Beyond Evangelical | The Blog of Frank Viola

January 27, 2012 in Mission with 3 Comments

Unveiling Christ

After reading Deep Ecclesiology, Jesus Manifesto, or Finding Organic Church, numerous young men who are in ministry have asked me the following question:

“Frank, you talk a lot about preaching Jesus Christ as opposed to preaching ‘things.’ This really resonates. I’ve never heard you speak yet, so can you give me examples from your own preaching of what ‘preaching Christ’ looks and sounds like?”

I’m posting my answer here as I believe it will be of interest to many of you. What follows are five examples. Each message seeks to unveil the staggering glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. The messages are also available on iTunes, Mp3 download, via Google Reader, RSS feed, etc. Just look at the top left-hand side after you click on each link.

Epic Jesus: The Christ You Never Knew

Diary of a Desperate Samaritan Woman: Telling the Story Differently

Remember Peter: Rethinking the Love Christ

Living by the Indwelling Life of Christ

The Eternal Purpose of God in Christ

On a related note, I’ve had many conversations with preachers (and teachers) in which they’ve complained that they often “run out” of things to preach. And thus they’re always on the look-out for new “sermon material.” Continue Reading…

January 26, 2012 in Rethinking with 22 Comments

Rethinking the Gospel

As a young Christian, I was taught that the gospel is a plan—”the plan of salvation.” Some Bible teachers used to frame that plan into “Four Spiritual Laws” and “The Romans Road.”

In the first-century Roman world, however, the word “gospel” was used to describe the announcement that a new emperor had taken the throne. “Heralds” would be “sent” throughout the Roman Empire to announce this “good news.”

Their message was, “We have a new emperor. His name is Tiberius Caesar, adjust your life and bow the knee.” Interestingly, the Roman emperor was also called “Savior” and “Lord” and was regarded as the one who would establish “peace” in the Empire.

In addition, the Roman emperor was expected to bring justice, peace, prosperity, and blessings to the world. He was also called “Pontifex Maximus” which means “chief priest.” The Romans also believed that when an emperor ascended into heaven, he was enthroned as being divine. Thus the emperor (at his death) was also called “son of God.” Continue Reading…

January 25, 2012 in Reviews with 38 Comments

Rob Bell

Whatever one wishes to say about Rob Bell, he’s a marketing genius [Frankie V. tips hat to Robbie B]. Last year, Bell wrote a monster best-seller on the subject of hell called Love Wins. He set it off with a masterful “bait-and-hook” video trailer. The bait was taken, and the book caught fire . . . both kinds!

I have gone on record saying that if you’re a Christian author and you want to sell a non-fiction bestseller, you’d be wise to write on one of three topics: (1) Hell (2) Heaven (3) Christians are Too Lukewarm – They Aren’t Doing Enough to Preach the Gospel, To Make Disciples, To Make the World a Better Place – So They Need to Get Off Their Lazy Duffs and Get to Work (that title is a tad long, but you get the idea).

Write a book on those topics and you’ll have a very good chance at hitting the NY Times Bestseller List.

I’m being cereal. Dead cereal.

Anyways . . . since the release of Rob Bell’s book on hell, many have asked me what I thought about the controversial volume. (I’m always surprised by questions like that since [cough] hell isn’t one of my passions or specialties.) Continue Reading…

January 24, 2012 in Rethinking with 17 Comments

Beyond Evangelical: Part III

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

My interview with N.T. Wright yesterday added some spice to our present series. Since the last post in this series, there have been some interesting reactions around the blogosphere. Consequently, I’d like to do two things in this post. First, highlight someone’s comment from last week. Second, interact with some of the other remarks I’ve received.

A Comment Worth Underscoring

I was encouraged to read so many insightful comments on the posts I’ve published since my return to blogging. So many of them were excellent and helpful. But there was one in particular that stood out. It was from Jonathan Cottrell. He wrote it in response to Beyond Evangelical: Part II. Here’s what he said:

Christ is all. My wife and I have been having a conversation of late that revolves around how people would summarize their faith in one word. That one word speaks more than a thousand words, if you ask me. I imagine that the groups would summarize as:

Group 1 [Systemtizers]: “Grace” or “Truth”
Group 2 [Activists]: “Love” or “Mission”
Group 3 [Emoters]: “Spirit” or “Power”
Group 4: [Beyond Evangelicals] “Jesus” or “Christ”

Is there any word that should summarize our common faith than His Name? I think not. Continue Reading…

January 23, 2012 in Reviews with 21 Comments

N.T. Wright

Today, I’m featuring N.T. Wright on the blog. This interview fits in nicely with our series on Beyond Evangelical. But first, a little context.

