The Full Gospel Of Jesus Christ

Almost every week (those that i'm actually around for) i write a segment for the Divisional Newsletter that goes out to all of the Salvation Army officers and to some other people in the division and around the territory. In this article i talk about what is going on in Youth and Childrens Ministry and also cover any relevant Candidates info that i feel needs to be passed on.

This week i revealed the name of this years Youth Event; Offensive Christianity (see my previous blog). To be honest, part of the reason i liked this name was because it was a little controversial, the plan was to get people talking. But in my little speil in the newsletter i refferred to offensive Christianity as, and i quote myself here for contextual reasons:

"...not the sort of offensive you think of when you see those obnoxious street preachers in Melbourne."

Now i have had conversations, discussions and slightly heated debates with various friends and acquiantances in the past over this issue, but i still think my position is justified.

First of all, let me say how much i admire the courage of these people who are willing to go out there and speak the gospel, irrespective of what others think. My issue is not that thye are presenting the gospel, in the street or otherwise, but my issue is in the way that it is done.

The Salvation Army has a long history of presenting the gosple to the lost, least and last in public places, and i think that that is great!! I personally would love to hold an event in the public space where i could share the FULL gospel to those gathered around. The key here is the 'FULL' word.

Jesus taught that we should speak the truth. Jesus said the He is the Truth, the Way and the Life. Jesus also taught that we should act with grace and compassion. In fact, i believe that most of Jesus' harshest criticism was reserved for the Pharrisees, Sadducees and Scribes, those that already considdered themselves 'saved'. As i recall, Jesus spoke forgiveness and compassion to the outcast of society. When the Jewish leaders dragged a woman caught in adultery before Jesus asking Him to pronounce judgement over her, Jesus' response was "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." And when they all left because they were not able to condemn her, Jesus, the only one to have never sinned, didn't pick up a stone, but told her the He didn't condemn her but encouraged her to "Go and sin no more."

Maybe in this post-modern, post-Christian world people aren't aware that they have sinned, perhaps people dont care about sin, but i still believe that each person is aware, at least on some level, that they have made decisions that they wish they hadn't. We don't need to be convinced of our unworthiness in most situations, most of us are all to keenly aware of that, we just don't want anyone else to find it out.

My argument continues that instead of preaching the wrath of God and condemning people as i have seen at least once on the street in melbourne on a Friday night for example: the one million dollar note with the $1,000,000 question; where will you go when you die? with the tag line, and i almost quote verbatim; "Basically you're a lying, cheating, theiving, murderous adulterer at heart." Let us preach the love of God, that Jesus died for us irrespective of whether we love him, that God loves us irrespective of what we have don or what we will do, that eternal life isn't just about going to heaven when we die, but about seeing God's Kingdom here on earth now as we live and breathe. Let's try preaching acceptance, not exclusion; love, not hatred; let's return good for bad. instead of being one of those 'fundamental' Christians that hate homosexuals, abortionists, etc, lets be one of those fundamentally Christ-like people who love the sinner, hate the sin and do what we can for these people.

By all means, go into the world and preach the gospel, just make sure it is the full gospel!!!