The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It

by Jamin Goggin

Before he answered, John finally took a sip of the cold cola that had made a sizable water ring on the glass table. “The question we have to ask is, ‘Does the gospel, as we currently preach it, have the power to deal with racism?’ The evangelical church, whose basic theology is the same as mine, had not continued to preach the whole gospel. But I was convinced that we ought to preach the fullness of the truth and expect the power of the gospel. Reconciliation is an ongoing process, but it comes out of the gospel; it should not be taken out and dissected, but believed. That is the effect of the full truth of the gospel, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,21 and has given us this ongoing proclamation of the gospel. That’s the story. That’s the longing. That God would come and live among us—Immanuel. Reconciliation is the display of that power that is really at work.”