Territorial Bloggings

Now that I’ve finally finished watching & taking notes on all 15 talks in the ALPHA DVD set, the next step is processing those notes into a more cogent & thoughtful format for your consumption. As I continue to do that, I thought I’d put a little teaser out, particularly after I listened to the first hour of Issues, Etc. on 9/11 (Listener Email & Issues, Etc. Comment Line)

Starting at 38:04, emailer Joshua from Tuscon, AZ brought up a great point, related to an earlier discussion about Gospel Reductionism, that dovetailed amazingly well with something that I observed in ALPHA. He posited that, in Evangelical circles, Gospel Reductionism takes the form of “Relational” or “Relationship” Theology.

“Jesus wants to have a relationship with you, and that relationship is the first and most important need in people.” “This is a potent form of Gospel Reductionism.”

(Paraphrasing…) Further, under a “Gospel of Relationships,” the need to differentiate from others (key to the Puritan heritage of Evangelicalism) manifests itself in lifestyle – i.e., the desire to look and act like a Christian, complete with all the markers brought down from Puritanism (no drinking, no questioning authority, no condemnation of non-sanctioned things, etc…) so as to be able to tell who’s in & who’s out.

Recently, however, among 2nd Generation, “Relational” Evangelicals (Rick Warren, the Emergent/Emerging crowd, etc…) there is a tendency to rail against legalism, such that judgments & strong statements/stances (against, say, homosexual marriage/clergy, etc…) are no longer held in as much favor as differentiating markers. (End Paraphrasing)

The linkage to ALPHA is this: This type of “Relational Theology” and “Gospel of Relationships” is very much in line with ALPHA and what it teaches. IOW, ALPHA is quite consistent, both in how it confesses the “Relationship Gospel”, and how it applies & espouses it throughout the whole course.

More details will, of course, be forthcoming, but I can (perhaps too) succinctly summarize ALPHA in the following PRO & CON statements…

PRO: It is internally consistent in hewing to it’s core principles throughout the course.

CON: It is of a different spirit/gospel than Sacramental, Christocentric, Christianity.

-ghp