Next week marks the 47th annual Pan American Lectureship. This year’s lectureship will be held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The lectureship has been described as a “movable spiritual feast” due to the fact that it moves each year from one location to another across Latin America. Its purpose is to call attention to the opportunities and challenges in Latin American mission work.
Yours truly is privileged to participate in this year’s lectureship with the assignment of guiding a textual study of Galatians each day. In my preparation, have gained a new appreciation of the book of Galatians as a “missions manual.” Galatians was the first book written about Christian mission work. It deals with a major concern of the early church: how does one communicate the gospel in a different world and culture? What does it mean to “change religions”? These and other questions cannot be handled effectively without inquiring about and understanding the essence (essentials) of the gospel.
Galatians deals with missions from a “Goldilocks perspective.” Paul writes in Galatians about the problem of a “too hard” gospel. He describes what one may call a “no gospel” gospel. He says there is a version of the gospel which is no gospel at all. At the other end of the spectrum is a “too soft” gospel which makes no demands at all. Paul holds out for the “just right” gospel that balances liberty and license.
[Additional notes which expand this subject are available on my Bible Index Page under the New Testament section.]