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Recently I have been hosting an English club once a week. While in East Asia we planned English lessons with the intent of introducing the students to good Christian concepts. We rejoiced when a handful of the students accepted Jesus as their savior after the lesson on the “American holiday” of Easter. When I first began planning English lessons for L’viv, I began with that model. But this approach rung hollow and tinny in this city of ancient cathedrals and war/famine/dictator tested faith. My greatest need was to reevaluate the Gospel message I wished to share.

Personal salvation is not the gospel. It is the stepping stone to the gospel. The gospel includes everything that comes after personal salvation. The gospel is the transformation of the world.

In a culture where everyone seems to scream "look at me!" all day* we have reduced the gospel to its opening act - the one aspect that deals entirely on the personal (me) level. Every other facet of the gospel throws the spotlight away from ourselves and onto God and others. We have managed to turn the good news of Jesus Christ and His transformation of the world into a selfish grasp for attention.

There is this beautiful video of my first Christmas. The camera zooms in on an adorable toddler holding an over sized box and dad says, "Michael is about to open his first Christmas present ever." Like a fuzzy big-foot sighting, my sister Rebecca screams, "Look what I can do!" as she jumps in front of the camera. -- We are the ones who jump into the viewfinder while Christ quietly works in the background.

It is altogether necessary for the survival and advancement of the church that it gets the gospel right - that we, in the words of Landa Cope, whole heartedly take the whole Gospel to the whole world. If churches cannot move beyond the level of personal commitment to the idea of deity - and into the realm of the Kingdom of God - they are doomed to a listless existence of self-preservation.

More and more, I'm convinced that the only message worthy of being preached in the name of Jesus Christ is "Change the World." But I wonder how long a person can really preach this message of “change the world?” Jesus preached the message for 3 years before they killed him for it. Either you preach and fail and then burn out – or you preach and succeed and they kill you for it. I don't see too many other realistic options.

This is our faith - the good news does not call people to choose heaven over hell, the Gospel calls us to choose Christ over ourselves, death over life, and reckless abandon over comfort.

If you think Jesus wants your home to have more bathrooms than people (and it's not functioning as a homeless shelter)then we haven't been reading the same accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus. Jesus wants your stuff to matter less every day and the homeless people to matter more.

I can no longer, in good faith, preach a message of personal salvation. In no way do I reject this idea - I believe fully that personal salvation is necessary - I simply believe it to be insufficient compared to the entirety of the Gospel. In order to be faithful to my call I can only preach "Change the World."

* Yes, I fully grasp the irony of complaining about the "me" generation from my personal blog - from which I write to make sure everyone knows what I think about everything.