"A self-indulgent love of our own voices"

I think a lot of the rejections in evangelicalism today of God’s sovereignty and biblical infallibility are not unrelated to the more recent conversations about the need to attend regular local church services. They are all simply manifestations of a rejection of authority...
- Jared Wilson

We've all heard the mantra of the church-less Christian: "I am into Jesus, not organized religion." That used to be said by a few outliers who really had not much experience with the church to begin with. Now however it has become more mainstream.

What I have observed in evangelicalism over the last 25 years is an increasing desire to recast the church as a clearing house of various people's personal ministries and spiritual experiences. The idea is a church as a big tent paying the bills for everyone's personal small church. Who is a pastor or elder to tell someone they cannot "express their gifts" in the church? Why not promote books by John Calvin and T.D. Jakes? Why not practice Eastern meditation exercises in a women's "Bible study"? It is all part of the project of creating a church that is more about hearing the echo of my own voice in my heart rather than the voice of God from His Word.

Many thanks to Jared Wilson for writing a helpful analysis of the latest assertions of church-less Christianity. He rightly grounds our thoughts about church in our thoughts about God for what we think about the church is a window into what we think about God.

Wilson writes:

We should go to church — not mainly, but nevertheless — because it confronts and stunts our spiritual autonomy and individualism. We should go lest we become Cainites, saying “I’m not my brother’s keeper.” Or reverse Cainites, “My brothers aren’t my keepers.”

Of course most of us prefer to worship at the First Church of Hanging Out With My Friends at The Coffee Shop. Of course the more elite of us prefer to worship at My Own Speaking Engagements Community Church. Because, we believe, we “learn better” when we’re the ones doing the talking.

But something happens when you stop submitting to the communal listening of congregational worship and start filling the air with your own free range spiritual rhetoric. Your talk of God starts to sound less like God. He starts sounding like an idea, a theory, a concept. He stops sounding like the God of the Bible, the God who commands and demands, the God who is love but also holy, gracious but also just, et cetera. He begins to sound less like the God “who is who he is” and more like the God who is as you like him.

Read the entire piece HERE.

An understanding of the church that is all too common

This will probably be the last thing I post on Donald Miller's recent revelation that he does not attend
church. No promises, mind you. Miller's two posts provide us with a rich source of understanding the bitter fruit of the consumer church. As such, reflection on this can be a fruitful endeavor. Miller's doctrine of the church is actually quite prevalent among conservative evangelicals.

Mike Cosper, author if Rhythms of Grace has written a helpful piece engaging Miller's thoughts on the purpose of the church's Lord's Day gatherings.

Cosper writes:

 [It's] no small irony that Miller, a paragon of the "me" culture of memoir, has essentially said he left church because it didn't work for him. I fear that Miller doesn't have the self-awareness to see how narcissistic and condescending his posts are, and how consumeristic his critiques of church are.

I wonder, though, if Miller's thoughts don't say as much about our contemporary worship culture as they do about Miller himself. His description of a church gathering is two-dimensional: we listen to a lecture and sing songs that connect us to God. Miller says he stopped attending because he doesn't learn from lectures and doesn't feel like he connects to God through singing.

This description of the gathered church is anemic and shabby, but it's also the description that many American evangelicals would use to describe Sunday mornings. Rather than a robust engagement with God's people, God's word, and God's Spirit through interactions with one another, songs, prayers, scripture readings, and the Lord's Supper, we think of Sundays as merely preaching and music. Rather than an immersive, formational environment shaped by the physical architecture of space and the spiritual architecture of a Gospel-shaped liturgy, Sunday Morning is a platform driven spectacle, led by mega-celebrities at mega-churches and would-be-celebrities and smaller churches. Rather than a challenging and diverse diet of milk and meat, celebration and lament, confession and assurance, we're fed a pump-up-the-jams hype fest that culminates in a "You can do it!" sermon and a marketing pitch for membership. It's an environment that feels hostile to doubt and suffering, unless your goal is to overwhelm them both with enthusiasm...

I think Miller needs to be challenged and corrected. But I also think his comments reveal the tragic lack of spiritual formation in many of our churches today. They remind us that many Christians have no meaningful vision for why the church gathers; for why we sing, preach, and pray.

The solution isn't trying harder to please religious consumers and church shoppers. Instead, we need to look to the old paths, where the good way is, and keep telling the only Story that gives us a sense of ultimate hope in this tragic and broken world.

Read the entire article HERE.

On Criticizing Your Church...

