Guard the Good Deposit

Section I: Why Must We Guard the Good Deposit? • 23

What must we do? How can we be faithful to such a high calling? We join the great company of believers across the ages and we guard the good deposit. We receive the message about Christ and his Kingdom. We faithfully believe, live, and teach this message in fresh and creative ways. We entrust it to faithful people who will guard it and entrust it to others. The Harvest Is Plentiful, but the Workers Are Few However, this pattern of guarding the good deposit faces a significant challenge. Traditional methods of training faithful people cannot keep up with the Gospel. The Kingdom is expanding rapidly among people who will never set foot in a seminary classroom or read a book of theology. Truly, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few (Matt. 9.37). Thousands upon thousands of leaders serve the Lord with little or no training. And yet, the Lord has delivered, called, and gifted them to represent him and lead his Church. The key reason we need to retrieve the Great Tradition is so that the whole Church can represent Christ with faithfulness and freedom. Every far-flung believer and church is connected to our sacred roots like a leaf on the one glorious family tree of Christ. The mighty roots of the Great Tradition can refresh the whole Church and empower us all to represent Christ with faithfulness and freedom. There are at least three ways our sacred roots set us free to be faithful.