Jesus preached the good news of the Kingdom; do we?

Yesterday, in response to Luke 4:43, I tweeted this:

Jesus: 'I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God.' So is it a problem if our Gospel talks say NOTHING about the Kingdom?

I thought it was timely, then, that later in the day on the Of First Importance blog, I read this quote from Alan Wakabayashi's book, Kingdom Come:

“The gospel is Good News concerning the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is God’s rule over the totality of life. Every human need therefore can be used by the Spirit of God as a beach-head for the manifestation of his kingly power. Whenever and wherever we confront the effects of sin, that interaction becomes a place for us to seek and serve the kingdom of God. It’s not just about lost souls but also about a lost creation. And the kingdom of God is about a creation restored.”

Much about this quote resonates with me. My love for Christ and the Gospel has been enhanced as I have come to learn some of the cosmic implications of Christ's life, death and resurrection. As I have learned that the Kingdom is not only about saving lost souls, but about restoring the entirety of God's lost creation, my wonder and amazement at the glory of Christ's redemptive work has deepened.

But I still wonder if quotes like this unintentionally minimize the priority of evangelism. The curse on creation was a consequence of man's rebellion; likewise the creation's healing is a consequence of man's redemption. If we start talking about the restoration of the creation divorced from the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen as a substitute for sinners to be received by faith, we get into serious danger (see the Emergent Church). That was one of my concerns about Wakabayashi's book, which on the whole I enjoyed (see here and, more along the lines of this post, here).

Despite the dangers, I think Evangelicals probably need to be talking about the cosmic scope of God's Kingdom more than we currently are. If it was a necessity for Jesus ('I must preach the good news of the Kingdom...'), then it ought to be for us too, right?

Anybody have thoughts about all this?