nuance

I just realized that I completely forgot to recount the most important event of that second day in New York…the moment in which, after Mark’s evening session, I casually meandered into the bookstore of the church even though I had no interest in any of the books. In fact, I was stalking someone.

The A-M-B-A-Esss-Esss-A-D-O-R!

Still unsure if my suspicions were correct about the identity of this fellow, I listened as he gave his name to the lady at the counter in order to receive his free conference book. “William Branch,” he said. Thus, since I obviously knew the Ambassador’s given name, it was finally settled: thou art the man!

In all seriousness, it was quite cool to then say hey and chat with him briefly about how influential his music has been for me. For those who don’t know, Cross Movement broke the mold in contemporary Christian music a few years ago - and totally captured my heart. In an era of fluffy, stupid, God-is-my-boyfriend lyrical tripe, CM brought lyrics that would make a theologian proud; and in the midst of imitation, overproduced, second-rate God-pop, CM brought quality, authentic, hardcore East Coast rap to Christian music. I used to listen to them during my drive to work as a single dude, and I remember how the songs would energize me to face a difficult season of life and an anti-Christian cultural environment with bulldoggish, ghetto gospel-tenacity.

It was a definite highlight.

Day 3: Wednesday AM Sessions
Wednesday would be a slightly shorter day than Tuesday, but no less eventful or inspiring. K and I looked forward to another Driscoll sesh, as well as two with Tim Keller, pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian and author of the new book, The Reason For God (and my latest man-crush).

Session 6: Darrin Patrick
Before the dynamic duo would take the stage, however, we got a short and surprising talk from Acts 29 VP Darrin Patrick on “Dwelling with Non-Christians.” Darrin built the case that the Christian mission - and the mission of God - centers upon the lost, whom the Son of Man himself came to seek and to save. The world in need requires Christian engagement, Christian suffering and endurance for the sake of the elect not yet gathered.

Darrin encouraged us to incarnate intentionally (1 Cor. 5:9ff.) - attend community connecting events, create community connecting ministries, discern specific aspects of culture you enjoy.

He called us to communicate contextually (1 Cor. 9:19ff.) - adapt the gospel message to fit the person you’re speaking to, inhabit the person’s worldview with a positive identity, use a receivable style and method when you bring the gospel.

He also pointed back to Jesus’ involvement in lost people’s lives and called us to invest in people sacrificially: friends need time to see how much we are and are not like them.

And he lastly exhorted us to immerse ourselves in the gospel as we dwell with non-Christians; only the gospel will empower our passion for evangelism and erode our self-righteousness in that process.

The Q and A was fun, especially when our new friend and tablemate Ian dropped some cuss-words (a$$hole, I think) when talking about his occasional behavior when hanging out with non-Christian friends. Even though Dwell was definitely a cool Christian conference with lots of cool Christian speakers and cool Christian attendees, it was still kinda shocking when he dropped the AH bomb. But it was funny. And I was encouraged when he spoke about how much he absolutely loves spending as much time as possible with non-Christian friends, how his desire is to get deeply involved in their lives and have them deeply involved in his.

Session 7: Tim Keller
I’d read a lot about Tim Keller and read bits of articles written by him, but strangely, I’d never really heard him speak. My mom-in-law June loves him and raves about him, and now I know why.

No one impacted me more at this conference than Tim Keller, and specifically, this session on “Dwelling in the Gospel.” (These notes are nearly identical to Keller’s article in Learship Journal on the same topic.)

You have to understand: I am a year out of leaving a church that was definitively inflexible in regards to the form in which one presents the gospel. There was only one form. As I saw the ineffectiveness of this approach in many people’s lives, I became more and more convinced that a third way - not liberal social gospelism nor fundamentalist sin/law/hell-heavy gospelism - was necessary. The ideas of being missional, of contextualizing, of incarnating all came as solutions to that dilemma; but there was a part still missing in regards to the gospel itself. And not being a very smart guy, I didn’t quite know how to express it.

Until Tim expressed it for me.

Tim began with an assertion: There is only one gospel. Contra McClaren’s Neo and older incarnations - the Tubingen school of the 19th century and James Dunn in the last one, - Jesus and Paul are not at odds, and the biblical gospel does not suffer from such diversity that it is undefinable. Keller agrees with C.H. Dodd that a consensus gospel message does indeed exist. Paul probably agreed, too, since he cursed all gospels that might be deemed “another.”

However, it is obvious that this gospel, while one, does indeed take on different forms. The most compelling proof of this is also found in Galatians where Paul speaks of a ‘gospel of the uncircumcised’ and one of the circumcised. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul speaks of the gospel presented to the Jews as weakness and to the Gentiles as foolishness because of the biases towards moral power and worldly wisdom, respectively. These approaches can be seen in Paul’s discourses in Acts.

And one can see variation in the emphases on kingdom and society in the Synoptics as opposed to spirituality and eternity in John, but these, too, are explainable as different facets of the same essential truth.

Keller summarized the one gospel: “1) In the person of Jesus God emptied himself of his glory and became human. 2) Through the work of Jesus God substituted himself for us and atoned for our sin, by grace bringing us into fellowship with him in the church. 3) At the return of Jesus God will restore creation and make a new world in which we can enjoy our new life together with him forever.” He concluded: “Theoretically, a grasp of this 3-point outline should make Christians interested in both evangelism and conversions as well as service to our neighbor and working for peace and justice in the world,” especially if #3 is taken to imply a restorative mandate in the here and now.

