description of the rise of Emerging Church:

“In the early 2000s the offspring of the 80s generation got disillusioned with their dads’ arenas (where you can get a Christian haircut, a Christian oil change, and buy Christian clothes) and started blogging about their feelings. Let’s meet on a beach (nothing wrong with that), let’s meet in an empty warehouse with exposed brick and ductwork (nothing wrong with that either), and let’s start a movement that won’t have any leaders and that we won’t actually call a movement. Instead of pastors we might have discussion leaders and worship gathering facilitators. Because non-movements are the new movements.” (58-59)

DeYoung and Kluck actually agree with much of the Emerging Church’s critique of today’s evangelicalism. But they are able to make a contribution to the discussion by refusing to be bound to the “either-or” dichotomies so prevalent in Emerging literature. DeYoung writes:

“The emerging church will be a helpful corrective against real, and sometimes perceived, abuses in evangelicalism when they discover the genius of the ‘and,’ and stop forcing us to accept half-truths. (75)”

DeYoung and Kluck are at times prophetic in their call to biblical faithfulness. They helpfully unmask some of the hype that surrounds the Emerging movement. Kluck pokes fun at Doug Pagitt’s sharp distinction between storytelling and testimony time. “So, let me get this straight. They aren’t testimonies, just stories that serve as testaments to what God is doing in our lives. Sounds like a testimony to me. (154)” They also ask tough questions about why this movement (for all its talk about incarnational living) tends to reach out to only one segment of the American population, while mocking other segments (Nascar, rural, etc.) (230).

The authors sometimes generalize a little too much. Kluck believes that college students would rather read Donald Miller over Chuck Colson, Rob Bell over John Piper, Doug Pagitt over J.I. Packer (97). Perhaps. But the interesting phenomenon in the Emerging Church movement and the parallel Reformed Resurgence is that many college students are reading men from both perspectives.

Overall, I highly recommend that those inside and outside the Emerging Church read Why We’re Not Emergent. It’s a terrific addition to a growing number of books whose authors have accepted the Emergent invitation to dialogue.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Related Articles:
5 Reasons the Emerging Church is Now Receding
Book Review: Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches
Book Review: Young, Restless, Reformed

Stephen Prothero believes that religion should be taught in the public schools. Why? Not because he wants to see Americans become more religious, but because he believes religious literacy is necessary in order for children to become effective, educated citizens. In Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know–And Doesn’t (Harper San Francisco: 2007), Prothero makes his case, and it is a strong one indeed.

First, Prothero exposes American ignorance of religion, showing just how little we actually know about the world’s religions. The statistics are embarrassing. Americans actually know very little about their own religious traditions, not to mention the traditions of their neighbors.

But the problem of religious illiteracy does not simply affect our view of ourselves; religion matters because it stands at the center of the world’s great debates, wars, and life-perspectives. We are naïve to think we can understand the battles of our day with only the most superficial knowledge of religion and its role.

Next, Prothero shows how little we know of religion compared to the earliest Americans. He trots out the McGuffey readers, Webster’s dictionary and other classic works of American education in order to show today’s reader how religious information was once inculcated into American youth. He then shows how this devotion to religious knowledge was lost. Interestingly enough, Prothero believes that the responsibility of religious illiteracy belongs primarily to the Church and the anti-intellectual attitude that prevailed after the Second Great Awakening.

Finally, Prothero makes a proposal for public education, in which every student must pass a course on the Bible and on world religions before finishing high school. Prothero is not advocating a return to the Protestantism of early America. He believes students need to be taught about the Bible, not taught the Bible devotionally. He also believes that a course on world religions should be taught, so that students have an awareness of today’s world. The amount of time spent on different religions should vary depending on local context and the importance of a religion for each location. Prothero’s book ends with a Dictionary of Religious Literacy, a remarkably helpful introduction to the major beliefs of the world’s religions.

Prothero’s Religious Literacy is unique in that it avoids two extremes. First, he seeks to avoid the danger of relativizing the religions, so that the distinctions are muted. He forcefully argues against making it seem like religions don’t really matter and that all are equally valid. At the same time, Prothero does not want to see the Bible taught devotionally in the public schools (nor the Koran for that matter). His proposal is purely academic. Americans need a rudimentary knowledge of religious history and belief in order to be well-educated, effective citizens. Prothero also shows how his proposal stays within constitutional boundaries.

