Renewing the Great Commission

"Self-salvation is the goal of much of our preaching," according to United Methodist bishop William Willimon. Willimon perceives that much of contemporary preaching, whether mainline or evangelical, assumes that conversion is something that we generate through our own words and sacraments. "In this respect we are heirs of Charles G.Finney," who thought that conversion was not a miracle but a "purely philosophical [i.e., scientific] result of the right use of the constituted means.'"

Nevertheless, "The homiletical future, alas, lay with Finney rather than Edwards." "Alas," adds Willimon, "most 'evangellistic' preaching I know about is an effort to drag people even deeper into their subjectivity rather than an attempt to resuce them from it." Willimon observes that our real problem, whether we feel it or not, is that we systematically distort and ignore the truth. This is why we need "an external word." "So in a sense, we don't discover the gospel, it discovers us. ' You did not choose me but I chose you' (John 15:16)." Willimon conclues, "The story is euangelion, good news, because it is about grace. Yet it is also news because it is not common knowledge, not what nine out of ten average Americans already know. Gospel doesn't come naturally. It comes as Jesus."

- by Michael Horton