My favorite New Testament scholar of the 20^th century was the British scholar F.F. Bruce. Bruce was a “bright and shining light” in 20^th century evangelicalism. He was prolific, churning out high quality work year after year. He had the rare ability to write academic books as well as popular (accessible) books. Bruce’s specialty was Jesus and Paul.

F.F. Bruce also understood the importance of chronology in New Testament studies. Consequently, he published a translation of the New Testament that put all of Paul’s letters in chronological order. (Yes – cough — F.F. Bruce was a major inspiration for me. Hence, I credit him in my Untold Story of the New Testament Church.)

In addition, Bruce was a powerful apologist, substantiating the historicity of the Gospels in the face of 20^th century liberalism. To top it off, F.F. Bruce was a capable theologian as well as a New Testament exegete (a rare combination).

Enter N.T. Wright. Another British evangelical scholar.

N.T. Wright is the 21^st century equivalent to F.F. Bruce. What Bruce did for evangelicalism in the modern world, Wright is doing for evangelicalism in the postmodern world. Continue Reading…

January 22, 2012 in Writing with 9 Comments

The Artist’s Favorite Work

“The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.” ~ Piet Mondrian

Anyone who is an artist – whether a writer, speaker, musician, painter, photographer, designer, sculptor, etc. – doesn’t view all of their art through the same lens. Artists have favorites.

In that connection, some people have asked which of my books I consider to be my favorite. That is, my best and most important contributions.

Whenever I’ve answered this question, it has surprised many people. In most cases, I discover later that they’ve only read one or two of my books . . . the ones that aren’t on my “best/favorite” list.

Since I keep getting this question, I thought I’d just answer the question here and now. That way, when someone asks it again, I can simply point them to this blog post (‘tis one of the wonderful assets of blogging!).

In addition, I want to ask the same question to those of you who are artists also. Continue Reading…

January 21, 2012 in Writing with 22 Comments

How to Read Long Blog Posts

Perhaps a more accurate title for this post would be, “How I Read Long Blog Posts.”

It’s very simple. Perhaps so simple that maybe taking up bandwidth to address it isn’t worth the effort. However, I somehow feel that this post is going to help a few people. If it does, let me know in the comments, would you? I’d be curious.

For starters, I never read long posts online. While some people “scan” long blog posts, I don’t like doing that. There are two reasons:

(1) I don’t want to miss anything that’s of value in a post. If I scan something online, I’ll undoubtedly miss something. Perhaps a lot.

(2) If I comment on the post, I want to accurately understand what the author wrote before I make a remark. I’ve noticed that some people have missed important points in some of my posts because they scanned them. Their comments made this evident. I don’t want to make the same mistake. Continue Reading…

January 20, 2012 in Writing with 0 Comments

Advice for Bloggers

25 Tips for Bloggers: Established, New, and Pondering

I started blogging in 2008. Almost a decade before that, some of my friends tried to persuade me to start blogging. But I resisted.

My reason: I didn’t have enough time.

Well, I still don’t have enough time, yet I’ve managed to blog for over three years now. And looking back, I wish I had heeded my friends’ advice and started earlier. My bad.

You see, I love blogging. In fact, I enjoy it more than writing books. It’s far less tedious, takes less time, and affords instant feedback.

I also view it as a major way of influencing people with my message on the deeper Christian life. It’s not quite as powerful a tool of influence as a book or a spoken message, but it’s close.

While I’m still learning the craft, I’ve discovered some valuable tips about the art of blogging that I’d like to share with you. They are . . . Continue Reading…

January 18, 2012 in Rethinking with 53 Comments

Beyond Evangelical: Part II

“All labels have their problems, and, to be sure, ‘evangelical’ is fraught with them. But I am not giving it up.”

~ Roger Olson

As I pointed out in the first post of this series, the center of evangelicalism is collapsing. Countless evangelical Christians are moving to the left or to the right. Namely, they are moving toward liberalism or they are moving toward high church or low church traditions. They are moving toward individualism or communitarianism.

In this post, we will briefly survey the four major streams within evangelicalism with an eye to Christians in their 20s, 30s, and 40s – often called Mosaics and Busters or Generation X and Generation Y (Millennials).

My analysis is based on what I’ve observed in my extensive travels worldwide, speaking in a variety of conferences represented by the different streams (wherein I’ve interacted with the other speakers and attendees), and corresponding with thousands of evangelical Christians in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Continue Reading…

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