Communicating the Gospel

as i sat through Bible Study last night, i gained some very interesting insights into what sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ involves. I had forgotten that Christians are indeed called to be signposts for Christ. we give true, clear, honest directions and we need to be noticed, but we're not drawing attention to ourselves, but rather, the message, in this case the cross of Christ.

also, i was convicted of a central reality that i'd not consiously articulated for 4 years in Australia: people are not conversion targets to look good on a list of statistics about my faith or my church. Instead i need to view people as long-term gospel relationships that are cultivated for the long (namely, eternal) view. This changes the way i relate to my non-Christian cousins, for instance. If i truly view them as long term gospel relationships, then i should visit them at Chinese New Year and seek to get to know them more, while presenting a christian view on the issues they face.

another thing i took away from last night's study was the fact that as Christians we often don't realise that behind the cutting, strange or defiant questions may indeed be deeper issues and deeper hurts that need to be addressed. Miss S related how people had asked her questions about sexuality and the Christian perspective which masked deeper issues that prevented them coming to the Cross. Only by getting to know people in long term gospel relationships can we bring out these issues and address them with the words and love of Christ.

Finally, i was challenged to think about the issue of contextualising the gospel for clarity and understanding amongst different groups. Here Eugene's example of christians in the part of the Philippines where some missionaries work and where he has visited strikes a deep chord. Do ask me in person about this sometime if you're interested because this public domain has limitations to what i want to speak about. Even so, i think we should distinguish between good and bad contextualisation. Contextualisation should never be done to encourage or pander to the sinfulness of human beings in a particular culture, and the prosperity gospel is one example of bad contextualisation, since it encourages human greed at worst and blurs our focus on an eternal destiny at best. But i will honesty admit, i'm still figuring this one out, as its a thorny issue.