Excellent post from Jared Wilson:

That voice in your head that keeps rehearsing the disappointments and flaws of your church is not from the Lord. It is the accuser, helping you get to the “I have no need of you” forbidden in 1 Corinthians 12:21. We may have legitimate concerns about our church’s maturity, its repentance, its effectiveness, or its “personality,” and there is certainly a place for sharing concerns and criticisms, a biblical call to honest appraisal, and plenty of space for exhortation and rebuke, but many claiming to do these things have shifted to a legal measuring none of us really has the authority for...

In 1 Peter 5:2, Peter exhorts pastors to shepherd the flock that is among them. I think we could apply this fairly reasonably to non-pastors as well. Love the church that is actually “among you,” not the one you wish was there. God in his wisdom has not placed you there to be a busybody or malcontent. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I disappointed my church isn’t more like Jesus, or that it isn’t more like me? In the diversity of the body is a diversity of callings and passions. It is not fair, nor gracious, to expect the other members of a body to carry the same individual callings or passions as others. If the problem is disobedience to a clear biblical command, that is one thing. If the problem is disinterest in your interest, that is
another.

2. Is the problem a matter for church discipline? Is it an issue of gospel-denial? Rebukes are for sin, not for disappointment. If your church affirms the gospel but denies emphasis on your area of concern, don’t make a federal case out of it.

3. Can you rehearse the blessings and benefits of your local body as easily as their flaws and failings? If you are constantly unhappy there and cannot shake envy for the wish-dream, it is better for you to leave in peace than to stay and grumble.

4. Do you see others’ faults more readily than your own? The answer to this question, for nearly all of us, is yes. So it is with great caution and great desire for grace that we ought to make the faults of others our business. Your church has a long, long way to go, no doubt. Every church does. But so do you.

Let’s not be our church’s accuser. Someone has already taken that position. And let’s not keep constantly taking our church’s temperature. Let’s love and serve and submit and, yes, exhort and rebuke, and then let’s love and serve and submit more and more, believing that the Spirit is at work many times in ways we are blind to. God will be faithful to finish the good work he’s begun in us, and he doesn’t need you walking around with your hall monitor sash, handing out demerits.

Read the whole post HERE.

Lessons from and questions for the seeker church

Kevin DeYoung has written a thoughtful reflection on James Emory White's new book, What They Didn't Teach You In Seminary. Dr. White is a mega-church pastor who happens to be in sympathy with seeker church movement. He is certainly an intelligent man who no doubt cares deeply about the church of Jesus Christ. DeYoung lists a number of lessons that we can learn from the seeker church. He also includes some vital questions for those within the seeker movement to ask themselves.

In his conclusion, DeYoung writes:

I’m not sure how to move forward with the impasse between the YRR [Young, Restless, and Reformed] world and the church growth world. No doubt, there are unfortunate stereotypes on both sides. For our part, we could learn from our seeker church brethren when it comes to administration, strategy, being honest about stagnation and lack of evangelism, and being sensitive to the way we are perceived by outsiders. We can be intellectually snobbish and blissfully unconcerned about whether the church grows, reproduces, or multiplies.

As for those on the seeker church side: I encourage you to read ten theological books for every business book. I encourage you trust in the word of God to do the work of God. I encourage you to listen not just to this culture of Christians, but to the centuries of Christians that have come before. I encourage you to explicitly, unapologetically love theology and teach your people to do the same. I encourage you to worship in such a way that it won’t be out of date in five years. I encourage you to use the language of Zion instead of the language of Collins. I encourage you to proclaim, not just to communicate.

And lastly, I encourage all of us to take a hard look at all the deep theological things we learned in seminary (or should have learned) and consider whether their seeming irrelevance is owing to the them, to our people, or to us.

Total Church

Beginning this week the pastoral leadership of COS will be discussing the book Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. I have found Total Church to be one of the most helpful and challenging books I have read on the church. The authors are not reinventing the church. Rather they are seeking to align our practice of "doing church" with what the Bible teaches. The thesis of the book is that the church is designed by God to be centered on the Gospel and community.

