Defining Fusion

A few years back I was trying to define a way of thinking about Fusion that brings together diversity of ideas while focusing on the essentials of gospel ministry. I suggested that we need to be based on our highest common denominator, which is the Lord Jesus rather than a lowest common denominator which waters down the essence of who we are meant to be. I’m not sure I got the idea nailed down very clearly but I recently found a description that captures it far better than I could…

Recently I joined an organization called The Gospel Coalition Network http://www.thegospelcoalition.org and attended their national conference. I was intrigued by the following on their website…

The Gospel Coalition is what mathematicians would call “a center-bounded set.” In other words, we are not a “boundary set.” If we were a “boundary set” we would nail down the outer limits of who is “in” and who is “out,” who is “with us” and who is “against us” or at least apart from us. The tendency of boundary sets is to enlarge the tent to make it as big as possible, while diluting the content to the thinnest gruel so that as few as possible are excluded. The downside is that pretty soon there are scores of things no one is allowed to talk about because those within the boundaries have agreed that the only requirement for being “in” is this lowest-common-denominator set of beliefs or principles. By contrast, as a center-bounded set the Coalition has adopted Foundation Documents that are theologically robust and a vision of things we hold to be both faithful to the Bible and pastorally important in our day. At that point, our leaders will be tough-minded and frankly and joyfully confessional, even while we acknowledge that many people will interact with us at various levels of agreement and disagreement, using some of our material, not using other parts of it, not having to decide exactly who is “in” and “out.” At some level or other, just about everyone is welcome to be connected with TGCN at the participant level, and to use material as they wish from TGC website. However, membership requires “signing on” to our Foundational Documents in order to preserve the theological integrity of our membership community.

The idea of a center bounded set is a great description of how we must view Fusion so that we are not limited in the expression of ideas but rather we are brought together by the centrality of the Gospel in our ministries.

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