We pulled together a team of specialists, did a bunch of research, and here was the result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czFAdNWh6yg
You’ll always be able to find it by going to YouTube and searching for
“3 circles more disciples.” Hope it helps you! (By the way, for what it’s worth, that’s Doug’s voice-over. His price was right. AND, for what it’s worth, those are Tina’s visuals. She learns video production software quickly. : ) )
I really enjoyed the video. Of course it’s simplifying things but that’s usually helpful, esp. for people who want to share easily with others. I really like the focuses on restoration and replication, vs. other presentations of the gospel.
I have some comments I thought I’d put on YouTube, but since there are no comments there yet, I thought I’d share in a slightly less public venue. This presentation seems like it’d work great for those who are used to living and making decisions individualistically. Maybe not so great for group-oriented cultures. I don’t know.
And maybe not so great from the perspective of the Hebrew worldview which is about the reign of God coming over the whole creation, and not just individuals. Certainly it’s a New Testament type of thing to call individuals/groups to repentance and faith (which results in newness, as you describe); it’s maybe more what you DON’T say.
First century Jews (not so sure about Gentiles) lived within a story that most cultures today do not live within – that story was of God eventually rescuing the entire creation, and not whisking away individuals to a disembodied Heaven (and whisking away the rest to a disembodied Hell). “Our God reigns”, as Isaiah puts it.
Well, as NT Wright and others point out, if you don’t give someone a story/context in which your presentation makes the sense it should, they will put it into their own story. Who knows what that is, but at minimum they will 9 times out of 10 assume that YOUR story ends with a certain subset of the population being whisked away to Heaven and leaving this broken world behind. In fact, your wording encourages that: “making a way out [of this brokenness? broken world?]”.
There’s another (more controversial) aspect in which the video encourages an other-than-Hebrew worldview: presenting Hell as an eternal place (where the still-broken go, and leave the broken creation?). In the Hebrew worldview as I see it, there are two alternatives: be with the Creator in the New Creation as an invited partner, or be destroyed/discarded as an opponent of God’s restorative purposes. Life or death.
So if I were a diving judge rating the quality of the dive, I’d rate it much higher than gospel presentations that call individuals to change their belief and get ready for ‘Heaven’ (and little else), but lower than a gospel presentation which presents hearers with a more Biblical story (than their existing story), within which the presentation can be properly understood.
Could the 3 Circles presentation easily be rejiggered to include more elements of the Biblical story, without making it confusing, pedantic, or looking like a bicycle with a motorcycle motor bolted on? I’m not sure. :) I think it’d be worth the try, though. Blessings!
Hi Karl. Thanks for being a faithful Brigada participant — and for sharing your opinion. I think the real background of the 3 circles idea (as first envisioned by Jimmy Scroggins — namb.net/video/3circlesguide — is to present a super-simple “first step” for a new believer. Then after they become a believer, we would work with them to transform their worldview to the biblical narrative. To me, THAT’s when we could deal with all the above. But you can decide whether or not this will work for you, Karl.
Great video !!! simple, complete and easy to understand.