What Can And Will Be
by Donavon L Riley

Christianity has too often bowed at the altars of power, offering its wild and untamed Gospel to the machinery of politics and profit. Yet the Gospel of Jesus Christ is no child of culture; it is the fiery root from which true life springs. It does not mimic the world’s rhythms but beats its own drum, calling us not to conform but to create—something braver, something alive. When the Gospel is bent to fit the contours of worldly systems, it loses its generative power, becoming little more than an ornament on the mantle of empires. But the Gospel’s essence is not compliance; it is transformation—a reimagining of the world through the lens of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

We have forgotten that holiness is not merely a refuge; it is a revolution. The Gospel doesn’t just separate us from the world—it births a new one. Not a pale, virtual imitation of life, but something concrete, real, and unshaken. To follow Christ is not to retreat into a private sphere of piety but to become participants in God’s bold act of creation. The church is meant to be the seedbed of this new world, its local congregations the humble yet vibrant gardens where God’s kingdom takes root. This work is not about tearing down for the sake of destruction; it is about building up what is good, true, and beautiful—a counter-world that exists not in opposition to the world’s decay, but as a living witness to what is possible when Christ reigns.

Imagine a community where virtue flows like water, and love shapes every decision. A place where holiness is not a stiff doctrine but the warm, inviting hearth around which life gathers. This is the alternative reality the Gospel invites us to craft. It does not impose itself through coercion or spectacle but grows slowly, like a mustard seed in the soil. Here, we carve spaces of cruciform beauty amid the ruins of consumption and greed, not as an escape, but as an offering. The Gospel beckons us to create, not to conform; to imagine, not to mimic; to live as though the kingdom of God is already among us, because it is.

We stand again at the crossroads, where the Gospel stretches out his hands—not to topple what is, but to summon what can and will be. It is a call to align our lives, our churches, and our communities with a reality shaped by the Spirit of God. This is the slow, steady birthing of an alternative world, one that hums with virtue, love, and truth. It resists the fear and greed of this age not with clenched fists but with open hands, offering a vision of life where Christ’s light illuminates every corner. Here lies the true power of the Gospel—not to subdue but to make new, not to mirror but to transform, creating from nothing the courage to live in that reality, to be creators and caretakers of a world remade by grace and mercy.