In case you haven’t seen it yet, Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola have written a document they’re calling “A Jesus Manifesto”. It has been creating some buzz around the web right now. At the very least, it is something good to consider, though I think it is more than that. It makes me think of Christ telling the church in Ephesus to remember their first love (Revelation 2:1-7).
I found it helpful to summarize the points made in the manifesto:
1. “The center and circumference of the Christian life is none other than the person of Christ.”
2. “Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his teachings.”
3. “God’s grand mission and eternal purpose in the earth and in heaven centers in Christ.”
4. “Being a follower of Jesus does not involve imitation so much as it does implantation and impartation.”
5. The human man named Jesus who lived here on earth during the first century is the same person through whom everything was created and who will rule over all for eternity.
6. “It’s possible to confuse “the cause” of Christ with the person of Christ.”
7. “Jesus Christ was not a social activist nor a moral philosopher.”
8. “It is possible to confuse an academic knowledge or theology about Jesus with a personal knowledge of the living Christ himself.”
9. “Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his church.”
10. “We, collectively, as the ekklesia of God, are Christ in and to this world.”
