The Framework I Wish Someone Had Given Me
A Better Way to Do Theology
I see so many people struggle with the same thing over and over. Well meaning, faithful Christians who have attended worship services, Sunday school, and any other offering the church could have for lifetimes. They believe the right things, but can’t connect those beliefs to the hard questions life throws at them.
A friend going through a divorce asks where God is. A coworker asks why Christians seem so angry about politics. A cousin says she left the church because nobody could answer her questions. And every time, I watch good, faithful people either retreat into clichés or just go silent.
Unfortunately, this is sadly the product of the state of the modern American church. The church has two default modes for engaging culture — fight it or copy it. On one side of the pendulum, we become culture warriors, seeking to isolate and insulate away from the “evils” of society. Parents take their kids out of public schools on principle. Nothing but the Christian alternative.
And on the other side of the pendulum, we make seeker-sensitive accommodators. Everyone’s allowed, included, celebrated, and promoted. What the world around us says is okay is what dictates the moral, aesthetic, and organizational makeup of the church.
Neither one works. Culture warriors close their doors and ranks and become extremely conservative, both theologically and socially. Seeker-sensitives rarely take a stance on anything and become liberal, theologically and socially.
We need a third way.
Redemptive Correlation: A Better Method To Use
Here’s the simplest way I can describe what I’ve been building.
Life is messy, and it’s often hard to figure out how to make sense of it all. What I’ve done with Redemptive correlation is provide a blueprint to disentangle the clutter and give a better way through which to view the hard things we have to handle. It takes the gospel and asks you to view everything through it, yet not making light of what we look at. We first listen to what’s really being asked, not just the basic question. We name what’s really at stake theologically, then place it inside Scripture’s story (creation, fall, redemption, restoration), often called “the gospel in the air”, where it finally makes sense. Ultimately, it points towards heartfelt, genuine worship filled with awe-stricken wonder at who God really is.
Enter the redemptive correlation method. It’s a four-step, memorable, and portable way to meet anyone anywhere anytime with anything.
Listen: Hear the question behind the question. When someone asks about identity, meaning, suffering, or church, the surface question is rarely the real question. We’re not listening to formulate a rebuttal. We’re listening for the ache beneath the words, so we can bring the right word to the right wound.
Distill: Name what’s theologically at stake. Move from the cultural vocabulary to the theological vocabulary. Every cultural question has a corresponding doctrine being distorted — whether it’s anthropology, ecclesiology, justice, or vocation. The discipline is precision without reductionism: naming what’s at stake without flattening the person standing in front of you.
Reframe: Place it inside Scripture’s story: creation, fall, redemption, restoration. You don’t have to be a bible scholar to know how to do this; you just need to know the Gospel and be willing to learn. This fourfold narrative is a diagnostic tool, not a checklist. Different questions have different gravitational centers in the story. And sometimes Scripture refuses to answer the question as posed. Instead, it reframes the question entirely before giving an answer.
Respond: Offer truth that is not only accurate but beautiful. We don’t scold people for asking hard questions; we invite them into a better story. The goal isn’t winning an argument but reawakening wonder by showing people that the God of Scripture is already speaking into the very questions they can’t stop asking.
The Method In Action
Here’s how this plays out, in real time with one of the many real questions we face today:
“Why do I need to go to church when I can watch it online? Isn’t it just about the message?”
Since the introduction of live-streaming into the digital landscape, churches have adapted to employ timely means to share an timeless message, which is a great thing. However, when 2020 happened and everything about life shifted from solely embodied to optionally present, church followed suit out of necessity. You could go to as many church services as you want just by scrolling your Facebook news feed or YouTube home page.
As life in the post-social-distancing world has returned to some kind of normal, it also has seemed normal that the way we do church hasn’t returned back to an in-person-first model, which comes with its own problems (I do plan on writing on this in the near future, so I’ll leave this point alone).
Using redemptive correlation, we can biblically, faithfully, and winsomely address the issue without capitulating to the culture narrative.
Step 1: Listen
Hear the Question Behind the Question
We start by listening to the cultural mood. The shift to digital life isn’t just about laziness; it’s about a new definition of existence. We are listening to the “logic of convenience” that runs counter to the “logic of incarnation.”