The authors write:

Our identity as Christians is defined by the gospel and community. Being gospel-centered actually involves two things. First it means being word-centered because the gospel is a word - the gospel is news, a message. Second, it means being mission-centered because the gospel is a word to be proclaimed - the gospel is good news, a missionary message...
So being gospel-centered means being word-centered and being mission-centered. The exists both through the gospel and for the gospel. At one level this is a motherhood-and-apple-pie declaration. Few Christians are going to object to being gospel-centered, just as no one is against mothers and apple pie. The problem is the gap between our rhetoric and the reality of our practice. The continual challenge for us is to apply this principle to church life and ministry without compromise...
The challenge before us it to make the gospel the center of our lives not just on Sunday mornings but on Monday mornings. This means ending distinctions between "full-timers" and "part-timers" and people with secular employment in our team and leadership structures. We need non-full-time leaders who can model whole-life, gospel-centered, missional living. It means thinking of our workplaces, homes, and neighborhoods as the location of mission. We need to plan and pray for gospel relationships. This means creating church cultures in which we see normal, celebrating day-to-day gospel living in a secular world and discussions of how we can use our daily routines for the gospel.

I highly recommend Total Church. If you attend Church of the Saviour and would like to read what the pastors will be reading and discussing in the weeks ahead then I would encourage you to get a copy of Total Church. It is one of those books I would like to see every member of COS read.

The Gospel and the Local Congregation

After the Christmas and New Year's holidays I plan on preaching a series of messages concerning the centrality of the Gospel in the life of the church. I was challenged, therefore, when I read the following post from Ligon Duncan.

One of the things I had the pleasure of chatting with Al Mohler about when I was in Louisville Friday last week was the evangel, the Gospel itself. I think that all the particpants in T4G share a passion that local congregations of Christians would be characterized by a Gospel culture, a Gospel-sharing culture, a culture of evangelism.

By that I mean: [1] that your whole congregation would be able to articulate the Gospel, personally, in a compelling and understandable way; [2] that your whole congregation would understand the importance and necessity of their lives, their prayers and their participation in Gospel witness; [3] that your whole congregation would deeply care about conversions (and I would lay stress here, that we are talking about real conversions, not numbers; disciples, not decisions; changed lives, not merely prayed prayers); [4] that your whole congregation would earnestly and regularly pray for conversions, talks about their own conversions and the conversions of others, and put a priority on people coming to know God; and [5] that your whole congregation would be excited about the Gospel itself, and not simply about a method of sharing the Gospel, or a training program.

To this end in my own congregation, it was my joy this last autumn to spend thirteen weeks of Wednesday nights, meeting with about 115 of our members, in what we called "The Gospel Course." The aim of our study in the Gospel Course was (among other things), to provide participants with: (1) a fuller understanding of the Gospel; (2) an opportunity to hone and articulate their Christian testimony; (3) an opportunity to be instructed in, observe and engage in Gospel conversations; (4) a simple, biblical, outline of the Gospel; (5) encouragements and helps to share (or more effectively share) the Gospel; (6) an opportunity to help better the evangelism equipping of our congregation; (7) the opportunity to see how all pastors of the church are involved in gospel witness; and (8) encouragement and instruction on how to engage others in the church in this Gospel culture.

Vision Statements

Rick Philips has posted these helpful thoughts about church vision statements.

Has the Church Replaced Israel?

Does the Church Replace Israel?

by Dr. Arturo Azurdia III

"And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this: 'I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan." (Revelation 2:8)

... Poverty as a consequence of slander and accusations .... The source of their persecution: the Romans. Fomenting the Roman persecution was the inciting accusations of ethnic Israelites about whom Jesus here says are not worthy of that ancient and honorable name. "I know the slander [blasphemy] by those who say they are Jews and are not." My friends that is a profoundly important statement. When we watch the flow of redemptive history, the storyline of the Bible unfold and we move from the epic of promise into the epic of fulfillment, God's people are no longer defined genealogically, they are defined Christologically ... Christocentrically. You say "what do you mean?" True Jews are those who follow Jesus as their Messiah. They are characterized by a birth not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. They are marked out by a circumcision not of the flesh but of the heart. So who then are these people? These people who claim to be Jews by virtue of their bloodline, but according to Jesus himself, they are not. Jesus defines them for us: "They are a synagogue of Satan." It is like what Jesus says to the unbelieving Pharisees in John chapter 8, who claimed the paternity of Abraham. He says: "You are of your father the devil." You see beloved, this is why we need to think clearly at this point. This is what is so utterly wrong today when people refer to the Judeo-Christian God. [They say] "Christians and Jews really in the end worship the same God." NO! ...To reject Jesus Christ is to reject the full and final revelation of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The truth is there is no such thing as an orthodox Jew, beloved, unless he is a Christian because if the Jews really believed in the Old Testament they would believe in Jesus Christ. If a person does not believe in Jesus Christ then, according to John chapter 5, then he does not believe in Moses either. "Moses spoke of me," Jesus said. And so Paul says in Romans chapter 2 "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly nor is circumcision merely outward and physical", no "a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit not the written code."
Now friends, people often ask me, "Do you believe that the church replaces Israel. The answer is "no of course not!!!" The church does not replace Israel. The fact is, Jewish people who reject Jesus Christ are apostate from Israel. Following Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of true Judaism. Everything in the Old Testament pointed to Him. Israel and the church, then, are not in radical discontinuity, rather, the later is the consummated expression of the former. Beloved, a failure to appreciate that has profoundly determined strange things in our [own] country. By virtue of the influence of American evangelicalism we say silly things like "Always side with Israel, no matter what Israel does always side with Israel. God will take care of America if we always side with Israel. They are God's people." [But] Jesus says they are a synagogue of Satan. And is there a reason then why American evangelicals are notoriously ineffective in their evangelism of Arabs?

