| Religion | Gospel | Post-Religion |
| Moralistic | Christ-centered | Relativistic |
| Narrow-minded | Heart-focused | Open-minded |
| I do | Jesus does | I don’t (care) |
| Be good | Be yourself in Jesus | Be authentic |
| Obey therefore accepted | Accepted therefore obey | Disobey find acceptance elsewhere |
| Identity in works | Identity in Jesus | Identity in self |
| Moral/Bible Questions | Heart Questions | Intellectual Questions |
| Concerned with Truth | Concerned with Truth in Love | Concerned with Love |
| God is hard to please | Jesus pleases God for us | God is obstacle to pleasure |
| Compares morals | Considers cross | Compares worldviews |
| Salvation – of course me | Salvation – why me? | Salvation – why not everyone |
| Motivated by fear | Motivated by Joy | Motivated by freedom |
| Results in pride | Results in humility | Results in indifference |
| Church=self-righteous | Church=imperfect saints | Church=backwards |
| Good | Repentant | Bad |
Viral Hope Video!
ViralHope is a book that compiles expressions of the gospel from around the world. I contributed a chapter from the vantage point of Austin. All the words in this video were taken from entries in the book. You can pick one up locally at Austin City Life at the Highball on Sundays or ViralHope available at Amazon and the Ecclesia Press.
The Failure of Discipleship
In evangelical subculture the ubiquity of the Great Commission is matched by the poverty of its interpretation. Matthew 28:18-20 — the command to make disciples of all nations — is frequently summoned to validate countless and sundry discipleship and evangelism programs, ideas and practices, often ignoring the full meaning of the text. It has contributed to the failure of discipleship.
All too often discipleship has been conceived as pietistic (shared spiritual disciplines) or evangelistic (call to soul winning). This approach to discipleship is not only a failure to grasp discipleship but is also incomplete. As a closer reading of the Great Commission texts will show, discipleship is much, much more than pietism and evangelism.
Read the article “Missional Discipleship: Reinterpreting the Great Commissions“
Reading Ourselves to Life
This is a follow-up from my previous post “We are Entertaining Ourselves to Death”
If immersion in a media-saturated world fosters numbness and detachment, what would it look like to re-engage the literary world? David Brooks offers some insight comments. He notes that the hierarchy of literature (beach books at bottom and classics at the top) creates a scale for personal growth in wisdom and learning.
The Internet-versus-books debate is conducted on the supposition that the medium is the message. But sometimes the medium is just the medium. What matters is the way people think about themselves while engaged in the two activities. A person who becomes a citizen of the literary world enters a hierarchical universe. There are classic works of literature at the top and beach reading at the bottom.
A person enters this world as a novice, and slowly studies the works of great writers and scholars. Readers immerse themselves in deep, alternative worlds and hope to gain some lasting wisdom. Respect is paid to the writers who transmit that wisdom.
The internet, on the other hand, is radically egalitarian. There is no hierarchy.
A citizen of the Internet has a very different experience. The Internet smashes hierarchy and is not marked by deference…Internet culture is egalitarian. The young are more accomplished than the old. The new media is supposedly savvier than the old media. The dominant activity is free-wheeling, disrespectful, antiauthority disputation.
But the literary world is still better at helping you become cultivated, mastering significant things of lasting import. To learn these sorts of things, you have to defer to greater minds than your own. You have to take the time to immerse yourself in a great writer’s world. You have to respect the authority of the teacher.