Counterfeit Gospels wasn’t the book I initially wanted to write, but it’s now the book I’m glad I wrote.
The Development of a Book Idea
As I wrapped up work on Holy Subversion, I remember thinking: Well, Trevin, this is it! Your first and last book. There’s no way you could come up with enough material to write another book. Writing is hard work. You pour so much of yourself into a book that when you finish, you doubt you could ever do it again.
Over time, that feeling went away. About a year after I completed Holy Subversion, I got to work on a second proposal. My idea was to lead readers through twelve chapters of theology in a way that underscores the breathtaking beauty of Truth – particularly the truth of the gospel and the grand narrative of Scripture. I titled the idea Beautiful Truth, a concept based on a post I had written called “Truth is Beautiful.”
Several publishers liked the concept, but the consensus was that my sample chapter was focused so much on getting the “truth” component right that I had failed to make it exceedingly “beautiful”. So, I went back to my notepad and began working on a sample chapter that would magnify the beauty of the atonement. I worked hard to make the sample chapter more devotional and less didactic. (Parts of that chapter eventually were included in Counterfeit Gospels.)
A New Direction
At the end of the day, the editors at Moody were very intrigued by the proposal. After a lot of discussion, they passed on Beautiful Truth but offered a different idea – a book that describes counterfeit gospels in light of the beauty of the gospel.
I had mixed emotions at the thought of writing a book on counterfeit gospels. At one level, I was excited at the prospect of writing about the beauty of the biblical gospel. I had been collecting dozens of “gospel definitions” on my blog from Christians throughout church history. I was encouraged by the “gospel-centered” movement and the ongoing discussions about the gospel, particularly how kingdom, justification, Christ as Savior, Christ as Lord make up the good news at the heart of our faith.
At another level, I was a leery of writing a book that would be focused on what’s wrong with everybody else. I didn’t want to encourage the huddle mentality that says, “We’re the only faithful ones who’ve got a hold on the true gospel.” I don’t believe we ever completely get a hold on the true gospel; the most we can pray for is that the God of the gospel would get a hold on us. But I thought there might be a pastoral way to move forward.
Tweaking the Idea
The initial idea of “counterfeit gospels” was to examine at a scholarly level some of the errant views of the gospel circulating in the ivory-tower of evangelicalism. I wasn’t interested in writing that kind of book, since I was convinced others could tackle that problem better than me.
Instead, I wanted to do two things:
- First, I wanted this book to present a compelling view of the biblical gospel so that common counterfeits would be less attractive.
- Secondly, I wanted to deal with common counterfeits that are attractive to me and the people in my local church. I wanted to look deeply into our hearts and root out those counterfeits that tug at us in some way.
In other words, I didn’t want this book to be: “What’s wrong with everyone out there?” but “What counterfeits are affecting me in here, in my own heart and life?”
What are the counterfeits that we encounter on television, in bookstores, in conversation, in church? In short, I wanted the book to be pastoral in tone and intent.
The Central Idea: The Gospel as a Three-Legged Stool
In developing the central idea, I worked through my long list of gospel definitions. I read widely on the subject of “what is the gospel?” and studied how the word “gospel” is used in the New Testament.
Eventually, I began to see the contours of the truth at the heart of the book: the gospel as a three-legged stool. I’ll save the details of this proposal for a blog post next week. For now, the central idea can be summarized this way: the gospel is an announcement made in the context of a story, and the announcement births the community.
After doing the constructive work of seeing the gospel through the lens of story, announcement, and community, I set out to show how each counterfeit (I narrowed the list to six) focuses on one leg of that stool. My purpose in doing the constructive work before analyzing the counterfeits was so that we might be gripped by the true gospel in a way that exposes the flaws and faults of the counterfeits and thus weakens their attractive power.
The Book Comes Together
During the summer of 2010, I finished the book’s outline and began working on the content. Matt Chandler graciously agreed to write the foreword. Once the book was complete, a number of leaders I respect endorsed the book.
Now, the book is out of my hands. In just a couple months, it will be available. I pray every morning that God would lead His people to bask in the beauty of the biblical gospel in such a way that the many counterfeits would lose their luster. I am praying that the book would lead to missional living that comes from hearts enflamed with love for Jesus the Savior.
Like I said, Counterfeit Gospels wasn’t the book I initially wanted to write, but now it is the book I’m glad I wrote. I pray God uses it for His purposes and the good of His kingdom.
