# The GOSPEL as an acronym When I lived in Colorado, I taught Sunday school for two years. The first year, I taught 3rd graders who were taking classes in order to understand salvation history and the sacraments of reconciliation, confirmation, and communion. My second year, I taught a class that had kids in 5th grade through 12th grade for the same thing. My second year was much harder. In addition to teaching a group of students that varied so much in age and development, I no longer had an aide, and the director of religious education was no longer working with the church. She was replaced by an interim-director; a seminarian (i.e., someone studying for the priesthood) who wanted to become a monk and felt a call to take a vow of silence for the rest of his life. You could say my second year teaching was shaken up a bit. After getting to know the new interim-director, [Austin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-habash-3a94a72a7/) (who has great content, btw), I learned that he went door-to-door evangelizing. *Wow*, I thought, we had something in common. While I was in college, I too went door-to-door evangelizing. Except, I wasn't trying to spread the word of God; I was trying to ensure people would get out to vote for my preferred candidate. It takes a special kind of person to knock on strangers doors and ask them for personal information. Austin is a special kind of guy. He taught me the method he used to tell the story of salvation history in a short, easy to remember acronym: GOSPEL. Gospel comes from the Greek word "euangelion" which means "good news." I suppose it's fitting that the acronym was the very thing he was trying to share. Here's what each letter stands for: - [[! g - god exists|G - God exists]] - [[! o - our creation|O - Our creation]] - [[! s - sin|S - Sin]] - [[! p - payment|P - Payment]] - [[! e - ecclesia|E - Ecclesia]] (which means church) - [[! l - lifelong endurance|L - Lifelong Endurance]] All of salvation history can be found in the Gospel. How brilliant! In the sections that follow, I plan to cover as much information as possible about topics of infinite depth. I pray it enlightens the both of us. --- Austin, explaining the GOSPEL acronym, in 13 minutes. 😁 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W5N1O73DKyI?si=KfrjWwS0KTBLJfS3" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>