[blue-duncan]

"By the way, do you agree with the Purpose Driven method of shaping the gospel to meet people's felt needs?"

The Gospel does not change, the way it is presented does depending on the audience. You would not give the message in the same way to children that you would to adults and you would not give the message in the same way to hardened criminals that would to teenagers, although you may be tempted to. When Paul says he becomes "all things to all men....." he was not talking about accommodating the message but its delivery and illustrations.

Gal. 1:6-10, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."

[pby]

How do you shape the gospel to meet people's felt needs?

"The Gospel does not change, the way it is represented does depending on the audience..."

So there is an audience with felt needs and an audience without?

Is "shaping the Gospel" the same as using different delivery and illustrations?

In Acts 17 (the passage most PDers use to justify shaping the Gospel to meet felt needs), Paul's evangelism was fueled by distress/anger over the number of idols in Athens (verse 16).

So he, then, first reasoned, from the Scriptures, in the synagouge and in the marketplace with the Jews and with the God fearing Greeks, day by day (verse 17). His reasoning consisted of the preaching of the good news about Jesus and the resurrection (verse 18).

A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him and then took him to a meeting of the Areopagus (verses 18&19).

Paul pointed to their idols and told them, "In the past God overlooked such ignorance , but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." (verses 29-31)

Verse 34 states that, "A few men became followers of Paul and believed."

The message didn't really change in front of the different audiences and it certainly didn't appeal to, or was not shaped, to the people's felt needs. It also was not widely popular.