BOOK: Walking with the Poor

I was reading Walking with the Poor on the bus this morning when I came across this quote:

“After all, God’s story is about more than saving souls. The biblical account has a more holistic view of salvation, seeking the restoration by grace alone of our relationships with God, with each other, and with God’s creation. While personal salvation through faith in Christ is the center of God’s concern, it is not the limit of God’s concern. If [storying the gospel] were made less narrow, so that God’s concern for people as productive stewards living in just and peaceful relationships could emerge alongside God’s concern for people living in right relationship with God, then we would have the full story in play.” (p. 234)

Last week I was reading the same book at the laundromat and read this paragraph:

“Tim Dearborn points out that evangelism is good news about a person, not just a set of propositions. The gospel invitation is to a relationship, not just intellectual assent or agreement to a set of ideas.” (p. 206) (Dearborn, Tim. 1997. Beyond Duty: A Passion for Christ. Monrovia, Calif.: MARC.)