The Gospel That Shapes Us

In Week 1 of A Re-Formed Imagination, we began our journey through Philippians by exploring how the gospel doesn’t merely inform us—it forms us. Paul opens his letter not with advice or commands, but with a vision of identity, participation, and formation rooted in life in Christ. From the very beginning, Philippians confronts the stories shaping our imagination and invites us into a better one.

We reflected on the truth that none of us wakes up neutral. Every culture tells a story about what makes life meaningful, and those stories quietly shape what we love, fear, and pursue. Paul writes to a church surrounded by imperial power, status hierarchies, and anxiety about belonging, and instead of offering strategies for success, he offers a theological imagination strong enough to form a faithful people.

At the heart of this passage is Paul’s insistence that Christian life flows from participation before instruction. To be “in Christ” is not a metaphor—it is a new reality. Our lives are caught up in the life, death, resurrection, and future of Jesus. This union with Christ reshapes not only our beliefs, but our loves, instincts, and communal life.

Paul also highlights the communal nature of the gospel through koinonia—a shared participation in God’s work that includes generosity, perseverance, suffering, and hope. Formation is never individualistic; the cross itself binds us together as a people.

We lingered on the promise of Philippians 1:6, recognizing that God’s work in us is eschatological—shaped by the future God has promised. Formation happens now in light of what is coming. The same God who began this work is faithfully bringing it to completion.

As we begin this series, we are invited to let the cross re-form our imagination—shaping how we see God, ourselves, one another, and the world—so that we might become a joyful, faithful people living inside a better story.