Saturday, February 25, 2012

An evangelism course for Doug Campbells "Deliverance of God"

Over the last week I've been reading through Douglas Campbell's "The Deliverance of God", and, at the same time, been teaching Sydney University Evangelical Union's "Leading People to Christ" course.

Doug Campbell takes a look at 'Justification Theory', the way we often describe the gospel, showing both it's conceptual flaws and scriptural problems. While reading Campbell, I've been struck again by how brilliant the LPC course is, as it 1. construes sin as both victimhood and agency and 2. Allows the focus of the gospel to be deliverance and 3. places judgement at the end.

In fact, a large part of Campbells massive book (and the slightly overreaching part too!), could simply be summed up by one footnote in LPC
"It is these theological insights, namely, that God's fundamental orientation towards human beings is love, that the primary enemies of God are evil, sin and death, and that God's judgement is only secondarily against human beings, which has determined the structure of the Leading people to Christ course"

My hunch is that lots of people will feel the pressure of Campbell's book, but will revert to JT when they have to teach evangelism simply, because there is no other option. Take a look at LPC

(That said, LPC doesn't match entirely to Campbells perspective, which is probably good too)

6 comments:

Matthew Moffitt said...

You've used LPC a couple of times now, you should post a review.

Mike W said...

Well, this is the start of one.
I don't know why you/they don't publish it, it really is a game changer.

I just did 'dark days' with the group at church, and yo could fell the liberation as they were able to put the pieces together, and able to speak of evil in a way that was rigorous, but not all about guilt tripping, fantastic!

BJ said...

I'd love to get my hands on it!

Mike W said...

Hi BJ,
I emailed the Eu, and they sent me an electronic copy.
Their only stipulation was that I keep acknowledging the EU as the writers of the course,something I"m more than happy to do.
Perhaps you could fire them an email, or alternatly, give me yours
Mike

Matthew Moffitt said...

More info about contacting the EU Grads Fund and their courses here.

byron smith said...

As I understand it, it was published a few years ago. That doesn't mean it is still easily available...