> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.dashhouse.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Updating our understanding of the gospel
- URL: https://www.dashhouse.com/20081218updating-our-understanding-of-the-gospel-html/
- Published: 2008-12-18T11:44:30.000Z
- Updated: 2022-08-15T15:31:19.000Z
- Author: Darryl Dash
- Tags: Blog, Books, Theology, #DashHouseCom, #wp

[![0310281164.jpg](https://www.dashhouse.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/0310281164.jpg)](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0310281164/dashhouse-20?ref=dashhouse.com)

The other day I referred to a post by J.D. Greear called [“I don’t want to be new and innovative.”](http://jdgreear.typepad.com/my%5Fweblog/2008/12/i-dont-want-to-be-new-and-innovative.html?ref=dashhouse.com) Greear writes, “My goal each week is not to give what the people in front of me will perceive as a ‘new approach’ to the Gospel, but simply to explain the really old Gospel in as clear a way as possible to them.”

It’s a good reminder, but it’s possible to take Greear’s advice too far. Faithfulness to the gospel involves both continuity *and* change. That’s why I like what Michael Wittmer says in [*Don’t Stop Believing*](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0310281164/dashhouse-20?ref=dashhouse.com):

> A former teacher reminded me that Christianity is like a living faith, and all living things must grow. Like a child who reaches adolescence and then matures into an adult, so our understanding of God develops across time. As there is both continuity and change as a boy grows into a man, so our present proclamation of the gospel must be rooted in church tradition even as it surpasses what came before.

> My teacher warned that if we stop growing – if we merely repeat what we have said in the past – then we will eventually lose the gospel. I did not understand what he meant, for I was young enough to have known only one kind of world. The faith that I had learned from my parents still seemed pretty relevant. Why must I change?

> I must be getting older, for I am now experiencing the first widespread cultural change of my life. My students are asking new and interesting questions…In my student’s defense, most are merely applying my mentor’s theological rule: **to remain faithful to the gospel we must regularly update our understanding of it.** We can’t merely repeat the old, old story in the same old way. To say the same thing we have always said is not being faithful to the gospel; it is to fossilize it.