In Matt. 8-9 we witness the power of Jesus’ word, the fruitfulness of his preaching, and the way he carried on conversation with others about the kingdom. Jesus’ verbal witness provides an opportunity for us to reconsider the way in which we verbalize the kingdom today. In a culture once informed by Modern and Christian stories, the American church could assume that the average person-on-the-street already had a basic worldview consistent with the Christian faith and just needed guidance understanding some of the smaller “pixels” of the Christian story. In an increasingly Postmodern and Post-Christian America, however, the church must assume that the average person-on-the-street has little to no knowledge of a Christian worldview. Ministry should therefore focus on sharing the larger story (the “image”) of Christianity rather than merely small pieces of that story (the “pixel”).
