Scot McKnight apparently recently took a stab at a brief gospel presentation that manages to de-stabilize the individualism of most presentations I've heard. He preached a gospel that manages to keep the church front-and-center in God's purposes (as it should be, I think). See what you think:
But
you and everyone else have a sin problem that separates you and
everyone else from God, from yourselves, from one another, and from the
good world God made for you.
The good news is that Jesus lived
for you, died for you, was raised for you, and sent the Spirit for you
– so you all can live as the beloved community.
If you enter
into Jesus' story, by repentance and faith, you can be reconnected to
God, to yourself, to others, and to this world.
Those who are
reconnected like this will live now as God's community and will find
themselves eternally in union with God and communion with others.
Those
who preach this gospel will not deconstruct the church. Instead, they
will participate in what God is doing: constructing the kingdom
community even now.
I like this a lot. Let’s work on some more stuff like this.
Eh…
Not sure. I like the thoughts and nuances, but inasmuch as I’m convicted that the gospel defies definition and that its nature is assaulted when not storied, contextualized, and embodied, I don’t know if I want it to count for a “gospel presentation/definition.” Maybe there is a place for summaries like this, but I think we need a new word or phrase for what they are.
I suppose I see summaries like this in some of the same way the creeds function as summaries.
Is it enough to know the content of Apostles’ Creed? Probably not. That’s why we have a New Testament – so the “raw facts” of the creeds can be “storied.”
Maybe they do need a new name, but I do believe there is a place for summaries like Scot’s above. In the end, I think that if summaries are handled well, they may well help people contextualize and embody the gospel.
God is the God of the individual, but He is big enough and powerful enough to be the God of the “church,” the sinner, the “Christian Nation,” and the whole world.
None cancel the others out. This too is a mystery.