[Jesus is] The full, final, ultimate expression of Judaism. You are Abraham's seed. C'mon ... Tear those pages out of your study Bibles.

Excerpt from Dr. Arturo Azurdia III's 81 part series on the Book of Revelation.

Related Resources:Do Jews Have a Divine Right in the Promised Land? by John Piper

Church, Kingdom, and Society

Jim Hamilton has written an excellent article for the latest issue of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. Given that we are in a political season this article is timely (http://jimhamilton.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/the-church-militant-and-her-warfaresbjtformatted.pdf).

Gospel and Community

Over the past two years I have thought, read, prayed, and talked a lot about the nature of the Gospel – its content and implications for life and ministry. This was a central component to the work of the Strategic Ministry Planning Team. If you read “By His Grace and For His Glory,” the report from the SMPT, then you know how often the material interacts with the Gospel. It is also what drove the recent sermon series “The Gospel-Driven Church” (both resources can be found at our web page). The Seven Pillars of Metro East Baptist are all understood in light of the Gospel. Our statement of purpose finds its rationale in the Gospel:
By God's grace Metro East will make known in word and deed the Lordship and love of Jesus throughout Wichita and the world for the sake of God's glory and the salvation of sinners.

One connection that is particularly moving and challenging to me is that between the Gospel and community. My experience in church is that God-glorifying, soul-shaping community is very elusive. We simply do not see much of it. That is my experience at least. We know what it is to have friendly acquaintances. We know what it is to spend time with people we like. But does our experience within the body of Christ resemble that which is described in the church of Jerusalem in Acts two or that which seemed to exist in the church of Thessalonica? Are we connected to a community of Christ-followers who love God and His Word, pray and worship together regularly, eat together frequently, take care to watch over each other’s needs, and experience the fruit of conversion?

Titus 2:14 tells us that Jesus Christ gave himself for us "to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." Commenting on those words, Sinclair Ferguson writes that “Christ wants to create ‘a people’, not merely isolated individuals who believe in him.” The church is not a club or support group that Christians join. Rather, when God saves us by His grace He also adds us to the church, His people, the body of Christ.

I am reading a book called Total Church by two British pastors: Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. It seems that God put this book in front of me at just the right time. It is proving to be an excellent follow-up to the other work in which I have been involved over the past two years. Particularly challenging has been the book’s emphasis on the inseparable link between the Gospel and community.

Regarding the priority of community in the body of Christ the authors write:
“By becoming a Christian, I belong to God and I belong to my brothers and sisters. It is not that I belong to God and then make a decision to join a local church. My being in Christ means being in Christ with those others who are in Christ. This is my identity. This is our identity. To fail to live out our corporate identity in Christ is analogous to the act of adultery: we can be Christians and do it, but it’s not what Christians should do. The loyalties of the new community supersede even the loyalties of biology (Matt. 10:34-37; Mk 3:31-35; Lk 11:27-28). If the church is the body of Christ then we should not live as disembodied Christians!"

We talk a good game about community but our priorities often betray us. The fact is, community is costly. People hurt us. We get disillusioned when our brothers and sisters disappoint us. It is even worse when a pastor disappoints us. But being in community always involves sacrifice. It involves a kind of death whereby we lay down our rights for the good of others. It means we serve without demanding to be served. It means we lovingly absorb many of the hits we take along the way. Timmis and Chester write, “In our experience, people are often enthusiastic about community until it impinges on their decision-making. For all their rhetoric, they still expect to make decisions by themselves for themselves. We assume we are masters of our own lives.”

