Talking, Listening, and Walking with the Relational God

While serving as president of a Christian university, Bond often spoke in the college chapels. The students came from a variety of theological traditions. Some were better informed than others as to what they believed. Coming from the Wesleyan tradition, Bond felt some responsibility to help inculcate the theology of his denomination. After all, they brought the university into existence and continued to govern and support it.

It did not take the president long to discover that the perceptive students were aware of his indoctrination efforts and used the time to catch up on the sleep they had been missing. He determined there had to be a better way. A liberating thought ignited within: why not make Jesus the major thrust of my messages! It revolutionized his thought then--and he has increasingly become more passionate about it over the years.

Old theological thought forms and their stilted expressions no longer serve us well in communicating our liberating message to the current generation. In this book, Bond contends this can be done best by engaging biblical and relational language that focuses on "the simplicity that is in Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:3 KJV).