On Jesus Creed, (probably the best theology blog around) the awesome Scot McKnight often responds to letters from readers. My old friend OddBabble posted a comment a few days ago and now that I am back from the cultural Arctic circle that is Belfast, I can respond. She wrote on my post last week about vocation:
This is something I’ve been thinking about too but from a slightly different angle, so forgive me if I’m being tangential.
I have followed your advice of testing out what I feel I want to do and have found that I love and am good at, being a counsellor. The thing that is bugging me though, is that being a counsellor does not seem to do much to advance the gospel. I feel a burden to make the gospel known, but I hated being an evangelist as my job. Being a counsellor in the secular world prohibits me from talking about Jesus, so is that an immoral and irresponsible career to choose?
I’d be intersted in anyone’s thoughts on this.
OddBabble
I have some thoughts on this and maybe if I give it a post others will join in and help. But I think I need to formally propose that the idea that “advancing the Gospel” means verbally proclaiming the Gospel and nothing else is sub-Biblical. Culturally, there are quarters within the evangelical Christian church that have become so inward-turned that the Gospel means “going to heaven” or even worse, from a conference speaker I was listening to recently, “avoiding the wrath of God”. If nothing else, linguistically, the Gospel good news surely cannot take the form of the negative statement, “avoiding the wrath of God”.
When Jesus comes to announce his mission he speaks of the Gospel in remarkably social terms.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
It seems to me that the role of counsellor is smack-bam central in what it means to advance the Kingdom of God. The Biblical testimony across the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament is that the people of God are called to be a people who sincerely and truly live to honour others, since they are the artwork of God. The restorative mission of a counsellor is a much needed ministry in our world and it flows perfectly into the grand culmination of the Gospel that we find in Revelation when Jesus will say, “Behold! I make all things new!” At that time, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” The Kingdom will have come fully. No one could seriously say, with this in mind, that counselling cannot be a colony of that Kingdom ahead of its full arrival. It is a completely moral and utterly responsible career to choose. You get to spend your days bringing the healing that the Bible speaks of to bear in people’s lives. And in the context of friendships with co-workers and others you have the freedom to share the Gospel in word and in deed.
That by the way, shows people they need not be alienated from God far better than simply telling everyone we meet that they have to repent and believe.
Your Correspondent, Tightens his belt by cutting out past-tense from his grammar.
I may be misinterpreting Michael Horton’s Christless Christianity, but in it he seems to make the point that the gospel is pretty much exclusively news…good news, even. That is, it is made up of words. His point is that if there is no proclamation of the gospel then the essence of the gospel is lost. He even disses St Francis of Assisi’s well-loved catchphrase “Preach the gospel, and if necessary use words”!
I agree almost entirely with the above post, but I’m just wondering about the relationship between the gospel and the kingdom. I understand that the kingdom of God is manifested in healing – spiritual, psychological and physical – and so of course counseling is an extremely noble tool which God uses to bring His kingdom to earth. However, if there is no gospel proclamation to go with the manifestation, aren’t the good results only temporary?
To use a rather lame, crude analogy, it’s like buying a drink for a random girl at a bar, getting the bartender to deliver it, but then him forgetting to tell the girl who the drink came from….or something. The good deed is done, but its source gets no recognition. Jesus seemed pretty intent on letting His sources be known – “If by the Spirit of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you”.
In short, my question is can the kingdom being manifested and the gospel advancing be unrelated, or since the gospel is a gospel about the kingdom is this impossible? Are the two intrinsically linked?
damn…I don’t think any of what I have said makes sense.
I am struggling to make sense of it Dec. But maybe I can bounce something back at you and then that might help clarify.
1. Proclamation is important but it is not the only aspect of “Gospel work”
2. The Kingdom, I think, is the Gospel. Jesus surely is somewhere close to that when he announces himself, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand”
3. Don’t be a chicken and have the bartender do the work. Go talk to the girl yourself. 🙂
I think I was just wondering if true “Gospel work” can be done without gospel proclamation. In Romans 10:14ff Paul seems to be saying that our proclamation and people’s subsequent “hearing” is not only an important part of gospel work, but it is an absolutely necessary part of gospel work.
I’m just not sure I’d equate the kingdom and the gospel, but I see where you’re coming from. My current understanding is that the gospel is something which needs to be heard; specifically, it’s the good news about Christ. I don’t see proclamation as the only aspect of gospel work, but if news isn’t heard then what is its ultimate use? I’ll have to think about it some more though…
By the way, thanks for the advice in #3. You have NO idea how much money and disappointment you are saving me.
News points to reality. The “news” of say, a nuclear non-proliferation pact, is just an announcement pointing towards an actual set of events in time and space. The Good News points towards this actual reality- the Lordship of Christ.
And Dec! I have never ever suggested that verbal explanation of the Gospel is not Gospel work! But the work of advancing the Kingdom is to be done by communities of believers that us old fashioned people call churches. So my dear friend OddBabble doesn’t have to represent every aspect of the task of the church- she just has to play her role, serve her bodily function to get all Pauline on you.
– Kevin (who has used up all his evangelese language quota for the day)
Wow, I’m so excited to have a whole post dedicated to me! Thanks so much for taking the time to think about it and reply.
I have to admit that my response to it was the same as Dec’s and I think his analogy of the drink for the girl at the bar is a good one. Yes, it is worth something to bring someone psychological healing and relationship which comes from good counselling, but if my client doesn’t know that it is Jesus-enabled love I am offering, how am I any more kingdom-building than a non-Christian counsellor?
I know you have answered Dec’s similar questions, but I don’t think I understood your answers. Could you try again in language an OddBabble could understand?
I get what you’re saying in terms of the body of Christ – not all are called to be evangelists by vocation. But if I am an undercover kingdom builder, am I a kingdom builder at all?
OddBabble
But?!
If we functioned by this bizarre reasoning, there would be no value in being a surgeon, or a teacher, or a farmer, or any number of other essential roles.
Verbal proclamation of the gospel is a necessary part of the Christian life. But it’s not the only part. By being a counsellor you are in fact practising what you preach Steph.
OK, I’ve continued the discussion on my own blog….