From the preface to the 2nd edition of my first book, the (un)offensive gospel of Jesus.
Five years ago I returned to a place I vowed I’d never return: my hometown, Grand Rapids, MI. Five years prior I fled West Michigan to Washington D.C. as a newly graduated college student seeking fame and glory on Capitol Hill. Then after spending over four years working in the halls of Congress something interesting and unexpected happened: I was called home.
So, kicking and screaming, I returned back to a very different Grand Rapids. After being disconnected for nearly a decade between my university and D.C. days, I was surprised at the massive changes that had transformed my city, in both encouraging and not-so-encouraging ways.
I was encouraged by the new ethnic expressions in West Grand Rapids, all flavored by immigrants from South America and Africa. I was encouraged by the new underground and above ground art movements in our city (one word: ArtPrize!). And I was encouraged by a general openness to diversity of opinions and expressions in our community.
As I found my way into the Church of West Michigan, however, I began to notice a whole new set of changes that were incredibly discouraging. I was discouraged that a whole generation of people who came into the Church through the front door during childhood have seemingly left out the back post-high school and beyond. I was discouraged by a new movement in the Church called the Emergent Church Movement to re-imagine every aspect of the historic Christian faith, insisting we need a new kind of Christianity, a Christianity worth believing where, in the end, love ultimately wins. I was also discouraged with the rampant consumerism that’s gripped the rest of our culture and has also made its way into almost every crevice of the American Church.
After beginning a three-year seminary program and position at a church just outside the city two questions kept surfacing as I waded through these disappointing changes in the West Michigan Church: Who is the Jesus we’re showing? What is the Story we’re telling? Of course, “we” being the Church, particularly the Church in West Michigan.
I began asking myself who exactly is the Jesus we are showing people? And, perhaps more importantly, who is the Jesus people are seeing? I believe the Church is in some way responsible for both what we show and what people see. If Jesus is what people have been waiting for their whole lives, whether they know it or not, why are people fleeing the very expression and continuing presence of Jesus, the Church?
I also wondered what Story we the Church are telling and what Story people are hearing. If the gospel is the magical, revolutionary, transforming Story of God on mission from the beginning to rescue humanity and re-create the world, if that’s the good news of God in Jesus Christ then why aren’t more people running to it to be put back together again? Shouldn’t it strike the West Michigan Church that people find many other stories more compelling than the one entrusted to us? And what exactly is that story, the one that’s been told for almost two thousand years, the one entrusted once and for all to God’s holy people to steward and share?
These were the questions pulsing through my soul for over a year after returning to my hometown, questions that led me to write the (un)offensive gospel of Jesus. I thought writing it would help me flesh out my own answers to these important questions, and perhaps help some other people in the Church better understand how to show good Jesus and tell His hopeful Story. It was what I like to call raw art: “art” in that it was this creative expression of some weighty, important ideas; “raw” in that it was somewhat unrefined and preliminary thoughts, while also honest and authentic thoughts. I am thankful that it has been well received and hopeful that it has sparked several conversations in churches around West Michigan, and even America, to help Christians better understand what it means to show Jesus and tell God’s magical, revolutionary Story of Rescue well.
Four years later I’m still wrestling with these questions about showing and telling after I originally wrote this book, and I still believe that the Church of West Michigan should be asking them in earnest. That’s why I’m re-releasing it with some tweaks to my original manuscript and a whole lot of questions added to help groups of Christians wrestle through the ideas. This updated book is basically the same as the original one. But it is more precise with the language I use to express some of my ideas, less confusing in areas, clearly directed to a Christian audience, and more polished. It’s still raw art, just more refined raw art.
My hope is that the (un)offensive gospel of Jesus would continue to help drive a conversation, particularly in my hometown of West Michigan, about how the Church is showing Jesus and telling His hopeful Story. I hope that you and your church or group of Christian friends would find this conversation starter helpful as you consider how you and your own expression of the Body of Christ are showing good Jesus and telling His hopeful Story of Rescue.
Jeremy Bouma
Grand Rapids • June 2012
Copyright © 2012 Jeremy Bouma
