Right answers, wrong questions?

So, I'm pondering the whole question of the gospel still, as I continue to prepare for Sunday. To be honest it's got me a little foxed. I know what I'm expected to say, and I know what I want to say that may be unexpected, but bringing the two together in a way that is meaningful and helpful to everyone in church who hasn't been thinking about this for days, and reflecting on it for a long time, is quite a job.

This drew me to cast my eye across my over-full bookcases to see if there was anything there that might help me shape my thoughts more coherently. As I scanned I came across a book called The Provocative Church by Graham Tomlin and I started to read. Originally I bought the book for Ally last Easter because I thought it might engage her mind. She'd not long read Shane Claiborne's book, the title of which escapes me, and enjoyed that, so I thought this might be interesting to her. I promised I'd read it later, and now I was picking it up to give my mind space to think.

Within a few paragraphs I was hooked.

Here's one quote that caught my attention:

… he [the postmodern person], doesn’t sense a need for God to forgive him, teach him the truth, or to satisfy his curiosity about the origins of the universe. Instead, he needs something or someone who can help him learn how to give, to be kind and to love.

This is his reflection on a quote from Douglas Coupland's book Life after death, a book I cannot claim to have either read or heard about before. But the point is fascinating and begs a very very big question about the gospel we preach and the way it connects with the world we are trying to reach.

Now before I get in trouble for appearing to suggest we preach a different gospel, that is not the point towards which I'm travelling. I still preach and will continue to preach about the love, grace, mercy and forgiveness of God that can only be found through the cross of Jesus. But if I go up to the man or woman on the street and ask them a question like, "Can I tell you how to find forgiveness for your sin?" it's highly likely that they will not understand what I'm talking about or even consider it something they are in need of at this time.

If the postmodern person is actually looking for answers to a different set of questions, then maybe it's time to start with those questions rather than our preferred answers. And here's the rub. We might actually have to start living a quite different lifestyle in order to win the right to be heard.