This year The Christian Vision Project is asking the question, Is our gospel too small? The most recent reply come from Mark Labberton, pastor of a Presbyterian church in Berkly, CA. To answer the question Labberton asks a question of his own (my kind of guy!), Why does the gospel look to so many like a bowl of lima beans?

You ought to take 10 minutes and read the article, but let me whet your appetite with a couple of quotes.

How could it be, some believers might balk, that “the hope of the world,” the One given “the name above every name,” could ever seem bland? Well, because often the church is bland. Pale. Gullible. Pasty. Just there. The fruit of this vine appears to be lima beans. If bland is the flavor of the church, then it is presumed to be the flavor of the One the church calls Lord.

Jesus Christ, the Lord of Creation, Redemption, and Fulfillment, calls the church the salt and light of the world. Jesus seems to have had in mind a community engaged in vigorous, self-sacrificing mission that goes to great lengths to enact costly love, that inconveniences itself regularly to seek justice for the oppressed, that creatively serves the forgotten, all to portray that the kingdom of God is at hand.

There is a lot more good, thought-provoking, stuff here. You can find the entire article on The Christian Vision Project website.