The reality is that this last point is controversial, and many communicators seek to pit the individual and corporate aspects of the gospel against each other. Those who teach the kingdom-corporate gospel generally exclusively define sin as corporate - racism, materialism, militarism, etc. Those who teach the classic gospel of salvation by grace through faith tend to ignore the eschatalogical implications in the present - the effects on the brokenhearted, the poor, the oppressed, etc., in our world. The former overlook the weight of biblical testimony on the side of a gospel directed at the individual, commanding him to get right with God; the latter overlook the fact that if “Jesus is going to someday destroy hunger, disease, poverty, injustice, and death itself, it makes Christianity what C.S. Lewis called a ‘fighting religion’…”

(After a brief tabletalk segment, Keller moved into part 2 of his talk.)

He again summarized the one gospel:

1. In the person of Jesus - God emptied himself of his glory.
2. Through the work of Jesus - God substituted himself for us.
3. At the return of Jesus - God will make a new world.

When the Bible calls the gospel ‘the gospel of the kingdom,’ it implies these three aspects which flow from the three above:

1. It’s an upside-down kingdom. There is a reversal of values in God’s kingdom. The poor, the sorrowful, and the persecuted supersede the rich, recognized, and satisfied. This is because Jesus emptied himself and became a servant; he won, he triumphed, by losing everything. “The gospel, then, creates a new kind of servant-community, with people who live out a whole alternate way of being human. Racial and class superiority, accrual of money and power at the expense of others, yearning for popularity and recognition - all these things are marks of living in the world, and are the opposite of the mindset of the kingdom.
2. It’s an inside-out kingdom. While religion gives us a focus on externals - good deeds and moral rules that will cause God to bless us, - the gospel is the reverse of this. The gospel says that through Christ’s substitution we are beautiful and righteous in God’s sight, and once we get a hold of this on the inside, it revolutionizes how we relate to God, ourselves, and others on the outside.
3. It’s a forward-back kingdom. Jesus came the first time to save us from the penalty of sin and give us the Spirit. At the end of the age, the King will come again and relieve the world of the presence of sin and evil, and completely renew the created order, cleansing it of all brokenness. “Christians now live in light of that future reality. We evangelize, telling people about the gospel and preparing them for the judgment. We also help the poor and work for justice, because we know that it is God’s will and eventually all oppression will be put down. And we teach Christians to integrate their faith and their work, so they can be ‘culture makers,’ working for the common good and human flourishing.” In other words, this is a recognition of the already-not yet nature of the kingdom, with due emphasis on the already. Neither over- nor under-realized eschatology can work here; there must be chastened optimism.

Keller tied all this together by picturing a church that really dwells in this biblical gospel: “[It] will look quite unusual. Because of the inside-out kingdom/substitutionary atonement aspect, the church will put great emphasis on personal conversion, experiential grace renewal, evangelism…This makes it look like an evangelical-charismatic church. Because of the upside-down kingdom/incarnation aspect, the church will put great emphasis on deep community, cell groups or house churches, and will emphasize radical giving and sharing of resources, spiritual disciplines, racial reconciliation, and living with the poor. This makes it look like an Anabaptist ‘peace’ church. Because of the forward-back kingdom/restoration aspect, the church will put great emphasis on seeking the welfare of the city, neighborhood and civic involvement, cultural engagement, and training people to work in ’secular’ vocations out of a Christian worldview. This makes it look like a mainline church or perhaps a Kuyperian Reformed church.” Isn’t this what we yearn for…a church balanced on all these fronts?

Keller finished his talk with a brief account of how he tries to present the gospel in all its forms:

1. “I don’t put all the gospel points into any one gospel presentation.”???? Keller noted that the apostles didn’t, either; in their presentations, they left much of the gospel out. This is a matter of effectiveness - you don’t want to lose and confuse the person/people you are speaking to.
2. “I use both a gospel for the ‘circumcised’ and for the ‘uncircumcised.’” Keller has found that there are both religious/moralist types in Manhattan and those with pluralist or postmodern worldviews. While those with traditional backgrounds can understand the need for an absolute moral code that proves them to be guilty and deserving of wrath, needing a savior, the “uncircumcised” require a different approach.
3. “I use both a ‘kingdom’ and an ‘eternal life’ gospel.” To younger listeners struggling to make sense of confusing life-choices and their own identity, Keller brings the gospel in the form of free grace not works - an eternal life gospel, essentially. But to those who are mostly concerned about big issues in the world - war, racism, poverty, injustice - he points out the Bible’s larger story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. For the postmodern and pluralist folks who chafe at standards, Keller defines “sin as building your identity - your self-worth and happiness - on anything other than God. That is, I use the Biblical definition of sin as idolatry. That puts the emphasis not as much on ‘doing bad things’ but on ‘making good things unto ultimate things.’”
4. “I use them all and let each group overhear me preaching to the others.” I let the man speak for himself, “No one form of the gospel gives all the various aspects of the full gospel the same emphasis. If, then, you only ever preach one form, you are in great danger of giving your people an unbalanced diet of gospel-truth. What is the alternative? Don’t use just one gospel form in your preaching… Won’t this confuse people? No, it will stretch them.”

Amen.