{"id":727,"date":"2021-03-24T14:46:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T04:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disciplingasyougo.com\/?p=727"},"modified":"2021-03-26T11:36:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T01:36:55","slug":"whats-wrong-with-simplifying-the-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disciplingasyougo.com\/?p=727","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s wrong with simplifying the Good News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\">Throughout most of Christian history the introduction of the Good News to individuals took time and emphasised its relational and holistic nature. After the 1950\u2019s, the Church was confronted by a new generation that was looking for quick change and quick answers, so American Evangelicals developed a communication method that was built on Reductionism: <em>the practice of describing a complex set of ideas in the simplest of terms especially if it provides a sufficient explanation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\">When it comes to the Good News there may be a place for reductionism as long as the practice doesn\u2019t reach a point of minimising, obscuring, or distorting the key issue.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\">For example, Evangelical publishers in this era adopted reductionism and mass produced the idea. Publications like Bill Bright\u2019s \u2018<em>Four Spiritual Laws<\/em>\u2019 tract epitomised this process of minimising (with some distorting). For those born after the 1970\u2019s, the <em>\u2018Four Spiritual Laws\u2019<\/em> is a small four page document that starts with a sketch of the throne of life with &#8220;self&#8221; on the throne and moves to where one puts \u201cJesus\u201d on the throne. Then they are no longer separated from God and this is referred to as conversion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\">The intentional, intensive three year journey of change instigated by Jesus with His disciples seemed to be reduced to reading a little picture booklet that highlighted one aspect of a relationship with God.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\"><em>John Wesley said, \u2018The Church changes the world not by making converts but by making disciples\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\">Dallas Willard in \u2018The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God\u2019 says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\"><em>\u2018The idea of having faith in Jesus has come to be totally isolated from being his apprentice and learning how to do what he said\u2019 <\/em>and <em>\u2018We don&#8217;t believe something by merely saying we believe it, or even when we believe that we believe it. We believe something when we act as if it were true\u2019.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\"><strong>What started out as an attempt at contextualisation instead started a process that often simplified the Good News to a commodity that emphasised a single decision.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\">If you struggle with communicating the Gospel message you might be interested in what Skye Jethani has to say in the book <strong><em>&#8220;with&#8221;<\/em><\/strong>.&nbsp; He suggests that people typically relate to God taking one of four postures &#8211; or a combination.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\">Here are the four postures he shares:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" type=\"1\" style=\"font-size:17px\"><li>Life <em>Under<\/em> God<\/li><li>Life <em>Over<\/em> God<\/li><li>Life <em>From<\/em> God<\/li><li>Life <em>For<\/em> God<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">The title of his book suggests an alternative posture: Life <em>with<\/em> God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">If you want to learn more about the four postures in a 5-minute video &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/infocusnet.us13.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=11ef1d504a99e4623bfb7e894&amp;id=03ec6495fd&amp;e=f3bcb7bbb6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>CLICK HERE<\/em><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">If you are interested in reading&nbsp;<strong><em>&#8220;with&#8221;<\/em><\/strong> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/infocusnet.us13.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=11ef1d504a99e4623bfb7e894&amp;id=2e487ddd4b&amp;e=f3bcb7bbb6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>CLICK HERE<\/em><\/a><strong><em>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout most of Christian history the introduction of the Good News to individuals took time and emphasised its relational and holistic nature. After the 1950\u2019s, the Church was confronted by a new generation that was looking for quick change and quick answers, so American Evangelicals developed a communication method that was built on Reductionism: the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What\u2019s wrong with simplifying the Good News - Discipling As You Go<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/disciplingasyougo.com\/?p=727\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What\u2019s wrong with simplifying the Good News - Discipling As You Go\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Throughout most of Christian history the introduction of the Good News to individuals took time and emphasised its relational and holistic nature. 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