Comments on: bury your big stick

By: DWILL5

DWILL5 — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 17:53:43 +0000

“When asked which is the “greatest” of God’s commandments, Jesus replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). The longer I live the more I’m convinced and convicted that Christians in our society forming relationships with lost people and showing them love by just being their friend and being an example is the greatest form of evangelism. Recently in my church, one of the members of our youth group died suddenly. My pastor talked of the visitation and how people this kid had waited at a restaurant came to pay respects just out of how he lived his life and treated them. In education there is a common trite expression used “people don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care”. I think the same holds true in our culture of corruption and Godly people walking away from their faith. People are desperate to be around radical, wide awake Christianity. Souls are tied to our obedience. Christians must perservere in the faith and be a light in a dark world as opposed to living in a bubble of Christian friends and influence.

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:45:40 +0000

Randy-Good questions.

The aim of relevintage is to help the believer engage with a lost culture [or you could use the word society, mankind, humanity]. It is just another way of saying we need to be evangelistic-minded individuals. [For further detail, see Charles Colson's book, How Now Shall We Live? Particularly part five entitled: Restoration: How Now Shall We Live?]

But a cultural redemptive goes a step further than just preaching at people. It, as I said before, engages with them. The best way we can share the gospel with people is in the context of relationship. And relationship assumes there is a personal connection.

Of course entire culture will not be redeemed. The road is narrow. But that doesn’t negate the command to share the full gospel.

What is the full gospel? It is a gospel that insists on recognizing our sins and repenting, receiving by faith One that we have never seen through grace, abandoning our self-reliance, denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Him (Matthew 16:24). I don’t know how that could be construed as a watered- down or a misinterpreted version of the gospel.

I never said the full gospel won’t offend some. In fact, I said it can be offensive. But emphasis on the word ‘some.’ Like I said, some, if not many, will be liberated by the truth of the gospel.

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC says it this way: Without the knowledge of our extreme sin, the payment of the cross seems trivial and does not transform. But without the knowledge of Christ satisfying life and death, the knowledge of sin would crush us or move us to repress it or deny it. Take away either the knowledge of sin or the knowledge of grace and people’s lives will not be changed.

The gospel is Good news. The English word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon “godspell” (good story). The classical Greek word euangelion means a reward for bringing of good news or the good news itself. The gospel is a gospel of forgiveness, hope, freedom, eternal life.

When I refer to the ‘big stick,’ I am referring to the West African proverb “speak softly and carry a big stick” that the then governor of NY, Teddy Roosevelt, used to describe how to deal with people. I think we should bury our ‘big stick’ approach, not the ‘big stick’ of the full gospel.

By: Randy

Randy — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 03:51:57 +0000

Hey Brad. I’m just an old guy having a hard time getting my mind around some of the lingo you are using. Take the term, “cultural redemption”. Does this mean that under the best of circumstances the entire culture might possibly be redeemed? If so, then I’m not quite sure where this whole cultural redemption thing fits in when Matthew 7:13-14 tells us that only a few are going to find the way to eternal life. Should we let our light shine (Matthew 5:16) so that the world knows? Of course we should! The Gospel is by nature a “big stick”. Simply by it’s being proclaimed, some people will find it offensive and some will demand that you apologize for accusing them of being sinners. In a nutshell, yes we should engage people, but never in a manner that waters down the gospel just to make it more appealing, or seem more palatable. When we take the hard truths out of the message, then the message ceases to be relevant. I don’t believe it is possible to present the gospel in an honest way and not offend some people. I hope I haven’t missed the point here of the whole cultural redemption thing here, but I would rather be accused of carrying my “big stick” around and offend some people than bury it, and misrepresent the message of the gospel.

By: Henry

Henry — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 19:16:19 +0000

I can still speak softly, right? All kidding aside, I think you are begining to thread the needle very well. It is very hard to be able to engage this culture and still hold on to core values.