The Surprising God

This post from  Grace Communion Seminary faculty member Ted Johnston explores the Trinitarian approach to pastoral care advocated by the Torrance brothers. All three view pastoral care as Spirit-led participation in Jesus' ongoing ministry to and through his Body, the church. This post is excerpted from one of Ted's lectures in his GCS Practice of Ministry course. Jesus Healing the Sick (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Andrew Root after him, emphasize that Jesus Christ, the ascended incarnate Son of God, through the Holy Spirit, ministers personally---sharing the place of every person. As pastoral ministers, we are called to be place-sharers with Jesus . We do so by helping people encounter Jesus Christ who is present already with them in healing ways. We offer this assistance by proclaiming to people the Word of God (the apostolic gospel)---a proclamation made in multiple ways, both verbal and non-verbal. We find helpful instruction...

This post excerpts a lecture from  Grace Communion Seminary faculty member Randy Bloom, given in his Church Planting and Development course . It addresses an approach to evangelism grounded in and shaped by incarnational Trinitarian theology.  Jesus teaching (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) To evangelize is to proclaim the gospel In the New Testament, to evangelize ( euaggelizó in Greek) means to announce the gospel ( euangelion in Greek). Evangelism is about proclaiming the good news that in and through Jesus Christ, the Father has reconciled all people to himself, thus including all people in his love and life. The gospel tells us that no one is predetermined to eternal alienation from God because Jesus, through his representative-substitutionary human life, has offered to the Father every perfect, obedient human response, thus restoring right relationship between God and all humanity. The message of the gospel then invites people to respond to this good...

Grace Communion International (GCI) teaches that God, in and through Jesus Christ, has reconciled all people to himself---forgiving them and including them in his love and life . Is this a doctrine of u niversalism? Dr. Gary Deddo, President of Grace Communion Seminary, answers below. Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son" (public domain) It's about a personal relationship! To understand how and why GCI's doctrine of salvation is not universalism, it's important to note that GCI views salvation as involving a personal relationship between two subjects--God and humans . Though both subjects must be accounted for, the primary one (and the source of the saving relationship) is the triune God who acts toward humans on the basis of grace. This understanding aligns with many passages of Scripture, including these: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16, ESV); “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:19, ESV);...

Can those who have never heard the gospel in this life, hear and receive it after death? Grace Communion Seminary (GCS) faculty member Dr. Gary Deddo answers by explaining how Grace Communion International (GCI) approaches the topic of postmortem evangelism and conversion. "The Good Shepherd," stained glass window (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) First, let's be reminded that the nature, character and purposes of our Triune God, as revealed to us in Jesus Christ, are foundational to our faith. We believe that all people are created according to the image of Jesus Christ. Further, we believe Jesus is Lord and Savior of all---he died for all and God does not want any to perish. These foundational truths are explicitly declared in the New Testament by Jesus and his appointed witnesses. On the basis of these truths, GCI teaches that God will do everything to draw all to himself and enable them to receive all he has for them through Jesus Christ. Understandably...

The church proclaims the gospel by helping people, via Word and Sacrament , encounter Jesus, the living good news of God. In earlier posts, we saw what Trinitarian theologians have written about baptism and the Lord's Supper . Now we'll look at what they have written concerning preaching. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem" by Tissot (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) Thomas F. (TF) Torrance According to TF (in  Gospel, Church, and Ministry ), preaching Christ is both an evangelical and a theological activity, for it is the proclamation and teaching of Christ as he actually is presented to us in the Holy Scriptures. In the language of the New Testament, preaching Christ involves kerygma and didache —it is both a kerygmatic and a didactic activity. It is both evangelical and theological. (p. 220) Faithful, effective preachers are thus both theologians and evangelists—concerned about Jesus Christ’s being and his doing, or as John Calvin often said, presenting “Christ ...

This post explores the profound Christ-centered, Trinitarian meaning of the Lord's Supper as presented by theologians Thomas F. Torrance,  Daniel Migliore  and James B. Torrance. For a related post on baptism, click here ; for one on the sacraments in pastoral ministry, click here . "The Communion" by Velázquez (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) Thomas F. (TF) Torrance In Gospel, Church, and Ministry   (Jock Stein, Ed.), TF says this concerning the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper: It is at Holy Communion above all that we see Christ face to face and handle things unseen and feed upon his body and blood by faith. It is there in the real presence of Christ that we grasp something of the wonder of the Savior’s love and redeeming sacrifice, and understand that it is not our faith in Christ that counts but his vicarious life and sacrifice, his redeeming life and death that count. It is at Holy Communion when the bread and wine are put into our hands, ...

In this post we'll look at how three Trinitarian theologians address the sacrament of baptism. All three understand baptism to be a proclamation that we have been saved by Jesus Christ alone and not through our own repentance and faith. All three view baptism as a participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus, in which our old selves have been crucified and renounced in Christ and we have been freed from the shackles of the past and given new being through his resurrection. For all three, baptism proclaims the good news that Jesus has made us his own, and that it is only in him that our new life of faith and obedience emerges. Baptism of Christ (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) Migliore on baptism In Faith Seeking Understanding , Daniel Migliore calls baptism "the sacrament of initiation into life in Christ," noting that "it marks the beginning of the journey of faith and discipleship that lasts throughout one’s life" (p. 282). He finds auth...