Prodigal Gospel: Getting Lost and Found Again in the Good News

The good news is bigger and better than we imagined.

Is the gospel good news for us today? Many Christians--especially young Christians stepping into a world and a church devastated by division, scandal, and abuse--are asking this question and deciding it simply isn’t. For many, it seems like our faith has little to offer the world around us. Our gospel has become too small--it looks nothing like the Jesus who embodies good news in the flesh.

How do we recover this gospel? When we turn to the parable of the prodigal son--a story of elaborate parties, upside-down kingdoms, and reunited families--we can hear in Jesus’ own words a clear presentation of what he is doing, of a truth that is bigger and better than we’ve imagined. In these pages, author and pastor Jonny Morrison invites us on a journey to help us find ourselves and Jesus in the welcoming arms of this familiar parable, zooming out to show how this story shapes the entire story of Scripture. Along the way we discover the radically inclusive power of the gospel that upends religions, disrupts empires, heals the wounded, and empowers the marginalized. This is, after all, Jesus’ news to tell, and when we truly listen to him tell it, we can be found again in the surprising, disarming, challenging gospel that is truly good news.

Jonny Morrison is co-lead pastor at Missio Dei in Salt Lake City, Utah, responsible for teaching and vision, as well as an adjunct professor of Bible and theology at the Bible Institute of Seattle. He’s passionate about helping people gain a bigger imagination for God, experience the radical love of Jesus, and learn to see and join God’s work in their everyday lives. Jonny has a master’s degree in exegetical studies from Western Seminary and a doctorate in contextual theology from Northern Seminary. He writes regularly for the website Missio Alliance and the Jesus Collective, where he is the editorial coordinator for the Theology Circle.