Workshop - James Choung - Sharing the Gospel in an Increasingly Unchurched Culture

WORKSHOP - JAMES CHOUNG
THE BIG STORY: SHARING THE GOSPEL IN AN INCREASINGLY UNCHURCHED CULTURE

Okay, I have been waiting for this one. James Choung created the template for sharing the Christian message that I used for the Sunday sermon on February 8. I have read some of his material, and I have seen his video presentation on YouTube, but this is my first time to hear him in person. I’m all ears!

Choung is a director with the San Diego division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

In working with college students, there are many obstacles to trying to share the gospel. Sometimes the gospel does not sound like good news at all? It seems arrogant to say that Jesus is the only way.

The Spiritual Question of the Day. 40 years ago - the question was “What is true?” Our gospel presentation lined up with this question.

About 20 years later - “What is real? What is authentic?”

NOW - it is different again. What is good? What works? Is your faith good for the world today? Is it beautiful? They want to be a part of changing the world! Will your faith bring a blessing or a curse?

Dallas Willard said, “The validity of a religion is based on the amount of blessing it brings to outsiders.”

So is our gospel good news for people today? What we share doesn’t seem to be received in the same way as what Jesus shared.

How do we connect the unchanging truth with changing generations.

What we have done - is very individual - focused on decision - focused on your individual destiny in the afterlife. “If you died tonight, where would you go?” “Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins, so that when we die, we go to heaven.” This message is very difficult for rising generations to hear.

SO WHAT WAS THE GOSPEL THAT JESUS TAUGHT?

Choung: It struck me that when push came to shove, with the way we shared our faith, people could ignore Jesus’ teaching altogether but accept him mentally - then all is okay. You don’t have to love people as long as you accept Christ. This seemed quite irrelevant, and not very beneficial to the world.

I took a class with Dallas Willard. Focused on Mark 1:14-15. “The time has come - the Kingdom ofGod has come near - repent and believe the good news.”

In their culture, to say the Kingdom of God is near - that packed a wallop. We don’t really understand what that means.

“NEAR” - so close to you that you can feel it.

In that time “REPENT” was not really a religious term - it just meant to change your mind. BELIEVE - is a relational word - banking your life on something.

A good definition of the Kingdom of God - “WHERE WHAT GOD WANTS TO HAPPEN, ACTUALLY HAPPENS.”

Characterized by forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation, generosity, righteousness, justice, service, redemption, peace, unity, love. It is now AND forever.

How did heaven get so distorted in our mind? In the gospels - heaven is the Kingdom of God - this perfect state of relationship with God. Jesus thinks this can happen here. If not in its fullness, it begins here.

This gives us a theological construct of the gospel that can capture all of the great things that Jesus taught. This gives a much bigger, powerful, robust gospel.

Willard: “A lot of Christians are vampire Christians. We don’t want Jesus’ teachings and instructions - we just want his blood.”

Our gospel is then not just individual, but also communal.
Not just about decision, but also transformation.
Not just about after-life, but also about mission-life.

It’s not just about what Jesus is going to do for you, but also what he is going to ask you to do. Do people know there is a mission involved when we initially “sign them up?”

Choung pondered how to share the Kingdom in such a way that made sense, and did not seem like the crazy doomsday prophet! I could not figure out a way to share this. I also wanted to make sure this was really biblical and correct.

“The Bridge” diagram was our modern day icon that helped us to share the gospel. As I learned it, we included Romans 6:23 - wages/sin/death on one side - gift/Christ on the other side. I had used this for 12-13 years! I couldn’t get into another way of teaching.

What “The Bridge” teaches us is true, but I wondered if I needed something more to teach the Kingdom of God, capturing the larger picture, nestling it within the biblical narrative (story, not just system). I wanted it to be simple, but not “simpler” - something that could communicate the GOOD news!!

Remember - diagrams aren’t the only way to share the gospel. Diagrams don’t save people. Tailor this presentation to your needs. So we came up with THE BIG STORY - it tries to hit the personal level, the relational level, and the systemic level.

THE BIG STORY. (At this point - Choung shared the story of the four circles. You can see it here.)

Then he added these explanations of the diagram. We have four circles - creation - fall - redemption - mission.

We also added the arrows to help people figure out what Jesus did to get to circle #4. The lines between #2 and #4 actually reflect “The Bridge” diagram.

The starting point - “What do you see on the news?” (Originally we tried to start with creation - but it did not seem to connect.) This is a great conversation starter - and we start with things we agree on.

Then - “How does that make you feel?” Almost no one says “this is great!”

“That gives us a clue to something - the very fact that you ache for a world that is different than ours.”

You can tailor the presentation to your audience - to get in touch with the systemic brokenness that they see - in California, environmental concerns are huge.

How did we get to circle #2? We decided WE could run the ship better than the captain?

In this presentation, I don‘t necessarily use the word “sin” - but the teaching on sin - is clear. When people hear this, I don’t get a fight. It makes sense!

“God loved the world too much to leave it that way.”

This diagram speaks not only to non-believers, but also to Christians who may be stuck in circle #3 but begin to see how they are called to mission (circle #4).

The pushback for nonbelievers would be - why do I need Jesus for this? “The world’s problems are infinite, so we need infinite resources.” Think about all the things that have Christian roots - for example, even fair trade coffee!

When we say “Jesus is the way to get there” - that’s when they may walk away.

A jail chaplain testified that this diagram helped. Old methods helped inmates to feel forgiven, but this method helped them to see a vision of how things could be different when they were released.

If we understand that this is good news not just for me - but for the WORLD - we are more apt to want to share it!

REFERENCES
Divine Conspiracy - Dallas Willard
Challenge of Jesus - N. T. Wright
Colossians Remixed - Walsh & Keesmaat