Have you ever put a puzzle together? Have you tried doing so without the box, or a picture to guide you? More about that in a minute…
I am more convinced than ever that we in the West have lost the metanarrative, the overarching story of Christianity. Because so many of us have been raised in church, steeped in the faith, we have lost focus on the big picture in our efforts to do ministry. As a result we have too often turned the Bible into a reference book to search when we need a specific answer (or worse, a box of Cracker Jacks where we just search it to fine the “surprise” insight), which leads to preaching toward felt needs of the moment. We have increasingly lost the big picture of God’s redemptive plan and have as a result separated our “Christian” life (i.e. our church life) from the rest of life. Love Jesus and be moral, basically.
This has had an effect in culture as well. I read today in USA Today about how Barna has noted a growing interest in spirituality while charting a decline in church attendance. Less people see church as vital to their faith, and thus less see the great message of the gospel as relevant to their convictions. One young lady named Sheila actually called her faith “Sheilaism,” admitting she created it.
We have people in our churches every week doing the same thing, only they do not call it Sheilaism. They still call it Christianity.
We must in our gospel conversations with believers and unbelievers help them see reality, the big picture of what is going on in our world, how God is writing this amazing story in reality and how we can (and must) become a part of that story. In class yesterday I used a simple illustration of a puzzle to explain how we have to do more today than give a gospel presentation of the least amount of information possible. We have to help people develop a framework for their life that matches reality and helps them understand life. I believe the Story of the gospel does that. Perhaps this simple illustration can be helpful to you:
