Gospel Relevance: Traditional, Seeker, or Emergent?

Darryl Dash has another interesting post on differences between the "Traditional," "Seeker" sensitive and "Emergent" church models. - link at Darryl's Blog: Traditional, seeker, or emergent?. In the post he referenced Dan McDonald from Grace Toronto Church in Toronto, Canada. I found this material very interesting.

If traditional, seeker, and emerging models aren't the answer, what is? The answer goes deeper than a model.

We have to assume, MacDonald says, that our culture - including our church culture - knows almost nothing about the gospel. Unlike seeker models, we can't assume that people want to come to church no matter how much we market, or how much we change our worship services.

Unlike traditional models, we must contextualize. We must learn how people around us think, reading the same books and discovering the cultural influences in their lives. We must also discover the alternate beliefs that rival Christianity, and learn how to winsomely deconstruct these defeater beliefs.

Those who follow Christ and those who don't have a lot in common, MacDonald says. We are all tempted to make someone or something other than God supreme in our lives. We all need to learn how this leads to disappointment and enslavement, and then look to Christ for our ultimate identity and true freedom. The gospel is relevant to both the Christian and the person who knows nothing about Christianity.