The Incredible Shrinking Gospel: The Crisis of Evangelism in the 21st Century

This is the first book in a projected trilogy in which I address some of the fundamental issues facing the church as we try to finding our bearings in the changed and fast-changing world of the early 21st century. This book addresses the question: “What is the Gospel?” through the lens of evangelism – how we share this good news with the world around us. The second book flows out of this one focusing on the church through the insights and challenges in the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is titled Churchiness: Why Only Dietrich Bonhoeffer Can Save Us Now! The third will be my rendition of a “theology of the cross” using the Beatitudes. It’s called Cross-Eyed Jesus and How He Makes Us Cross-Eyed Too!

I’m making this available free here. It's embedded here so you can begin reading immediately or you may click the link to Scribd if you wish to download the document. I may publish it as an inexpensive ebook in the future. My goal is to stimulate conversation and inject what I believe are some fresh insights into the discussion. I have tried to write for any interested person, churched or not. Some of the footnotes will take you farther into the various issues addressed if you want to go farther, but this is not an academic book.

What you’ll find here, after two introductory chapters detailing the “crisis” (Part 1), is a fresh way of seeing the meaning and significance of Jesus in light of reconsiderations of the key terms “Gospel” and “Kingdom” (Part 2). Three concluding chapters and a Postscript takes us into what I think is the most creative part of the book, my reflections on evangelism. Here you will meet ideas that you have never, perhaps, thought about before. I believe they grow organically out of the biblical reflections in the earlier chapters and break some new ground in thinking about how we communicate the gospel.

I’ve included a detailed outline below so you can get a feel for what’s in the book.

The Incredible Shrinking Gospel: The Crisis of Evangelism in the 21st Century
PART 1: The Crisis
1. The Crisis in Evangelism in the 21st Century -The Crisis -Overview of “the Incredible Shrinking Gospel” -The Gospel-Church-Culture Triangle

2. The Incredible Shrinking Gospel
-The Biblical Story
-Theology

Part 2: Revisiting Jesus
3. Evangelism Essentials: Kingdom (Mark 1:14-15) -The Kingdom of God
-Marks of God’s Kingdom

4. Evangelism Essentials: Gospel (Mark 1:14-15) -Gospel
-What the Gospel (and Evangelism) Is Not
-Kingdom and Gospel: Summary

5. The Jesus’ Read: The Lore of the Gospel (Luke 4:16-20) -The Importance of Stories
-God’s Dream – The Story of Creation
-God’s Nightmare – The Story of the Fall
-God Calls a New Adam – The Story of the Patriarchs
-Freedom for God1 – The Story of Moses, Exodus, and Sinai
-Rejecting YHWH – the Story of Kingship

6. The Jesus’ Creed: The Core of the Gospel (Mark 12:28-34) -The Shema – Israel’s Creed
-The Kaddish – Israel’s Prayer
-The Great Commandment – Jesus’ Creed
-The Lord’s Prayer – Jesus’ Prayer

7. The Jesus’ Need: The Corps of the Gospel (Matthew 28:16-20) -Evangelism’s Goal
-The Sermon on the Mount
The Passions of the Kingdom
The Priorities of the Kingdom
The Practices of the Kingdom
The Antitheses
Genuine Piety
Surrogate Deities

8. The Jesus’ Bleed: The More of the Gospel (John 19:28-30) -“It is Finished”
-The “More” of the Gospel
-The Death of Jesus
-No More “God with a Scowl”
-The Course of Atonement
-The Curse of Atonement

9. The Jesus’ Seed: The Spore of the Gospel (Matthew 28:16-20) -The Promise Fulfilled
-Face of God, Favor of God, Feet of God
10. The Jesus’ Feed: The Store of the Gospel (Mark 1:9-11; Matt.26:26-30) -The Supper According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke
-The Supper According to John
-Babette’s Feast
-The Sacraments as the “Store” of God’s Kingdom

11. The Jesus Deed – The Gospel Unshrunk! -A Question -Jesus – A Counter-Revolutionary? -The Jesus Deed -And Your Church?

PART 3: The Evangelistic Life of the Church

12. Whither the Gospel? Reflections on Evangelism in the 21st Century -Our Triangle Revisited
-“Orthopodeo”
-The Double Focus of Evangelism
-Our New I. C. E. Age

13. And Now . . .? How We Evangelize and What We Call People To (1) -The Constructive Task
-Our Focal Image and the I. C. E. Age
-God’s Evangelical Counter-Revolutionary Movement
-Evangelism: Dialogue, Dignity, and Discernment

14. And So . . .? How We Evangelize and What We Call People To (2) -Recapping the Situation
-A Radical Alternative
-Loving the Truth
-What Does It Mean to be Male?
-Practice Resurrection!

Postscript: The Gospel is Way Better Than You Ever Imagined!

I'd love your feedback, observations, criticisms, etc.! Please feel free to comment.


The Incredible Shrinking Gospel