The Hole In Our Gospel

Besides the notebooks, I had never bought any reference books from the MLM class. Two months ago, Piek See was promoting a few books during the break. After her recommendation, I was attracted by "The Hole In Our Gospel" written by Richard Stearns, president of World Vision US, and immediately bought the book.

Here’s an excerpt from the Chapter 1:
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More and more, our view of the gospel has been narrowed to a simple transaction, marked by checking a box on a bingo card at some prayer breakfast, registering a decision for Christ, or coming forward during an altar call. I have to admit that my own view of evangelism, based on the Great Commission, amounted to just that for many years. It was about saving as many people from hell as possible--for the next life. It minimized any concern for those same people in this life. It wasn't as important that they were poor or hungry or persecuted, or perhaps rich, greedy, and arrogant; we just had to get them to pray the "sinner's prayer" and then move on to the next potential convert. In our evangelistic efforts to make the good news accessible and simple to understand, we seem to have boiled it down to a kind of "fire insurance" that one can buy. Then, once the policy is in effect, the sinner can go back to whatever life he was living--of wealth and success, or of poverty and suffering. As long as the policy is in the drawer, the other things don't matter as much. We've got our "ticket" to the next life.

There is a real problem with this limited view of the kingdom of God; it is not the whole gospel. Instead, it's a gospel with a gaping hole. First, focusing almost exclusively on the afterlife reduces the importance of what God expects of us in this life. The kingdom of God, which Christ said is "within you" (Luke 17:21), was intended to change and challenge everything in our fallen world in the here and now. It was not meant to be a way to leave the world but rather the means to actually redeem it. Yes, it first requires that we repent of our own sinfulness and totally surrender our individual lives to follow Christ, but then we are also commanded to go into the world -- to bear fruit by lifting up the poor and the marginalized, challenging injustice wherever we find it, rejecting the worldly values found within every culture, and loving our neighbours as ourselves. While our "joining" in the coming kingdom of God may begin with a decision, a transaction, it requires so much more than that.
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Christianity is a faith that was meant to spread--but not through coercion. God's love was intended to be demonstrated, not dictated. Our job is not to manipulate or induce others to agree with us or to leave their religion and embrace Christianity. Our charge is to both proclaim and embody the gospel so that others can see, hear, and feel God's love in tangible ways. When we are living out our faith with integrity and compassion in the world, God can use us to give others a glimpse of His love and character. It is God--not us--who works in the hearts of men and women to forgive and redeem. Coercion is not necessary or even particularly helpful. God is responsible for the harvest--but we must plant, water, and cultivate the seeds.
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As a reader with a preference for biographies or autobiographies rather than fictions, I always love to know how others go through their lives. As a Christian, I am eager to follow the steps of those who have "set aside worldly success for something far more significant, and discovered the full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change their own lives".

The true story of this former corporate CEO has truly inspired me to be one of those who use their journeys "to demonstrate how the gospel--the whole gospel--was always meant to be a world-changing social revolution, a revolution that begins with us".