I gave two talks in Seattle, but I want to summarize what I said in my talk on Saturday. My talk was about “mistakes missional gospel folks need to avoid.”
What is the gospel? I gave a little summary of the “Lukan thread” — Mary’s Magnificat and Zechariah’s Benedictus and Jesus’ inaugural sermon (Luke 1 and Luke 4) — then I suggested a few mistakes we need to avoid:
1. Avoid beginning with the story of the Fall; begin with humans as Eikons in Genesis 1 before we get to the “cracked Eikons” of Genesis 3.

2. Avoid skipping from Genesis 3 to Romans 3: the story of covenant, Israel, and Law are inherent to the story of God.
3. Avoid thinking all problems are solved on Good Friday: we need the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to resolve the problem of the “cracked Eikon.”
4. Avoid defining sin as merely guilt for offending law; sin is rebellion against God manifested in four directions — against God, self, others, and the external world.
5. Avoid thinking convincing of guilt comes before casting the kingdom vision of Jesus.
6. Avoid rooting the gospel in a God of anger and wrath instead of rooting the gospel in the perichoretic Trinitarian God who seeks to draw us into that dance.
7. Avoid resolving the problem in one direction — with God — instead of resolving the problem in all four directions.