Thursday, November 27, 2008

A Gospel Presentation for our Time Part 1



I was looking through Christianity Today's RSS Feed and found an article about James Chuong to be interesting. He's come up with a gospel presentation that he writes out on napkins. The hook was set, so I checked out his website. I intend to buy his book called True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In. Anyway, check out his website, the book, and the cool video above, and let me know what you think. A book reviewer from LA, known as Icarus on Amazon.com, had this to say about the book:

Choung starts out with a simple goal - to describe a new way to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ. What makes his book so good is that he recognizes the complex questions people have about the gospel. He retains the central truths that we are separated by sin from the God we were created to be in perfect fellowship with and that the finished work of Christ is the only way to restore that fellowship. He adds on to those truths some others that were previously seen as "Christian history" (what was God like before Creation was created? how did sin enter the world?) and some others that were seen as "Christian Living" (if I'm saved by grace, why should I go to the trouble of doing good? what should I/the church do about Sudan, the environment, or human trafficking?). He sees that individual sin leads to corrupted relationships and communities, and he communicates a gospel of salvation for individuals and healing for relationships and communities. Other writers in this genre (McLaren and Claiborne come to mind) go too far promoting the corporate aspects of sin and salvation to the detriment of the individual responsibility for sin and need for salvation. As I read Choung's book, I didn't feel like the gospel I love was being changed, diminished, or diluted - I felt like it was being strengthened by showing the big picture of why the gospel is truly good news for individual humans and the whole world.

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