Friday, November 13, 2009

A Question About Francis Schaeffer

Jerram Barrs spent many years working alongside Francis Schaeffer at L'brie. During one of our sessions today we were given the chance to ask him questions about this experience.

One of the questions was: How did Schaffer navigate between Kingdom work and Kingdom proclamation?

In short, Jerram said that this is a false dichotomy. It's like asking, "Which one should you do, preach the gospel or love your wife?" Answer? Yes. Both. You can't separate them.

He emphasized the fact that if you place these two (for example, communicating the Gospel over and against social justice) you tend to forget one. You'll always leave one out or under emphasize one. The Gospel and the implications of the Gospel should always be married. We are a people of word and deed and these should never be separated or placed in a hierarchy.

Toward this end, he emphasized the need to understanding the whole of the Biblical storyline. If we fail to set all of our preaching and living in light of the grand narrative of scripture we'll usually fail in our calling as Christians. For example, the cultural mandate always has the work of redemption in mind and the work of redemption always has implications for the way we live in the world.

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