1. Evangelistically, "church" is, or should and could be, the best apologetic for the gospel. That does not mean "Sunday service", of course, though that is part of what the church does. It means a believing, counter-cultural community in which the powers of the New Age, the Kingdom, are at work in reversing the effects of the fall. In such a community people see, taste and experience the gospel as well as hear about it. As Harvie Connn put it, "the church is the "model home" (not in the sense of "ideal", but in the sense of "sample") of the kingdom of God."
2. Belonging Leads to Believing. This is strengthened by the fact that the culture we are trying to reach puts relationship and community ABOVE having right beliefs. Identity is found in the group not in the isolated individual. So abstract and intellectual presentations of the "facts" are, for the most part, skipping right over the surface of their lives and pose no threat to the cultural, religious, spiritual and familial powers and principalities that keep them in bondage.
3. The church is part of the Gospel! Not something that follows the gospel, but part of the good news. This is the real basis for what we are doing, and it assumes an understanding of the gospel which is as great as the effects of the curse. And that includes, as per (1), the creating of a NEW WAY TO BE HUMAN and a NEW SOCIETY. Indeed, it is creating a new way to be human IN a new society. And so it isn't a matter merely of a "prologue" or a pre-evangelism so that we can then get on with "telling" them the gospel. It is a matter of inviting people to share and experience something of the gospel by being in the realm of the gospel.
2. Belonging Leads to Believing. This is strengthened by the fact that the culture we are trying to reach puts relationship and community ABOVE having right beliefs. Identity is found in the group not in the isolated individual. So abstract and intellectual presentations of the "facts" are, for the most part, skipping right over the surface of their lives and pose no threat to the cultural, religious, spiritual and familial powers and principalities that keep them in bondage.
3. The church is part of the Gospel! Not something that follows the gospel, but part of the good news. This is the real basis for what we are doing, and it assumes an understanding of the gospel which is as great as the effects of the curse. And that includes, as per (1), the creating of a NEW WAY TO BE HUMAN and a NEW SOCIETY. Indeed, it is creating a new way to be human IN a new society. And so it isn't a matter merely of a "prologue" or a pre-evangelism so that we can then get on with "telling" them the gospel. It is a matter of inviting people to share and experience something of the gospel by being in the realm of the gospel.
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