I agree.

the difference between framing a debate as Calvinist vs. Arminian or, as I’ve seen some Calvinists unfairly frame it, “God-centered” vs. “man-centered.

This is not unfair, just an accurate description.

Also, sometimes IP banning is the loving thing to do.

An excellent comment. Applicable to the Protestant Sanhedrin with anti-Manhattan Declaration Derangement Syndrome.

http://whyimnotademocrat.blogspot.com/2009/12/john-macarthur-takes-on-rick-warrens.html

Yes, it is very overused. I think it is the neo-Calvinist interpretation of what post-whatevers wanted to say with the word “missional.” It has the emphasis on an evangelistic mission that seeks conversion through the good news, but can be rather fuzzy on what that conversion entails. The problem I’ve noticed is that it is hard to decipher what exactly is bound up in the term “gospel.” Are they talking about Calvinism? Is it a worldview? Is it about penal substitution? Justification via imputed righteousness? Or is it a short and sweet message contained in the verses from 1 Cor 15? There doesn’t seem to be anything distinctly Protestant about being “gospel-centered” but the people that use that term very much think there is.

Thanks for asking. The answer is yes.

I suppose it would have been illustrative of me to lay out a whole set of examples. In part it’s something that I’ve heard at least as often informally (face-to-face discussions, listening to sermons et cetera) as anywhere else. Certainly the meme is out there though.

I don’t know that I’ve heard it abused per se, but my sense of it is that it will merely become ubiquitous and therefore increasingly meaningless. Perhaps “gospel” will become more misused than abused if that’s not too fine a distinction.