The Christian Vision Project has been asking different Christian scholars, artists, and pastors this question: Is our Gospel too small? Scott McKnight recently answered with an article in Christianity Today, The 8 Marks of a Robust Gospel. Scott’s been helpful to me in thinking through how our articulation of the Gospel affects our life together as a church. Here’s the introduction to his article:

Our problems are not small. The most cursory glance at the newspaper will remind us of global crises like AIDS, local catastrophes of senseless violence, family failures, ecological threats, and church skirmishes. These problems resist easy solutions. They are robust—powerful, pervasive, and systemic.

Do we have a gospel big enough for these problems? Do we have the confidence to declare that these robust problems, all of which begin with sin against God and then creep into the world like cancer, have been conquered by a robust gospel? When I read the Gospels, I see a Lion of Judah who roared with a kingdom gospel that challenged both Israel’s and Rome’s mighty men, gathered up the sick and dying and made them whole, and united the purity-obsessed “clean” and the shame-laden “unclean” around one table. When I read the apostle Paul, I see a man who carried a gospel that he believed could save as well as unite Gentiles and barbarians with Abraham’s sacred descendants. I do not think their gospel was too small.

Thanks to Scott T for pointing me to this article. Read the whole thing on the CT website.