alright, so what I felt God leading me to speak on was a sort of comparison of "What does the gospel look like to us" vs "what might it look like to them" with the point being of course that for the poor and oppressed, they need their basic needs taken care of where we in the US for the most part can take that for granted. In there is the point that they are beloved and made in the image of God and therefore must be treated as people.
Let me know what you guys think. I will also have another message which I'm not quite sure about, but will be more of a sum of and challenge message.
1. Our World vs Theirs
2. Story – can make spaghetti
3. 2 different worlds
4. We live in different worlds
5. But still they are the image of God
6. What does that mean?
7. In some ways we participate in keeping them in that world or creating that world
8. What gospel has come to mean for us?
a. Grace
b. Sins
c. All still good
9. What gospel would mean for them?
a. Basic needs
b. “Give us this day our daily bread”
c. Image of God – treated as people
i. Engagement
ii. Talking
10. We are the church- missional. Good news, what is that?
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Hey Brett...
ReplyDeleteI really like the premise of your message. The idea of thinking about the perspective of the poor is really good for a night like this. It really reinforces the message of the night.
And I'm sure your sensitive to this, but I would just be cautious about "our gospel" vs. "their gospel" kind of language. I understand your point, but because gospel is such a technical term, I have a hard time with saying that for some people, the Gospel (capital G) is about basic needs. I think people associate the gospel with God's plan for salvation, and it's confusing to make it about meeting needs. Maybe a simpler way of saying it might be - "what is good news for us?" and "what is good news for them?" Same basic idea, but less ambiguous terminology.
I'm not sure if the point I'm making is semantics or theology, but that's just kinda how I see it.
Are you going to talk about how fasting plays into this? I think people will be wondering how the fast relates to all this.
I hope it's all coming together. Good luck preparing. btw... what kind of worship set are you looking for at 7? I was going to start with a slightly more upbeat, worshipful mood, and then settle into a more thoughtful, devotional time. Is that cool? Any songs you want me to play?
shoot, sorry brett. this was a killer week.
ReplyDeletei agree with brandon on his points. be careful in making it an "us" versus "them" situation. the gospel should be the same for the poor and the rich alike. for the poor it should still be about sins and grace. perhaps it might be better to say that there are better ways to minister the gospel to the poor, which i think is entirely true. the poor have an entirely different set of circumstances to deal with, particularly in meeting basic needs that we take for granted.
i think a very strong part of what you talk about will be in bringing more awareness. especially living in cerritos, we are easily caught in a bubble. i think we know that there is suffering and poverty in the world, but we don't really grasp how dire things really are.
i think the church is missional in purposing to bring others to worship the God who has overcome sin and extending to us grace, which might manifest itself in meeting the basic needs of others.
there is one gospel and part of the power in it is being relevant to all--rich or poor, black or white, male or female, etc. i think galatians 3:26-29 is great evidence of this.
hey guys, thanks for the comments, yeah, definitely I'll try to make it sound like its different... I think I'm trying to say that the gospel must be expanded. Like honestly if you tell someone they can go to heaven and have their sins forgiven but they're dying of starvation, it kinda won't really hit them in the same way.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the way I wrote it, its not an us vs them, but its a we must be sensitive to those needs. If we are to show love, this is the love that will hit them most. Not that eternal salvation won't, but God cares about both.