Home  Resources Membership Class 1b. White paper on "Broadcast"
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1b. White paper on "Broadcast" |
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New Hope: What Are We Doing Here?
Why we use the Term “Broadcast” in the Vision Statement
It’s been a sleepless night for more than just me. I have hesitated to put hands to keys until we allowed reflection a little maturity. It has been strengthening and challenging to read everyone's input. All the comments have brought forth valuable insights. You have sharpened my thinking and refined the articulation of the statement for the better. Each recommended term has so much to offer in common and that which is unique to itself. What makes it hard is that we are choosing between excellent alternatives. I've gone back and forth now more times than I can count. To my mind these have emerged as the central matters that come to focus.
• "Proclaim" has the value of emphasizing the verbal nature of the gospel.
• "Radiate" has the value of carrying personal engagement.
• "Broadcast" has the value of pushing out the sense of mission.
All three are valuable for what they aver and what they avert; what they confirm and what they safeguard against. We are at one place right now in our development. Over the life of the church any one of them might be of best service. For, we must say the gospel, be the gospel, and spread the gospel. We need all three, but we can only choose one term.
After working the terms, isolated and in the statement, it came down to “broadcast” for me. It seemed to be better able to contain “proclaim” than the other way around. The elements brought by “radiate” could be hung upon “entirety of our lives.” It seemed almost over until a fourth word suggested itself, “magnify.” “New Hope Fellowship exists to magnify the majesty and mercy of God….”
I’m sure you will understand my immediate attraction to the term as it echoes in the ear what it seeks to accomplish in the mind. But, I labored to penetrate through style to what substance lay underneath. In that regard I found something critical. “Magnify” conveyed a central feature I had missed. The central feature in fact: “worship.” Above all things, we exist to worship God.
That settled the issue for me, but only temporarily. We seemed to be trading evangelism for worship. There was no sense any more that we are declaring praise before Godto men. I then attempted to add three words “to all people,” “New Hope Fellowship exists to magnify the majesty and mercy of God in the entirety of our lives, individual and corporate, to all people unto the coming kingdom of Christ.” This brought the added benefit of stating multiethnicity forthrightly. However, by the time you got to “to all people” I felt something had been lost. In the attempt to hit all points, the linear missional impulse was draining away in zig-zags.
In the end, and there was an end, the solution appeared back again in 1 Pet 2.9. We “declare the praises,” that is, we are created and redeemed to worship God, and true worship is evangelistic. It cannot help but be evangelistic. If worship is true it desire to bring others, and, if worship is true it cannot help but bring others. “Broadcasting the majesty and mercy of God” is to worship evangelistically and evangelistically worship. Returning to “broadcast” was anything but in vain. The cycle yielded critical clarifications, nothing less than worship itself.
I have sought to include all the elements elsewhere in the document. I did this not for appeasement sake, or all-inclusivity sake, but because each element gave the full glory to God. To Him, let us broadcast praise!
Edward |
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