The Surface Question: “Why drive 20 minutes when the livestream is high-quality?”
The Ache: The desire for a “frictionless existence.” Digital life allows us to edit out the awkwardness of other people. It offers connection without the “messy, inconvenient, and sanctifying” reality of being physically present.
The Cultural Liturgy: We are being formed by a medium that values “content over covenant.” The screen teaches us that we can be observers of a community without being subject to it.
Step 2: Distill
Name What’s Theologically at Stake
Now we switch to the theological diagnostic. We must name the categories being distorted. This isn’t just a preference issue; it is an anthropological and ecclesiological crisis.
Anthropology (Body vs. Soul): The digital argument assumes we are essentially “brains on sticks” — that as long as our minds receive the information (the sermon), we have worshipped. This is a modern form of Gnosticism, treating the body as incidental to spiritual life.
Ecclesiology (Event vs. People): It redefines church as a “content provider” rather than a “covenantal community.” If church is just content, Spotify is better. But if church is a people, pixels cannot carry the weight of that identity.
The Core Distortion: We are exchanging holiness (which requires friction) for efficiency (which requires distance).
Step 3: Reframe
Place it Inside the Story
We map this tension onto the Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration arc to see the full picture.
Creation (Embodiment is Good): God didn’t create a cloud server; He created a garden. He made us from dust and breath. Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day. Presence was the original design for flourishing.
Fall (Hiding and Disconnection): Sin introduced the impulse to hide — to cover ourselves and avoid being truly seen. Digital anonymity is often just a high-tech fig leaf. It allows us to curate a projected self rather than exposing our true self to the gaze of others.
Redemption (The Incarnation): This is the pivot. When God moved to save us, He didn’t send a broadcast; He sent a Body. The Incarnation is the ultimate argument against “virtual” religion. Jesus did not save from a distance; He came, dwelt, and touched. He ate with sinners, touched lepers, and washed feet. You cannot wash feet over Zoom.
Restoration (The Gathered City): The end of the story isn’t a disembodied heaven but a physical city (Revelation 21). We will see Him face to face, not through a glass darkly. The gathered church today is a dress rehearsal for that physical, eternal reality.
Step 4: Respond
Truth That Is Beautiful
We don’t scold them for watching YouTube; we invite them to something better.
The Invitation: “You were made for more than pixels. You were made for presence.”
The Beauty: Digital content can inform you, but only presence can transform you. There is a beauty in the “slow, formative tension” of sitting in a row or pew next to someone you didn’t choose, hearing a baby cry, and singing in a room of imperfect voices. This is where the mask comes off.
The Holy Resistance: In an age of endless connectivity but deep loneliness, the gathered church is a “holy resistance.” It is a declaration that real life happens in 3D. We invite you back not to a meeting, but to a body — where you are known, held, and loved in a way a screen can never offer.
The Invitation
This is what I’ve been building. And I’m just getting started.
Over the coming weeks and months, I’m going to be doing exactly what you just watched — taking the questions your coworkers, kids, neighbors, and your own restless heart are asking, and walking them through this method. Not to win arguments. Not to hand you talking points. But to show you that Scripture is already speaking into the very things keeping people up at night.
I’m also developing this into a book. Reading the World Through Eden (what I’m tentatively calling it) will be a field guide for ordinary believers who want to think theologically about the world they actually live in — without needing a seminary degree to do it. Every article here is a chapter in that larger project.
So here’s my invitation: subscribe, pull up a chair, and come along.
Not because you need more content. You have plenty of that. But because the questions aren’t going away. Your friend going through that divorce is still going to ask where God is. Your cousin who left the church is still waiting for someone to take her questions seriously. The coworker who thinks Christians only know how to be angry hasn’t stopped watching.
You don’t need more clichés. You need a method. And you need to see, over and over, that the God of Scripture is not threatened by hard questions — He’s been answering them since Eden.
The goal of all of this isn’t winning.
It’s wonder.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! — Romans 11:33
If that’s what you’re after, you’re in the right place.