Killing the Gospel Message

I have been a part of America's Christian subculture for my entire life. Honestly, I am grateful to say that. That being said, there is one thing that has recently been in my mind and I'd like to share it with you. Just to keep this post honest, I will be up front with you, my reader, this is a charge against Evangelicalism as it has come to be represented today. My charge is this: in Evangelical Christianity - which represents a large portion of the Christian presence in the world - we have become increasingly concerned with the spreading of the Gospel message; in fact this term "Gospel message" is often used (or its derivatives, message of the Gospel, message of Jesus Christ, etc.) with little explanation or correct context. Furthermore, I would simply like to conclude that

The Gospel is not a message but a story

It's pretty common knowledge in Christian circles that the word "gospel" translates fairly accurately to "good news" and while a "good news message" makes sense in our linguistics and "good news story" seems a bit odd, if we understand what the content of that good news is, then the latter becomes the more desirable understanding.

You see, a message is static; it's unchanging and non-evolving.  While there is great theological grounds for arguing the immutability of God (though I don't personally believe this is so), we ought to be careful to not project that quality onto the events of the incarnation. The good news is that God came to show us how to be human and reestablish the connection between Creation and Creator; this is really good news and this is not a static idea. A message is given once and does not change after it is given. You can rephrase a message, you can twist a message and you can import your own meaning into a message, but a message is what it is regardless of the interpretation.

By contrast, a story is inherently evolving; it is full of life and energy with surprises and struggles, conflict and resolution. There is an outcome in a story and there is a core theme that guides the story, but there are also developments and the introduction and exit of characters. Sounds a bit more like life, doesn't it?

The Gospel is not the sum of the events in the first century 

Instead, the Gospel is the good news that our Creator longs for us to be right with him again and so the greatest lengths were not too far to go. The events of the incarnation are a testament to the reality that God loves creation. 

It seems to me that throughout human history, God had consistently tried to bring this Gospel to humanity by directly speaking to humans. We see it with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David and so on and so forth, but each time, humans took the story of God's love which is inherently full of life and turned it into a stagnate message in the form of laws. Let us not do the same. For Evangelicalism, the charge is turning the story into a message for our own ego gratification. We need to know that we're right, we need to know that I'm going to be on the ark while the rest of the world drowns, that I have my golden ticket into heaven. But this kills the spirit of the story of love - the Gospel that Christ brought to us. So, God decided to adopt a different tactic; he came himself in a way that was not so obvious to hand deliver, so to speak, this story of love. The author stepped into the story and flipped the world of the characters on its head.
The most beautiful truth is this:

We are a part of the story

Humanity hasn't gone extinct. Christ has not returned yet. The story is not over.

When we shape our work in ministry and Christian living around portraying a message, it becomes like trying to ask your wife to buy a new guitar (personal experience here people) without making it sound like you're just being kind of selfish with the family money. If, however, your concept of being a representative of Christ is shaped around a story, your interactions with everyone become more about telling them about your childhood, about a road trip you took once or about good memories with friends.

The Gospel is our responsibility as Christians; the story of love that God told us with his own mouth is ours to retell. Kill the message of the gospel so that the story of the Gospel can live.

Peace,
C.M.