Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Vilonia, Arkansas visiting a Good News Club held in the local elementary school there. This club is one of my favorites (if not my favorite) and I love visiting with the kids and staff.
The main teacher is a older gentleman, a bit rough around the edges, but extremely lovable. He and his wife have been involved with CEF since before I was alive. His way of teaching is...interesting, to say the least, but the kids are learning and they do love coming to club.
Have you ever noticed the great penchant for cheesiness in American Christianity? I have. Yesterday during club we sang an old CEF song which, thankfully, has been laid to rest. One of the lines in the song went something like this: "so we travel this world together, my Bible and I...". As we sang that line I immediately pictured myself driving down the road chillaxing, with a giant Bible sitting next to me in the passenger's seat. In my mental picture, the Bible had hands and feet, like something akin to Psalty the Singing Songbook. I had to laugh.
For me, one of the best things about working with CEF has been the fact that it has pushed me outside of my "theological comfort zone". I've gotten to know some very wonderful people with some very different views of Scripture than mine. Yesterday after club I ran across this thought in a John Piper book:
In times of peril, a bringer of news is better than great philosophers. Nor does it matter if his accent is good. Or his grammar. Or his looks. If he has good news for beleaguered people, he will be more treasured than ten thousand theologians. Plain people who have heard the news and been saved by it should take heart from this. People need news first. Hard questions can be answered later. We need joyful, breathless news-bringers, not just intelligent news commentators.
As Piper says: "Christianity is news before it is theology". He goes on to remind us that, of course, we need both: the good news of the gospel, and the theology which explains that good news and applies it to our lives. But, oh, let's not forget that the good news came first! I don't remember the first time I heard the gospel, but I do remember the first time I comprehended it as good news for me. It was a glorious moment.
God continues to humble me and to remind me that it's not about the fitness of the message-bearer (whether that be me or another), but instead, it's all about the message - His message - of good news.
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