My wife is at a women’s conference this week, in Tulsa, OK. I decided to come along, so for a few days I’ll just be hanging around Tulsa.
Tulsa (Broken Arrow, technically) is the home of my alma mater, RHEMA Bible Training Center, a Bible school which I attended from 1998-2000. It’s nice to be back in town, to visit with friends, and to see familiar places. As an alumni, I was able to sit in on a few classes this morning, and that was extremely refreshing. Right now I’m sitting in the Coffee Banc; this is an old bank building which was sitting right next to the RHEMA church building. When it became vacant, the church bought it and turned it into a coffee shop/restaurant, the profits from which support the church and bible school. It has free wireless, though the connection seems spotty in some parts of the building… I had to move around before I could get a strong signal.
Sitting back in bible school was a reminder of why I really do what I’m doing. Sure, most of what I do is technical in nature, from school to work, to even leisure time (yeah, I’m learning Python and GTK programming in my spare time… I know, it’s a little weird); but the main reason that I do whatever I do is to promote the Gospel.
Before the non-religious readers out there tune straight out at that, consider that almost everybody is wired this way. Their “cause” might be environmentalism, Free Software, or something else entirely, but I think most people have a driving force that is something other than the simple day-to-day routine, and their natural interests. My motivation happens to be not politics (not above all, at least), not Free Software, not an economic theory, not ending poverty, not lobbying for free healthcare (or free anything)… but the Gospel.
I’ve become convinced that most people have no idea what the Gospel is. I don’t mean that people are dumb, just that they’ve been told, or given the impression, or at the very least come away with the impression, that the Gospel is some hard, grave, message. It’s probably pretty common knowledge that “gospel” means “Good News”, but… what does that mean?
I have a few thoughts on the subject of Good News, and why people have what I can only conclude must be extremely strange ideas of what it is.
- Good News is not hard to share. If it’s good news, then by definition, people would be interested to hear about it.
- People are interested in good news. It’s Good, after all.
- Observation on the above two points: if what we are attempting to share is a task and a chore, and if people are not receptive to it… maybe it isn’t good news.
- If a piece of news is truly good, then even if I don’t “believe” that it’s true, my first reaction would be, “It sure would be cool if that were true.” For example, someone might tell me that they were going to give me a million dollars. If I don’t know them, I might doubt the veracity of the statement… but I’d certainly be in favor of it! I’d certainly think that it would be nice if it were so. Why? Because it’s good news!
- In order for something to be good news, it has to pertain to the individual you’re speaking to. That isn’t selfish, that’s just how it works; if your neighbor just had someone pay off all their debt, then that’s news. If someone just paid off all of your debt, then that’s Good News.
- For news to be good, it has to be practical. If I tell you that something has taken place, and I assure you that it’s wonderful, but I don’t give you any information concerning how it pertains or has any effect on your actual life, how “good” could that news be? Hm. Not very exciting.
- Good news is about now. Sure, it could be about something that is going to happen in the future, like an investment maturing, or a child being born, or a pending raise or promotion, but in order for you to consider it “good news”, you need to be assured now that it is really so.
- Also, just due to human nature, the closer to “now” that the result of this “good news” is, the better it will seem.
I think I’ve made a post something like this in the past. That’s alright; somethings need to be re-thought, and re-said. The bottom line is, if we don’t want to share our faith because we feel that people will react negatively, is what we’re intending to share actually “The Good News”? If you feel that you’ve been told “the Gospel”, and it sounded boring, condemning, or not applicable to your life, I’d suggest considering that you haven’t actually heard “The Gospel” after all.
Worth thinking about.
