All human communities live out of some story that provides a context for understanding the meaning of history and gives shape and direction to their lives. If we allow the Bible to become fragmented, it is in danger of being absorbed into whatever other story is shaping our culture, and it will thus cease to shape our lives as it should... Hence, the unity of Scripture is no minor matter: a fragmented Bible may actually produce theologically orthodox, morally upright, warmly pious idol worshippers!

Martin Luther once said that the gospel is like a caged lion that doesn’t need to be defended—just released. Indeed the gospel is the power of God for salvation. But the gospel is “caged” when it is accommodated to the story of humanism. Only when the gospel is set free from its captivity to the dominant cultural story will the church be equipped for its comprehensive mission in Western culture. The concept of ‘worldview’ can aid in that task.

Our identity as God’s people comes from that missional role in the biblical story. Since the gospel is about God’s rule over all of creation, all nations, and all of human life, the mission of Jesus’ followers is as wide as creation itself! We have been commissioned to witness to the gospel in all of public life—business, scholarship, politics, family, criminal justice, art, media—and every other corner of human experience.