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The Pioneer Gift: redefining sin


Last year I conducted some research for my final year dissertation at college.  I wanted to find out whether people coming to Christian faith today saw themselves as sinners in need of forgiveness from God, or whether other factors were more significant in their faith journey.  The message of forgiveness is often seen to be at the heart of the Christian faith; evangelical Christians in particular emphasise the fact that 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God'.  The cross of Jesus Christ removes our sin and leaves us free to commune with the God who loves us.

This script, so familiar to those from a particular stream of Christian spirituality, doesn't always make much sense to those who have never been to church, however.   As an evangelist I wonder: who am I to tell people that they're guilty and need to ask for forgiveness from God?  If they don't feel guilty, why should they ask to be forgiven?  Is it my duty as a Christian evangelist to make people feel guilty so they do seek forgiveness?  Does the message of Jesus have to be bad news before it's good news?

In my chapter, a heavily edited version of my dissertation, I share the results of my research and offer some suggestions for mission to 'sinless' people.  I argue that 'sin' is a much broader and deeper problem than the petty 'sins' Christians have sometimes listed and it can be defined in ways which might be more familiar to people who don't feel guilty.  At its simplest, for example, sin could be thought of as the absence of a loving relationship with God.  Rather than the presence of wickedness, for some perhaps sin is the absence of someone without whom they cannot be whole.

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