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"Moreover, it has to be acknowledged that the center, as it was worked out 50 or 60 years ago, was a kind of white man's club," Carson said.

The Gospel Coalition consciously includes an ethnically diverse group of stakeholders. The theological vision for ministry states, "Each church should seek to reflect the diversity of its local geographic community, both in the congregation at large and in its leadership." The coalition also derives strength from its leaders' diverse church backgrounds, from Anglican to Southern Baptist.

The coalition may lose momentum, however, as leaders do not plan to host another public meeting until 2009, though they have agreed to meet next year for fellowship and prayer. A website unveiled after the conference features extensive resources, including video of the plenary speakers. Leaders expect to update the site (thegospelcoalition.org) consistently and link to coalition-endorsed articles and book reviews. For now, the Gospel Coalition must raise money to support future conferences and the website. TEDS funded the Gospel Coalition at first, but the stakeholders' churches paid back the seminary. The coalition has also received a substantial grant from the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at TEDS.

Though heavily revised from the first draft, the theological vision for ministry still bears the unmistakable fingerprints of Keller. The statement advocates church planting and urges Christians to become a counterculture for the common good.

"We aren't unique doctrinally, but every constellation of leaders brings different gifts and insights and emphases," Keller said. "We will stress supporting and encouraging younger leaders and giving them a place at the table. We will also stress theologically reflective ministry and mission, rather than pure doctrinal study or pure program sharing."

Even evangelical forebears come under scrutiny in the statement. Gospel Coalition leaders criticize them for not giving closer attention to the storyline of the Bible.

"As a result [the older evangelicalism] was more individualistic, centering almost completely on personal conversion and safe passage to heaven. Also, its preaching, though expository, was sometimes moralistic and did not emphasize how all biblical themes climax in Christ and his work. In this imbalance, there is little or no emphasis on the importance of the work of justice and mercy for the poor and the oppressed, and on cultural production that glorifies God in the arts, business, etc."

With a number of "both/and" constructions in the statement, one might imagine debates behind closed doors. But the vision of ministry somehow manages both balance and precision. "To eliminate the propositional nature of biblical truth seriously weakens our ability to hold, defend, and explain the gospel. But to speak of truth only as propositions weakens our appreciation of the incarnate Son as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the communicative power of narrative and story, the importance of truth as living truly in correspondence to God."

Christians should be comfortable in this tension. After all, we practice a religion of paradox.

"If we seek service rather than power, we may have significant cultural impact," the statement says. "But if we seek power and social control, we will, ironically, be assimilated into the very idolatries of wealth, status, and power we seek to change."

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October 2007, Vol. 51, No. 10