I hope that policy-makers will read this book. We are religiously ignorant to our own peril. It’s time we woke up from our secularist slumber and began realizing that religion is still vitally important in world affairs.

written by Trevin Wax © 2008 Kingdom People blog

The Greek word euangelion, frequently translated “gospel,” means “glad tidings,” or “good news,” and in Pauline usage it refers to the message of God’s saving work in Jesus Christ. Of the seventy-six instances of “gospel” in the NT, sixty are found in the Pauline corpus… Euangelion is for Paul the classic expression of the grace of God, responded to by faith.

- IVP Dictionary of Paul and His Letters

The second book of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series, like many sequels, does not deliver the magic of the first. The movie version, however, is every bit as good, if not better than the first, perhaps because the filmmakers took a certain measure of creative license in order to make Lewis’ good book better.

Prince Caspian is a strong movie with relatively few flaws. I will list some of the film’s strengths and then speak to some of its weaknesses.

• The actors playing the four Pevensie children have aged gracefully over the past three years and it is good to see the cast back in fine fettle.
• The new characters are well-done, especially Reepicheep, whom I was glad to see portrayed as valiant and not merely “cute.”
• Trumpkin the dwarf provided some needed comic relief.
• The filmmakers were smart to begin the story with Caspian’s flight into the woods (an idea I was hesitant about at first).
• When Lucy first glimpses Aslan, the filmmakers choose not to reveal him, increasing our sympathy with the older Pevensie children’s unbelief. Good move.
• The castle attack in which a minotaur, while being shot with arrows, holds up the gate so the Narnians can escape is terrific – providing another powerful example of self-sacrifice.
• Keeping Aslan off screen until the latter part of the movie was another smart move. When he reappears, he is more majestic and mighty than in the first movie.

Even a good movie has its weaknesses. Here are a few.

• The budding romance between Susan and Caspian was completely unnecessary.
• Peter and Caspian almost succumb to the temptation of the White Witch, and yet neither character exhibits repentance for this treasonous action.
• I have no problem with the filmmakers making Peter a flawed hero whose first decision leads to destruction. Yet it would have been nice to see Peter demonstrate repentance for his pride and not merely remorse for the consequences of his actions.
• The filmmakers substituted character development (especially Trufflehunter and Trumpkin) for elongated battle scenes.
• As I worried, the terrific celebration scenes from the first book are all but absent here. In the novel, the celebrations keep Caspian from being all about battle. More importantly, the Narnian joy provides the motivation for the battles. Without the celebratory dances and songs, the moviegoer is left wondering why the battle is necessary. So the Telmarines are bad and the Narnians are good. But why is Narnia worth fighting for? Lewis wisely incorporated scenes that were filled with mirth and happiness and freedom. The filmmakers left them out.

Minor quibbles aside, Prince Caspian deserves to do well at the box office. It is true that this series is becoming a junior version of Lord of the Rings, but the movie is still immensely satisfying on many levels. I am looking forward to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 2010.

Related Posts:
My Hopes for Prince Caspian
Easter: The Epic
Book Review: Inside Narnia

“But who do you say that I am?”
- Jesus, to the disciples (Mark 8:29)

When Jesus asked the disciples who other people thought He was, the answers were as numerous as they are today. Although other opinions are worth noting, studying, affirming, or combating (depending on the case), Jesus’ more important question follows: “But who do you say that I am?” No more crucial question can ever be put to a person.

Peter’s reply became the founding testimony of the church. “You are the Messiah! The Son of the Living God.” For the disciples, the signs had all pointed to Christ’s messianic identity. From the symbolic miracles to authoritative teaching, everything seemed to enhance the view that this Man was more than just a prophet, in fact more than just a Man. Even though Peter’s answer was correct in its vocabulary, he still hadn’t come to grips with the type of Messiah Jesus was, or the atoning death that lay in His future.

Christians all over the world unite behind Peter’s affirmation – that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Unfortunately, many affirm statements regarding the Person of Jesus Christ, without actually understanding what they mean and how they affect our life today. Jesus then becomes little more than a “good friend,” a “best buddy” or a “gentleman” who is always patient, tolerant, never-angered, and undemanding. People ask “What would Jesus do” without ever bothering to find out what Jesus actually did!

Jesus was not a pale-faced European sitting on the hillside spitting out timeless platitudes. He was a Man with a mission for the God-appointed hour, calling His fellow Jews to repentance before the coming judgment. His controversial miracles and teaching led to His dreadful death on a Roman cross for the sins of the world, after which He arose triumphantly from the grave.

Who do you say that He is? We can only find the answer by studying the biblical texts honestly and without fear of letting our preconceived notions actually be challenged by the One we worship as God in the flesh.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Related Articles:
Who Do People Say that I Am?
Why the Search for the Historical Jesus Matters 1
Why the Search for the Historical Jesus Matters 2