Vanderstelt argues that becoming a mature Christian requires the ability to "believe and speak the truths of the Gospel ... in and into the everyday stuff of life" (page 23). The Gospel is not something to be merely understood propositionally. For it to be truly transformational it must be applied ("spoken") directly into life experience. His observation is that, even within the Church, personal problems are often given solutions that have no gospel content, such as relationship issues being met simply with training in better communication. When this happens the ultimate heart problem will remain untouched unless people are told how Jesus is specifically a "better answer" to the problem.
The first four parts of Gospel Fluency flesh this out in a richly-textured biblical study that helps groups or individuals come to that gospel fluency. Vanderstelt uses various "language lessons" to train the reader how to better formulate Gospel truth in their own minds, before applying it directly to their own lives and the lives of others. In chapter 4 he outlines how seeing the Bible as a cohesive narrative of four acts (creation, fall, redemption, and restoration) is particularly useful in making these connections.
Gospel Fluency is great for small group study -- particularly in the context of local congregations, where Christians live their lives and learn to see and speak the world in Christian ways.
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I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.