One of the points that Total Church makes well is that community is essential to effective proclamation of the Gospel. The authors write:
“God is a missionary God and God’s primary missionary method is His covenant people…God made us as persons-in-community to be the vehicle through which He would reveal His glory…Israel’s priests represented God to the people by expounding the Law, and represented the people to God through sacrifice and intercession, so the nation as a whole has a priestly role of making God known to the nations and bringing them to the means of atonement…

“The center is no longer geographic Jerusalem. Now it is the community itself among whom Christ promises to be present to be present (Matt 28:20). The community moves out across the globe, all the time drawing people to its Lord through its common life…

“The church, then is not something additional or optional. It is at the very heart of God’s purposes. Jesus came to create a people who would model what it means to live under His rule. It would be a glorious outpost of the kingdom of God: an embassy of heaven. This is where the world can see what it means to be truly human.

“Our identity as human beings is found in community. Our identity as Christians is found in Christ’s new community. And our mission takes place through communities of light.”

The Gospel-Driven Church

In September I began preaching a series of messages called “The Gospel-Driven Church.” It is part of an emphasis that I hope will be refreshing and challenging for Metro East. Much of it is the fruit of what the Lord was doing in my heart during the strategic ministry planning process. Along with reading the report from the SMPT many of you are reading John Ensor’s book The Great Work of the Gospel with us. The intention is not to present a new model for ministry or “doing church.” This is not a program or a campaign. It is, rather, a reminder and a call for realignment.

Either through neglect or outright denial the church is in danger of losing her most valued treasure – The Gospel. This rarely happens because of malice. We are just prone to be carried away by fads. It seems this is especially true for pastors. In a day when people show more loyalty to a grocery store than their church, pastors are under increasing pressure to “liven things up” or provide something “new and exciting.” This, however, is a dangerous tendency because it leads very often to being carried away by whatever happens to be fashionable at the time. Since the Gospel has never been fashionable the results are predictable. Rather than being central, the Gospel becomes neglected.

The Gospel is often narrowed to a small corner of the Christian experience. It is treated as something we do when we “get saved” or as simply an outline to memorize for evangelism. What is lost is the all encompassing reality that the Gospel holds over the entire life of the Christian individually and the church collectively.

To begin with, the Gospel is a message. It is the good news that Jesus died in the place of sinners and rose victorious from the dead. The Gospel is not something we do. It is an announcement of what God has already done in Christ. But the power of that message transforms people. It does not leave us as we are. It changes us. It changes our values, our loves, our attitudes, and actions. It effects how we serve. It makes us willing to sacrifice for the good of others. It makes us merciful instead of wrathful. It makes us forgiving instead of begrudging.

So, what do we mean when we talk about the church being “Gospel-Driven”?
1. The Gospel is the church’s chief message.
Nothing we proclaim is more important than the Gospel. When pastors begin preaching moral lessons and life skills rather than the Gospel then there is a problem. The Bible is first and foremost the story of God’s redemptive program for His people. When “life lessons” crowd out that central message then the Gospel is being lost. Paul calls the Gospel “the matter of first importance” (I Cor. 15:3). To the church at Corinth he wrote that he had “decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (I Cor. 2:2). “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified…” (I Cor. 1:22-23).

2. The Gospel is the church’s primary theme for praise.
The primary content of the praise of God’s Old Covenant people was their deliverance from Egypt. That deliverance was the supreme Old Covenant shadow of the redemption to come in Christ. It follows therefore that Christ and his redeeming work on the cross will be the primary theme of the church’s praise. This is why we sing so many songs about the cross. There is simply no greater theme for our praise.

3. The Gospel is the church’s highest motive for ministry.
We reach out in love toward strangers, even enemies because that is what Christ did for us. We make a place at our table for others because Christ has made a place for us at His table. We seek to alleviate the suffering of the poor because Christ made himself poor for our sake.

4. The Gospel is the church’s supreme rationale for fellowship.
Why should people who are so different begin to call each other “brother” and “sister”? Why is it that we should forgive when we are hurt? Why should we show mercy? Why should we be patient? Why should we pursue reconciliation? Did not Christ do all of these things for us through the cross? The Gospel breaks down all man-made barriers. The Gospel is the message of the ultimate act of reconciliation and fellowship.

I used to think it was old-fashioned and a bit silly to call each other “brother” and “sister”. But my attitude has changed. To use these words to describe each other is an announcement of the Gospel. It is an announcement that Christ has broken down the dividing wall between us and has turned strangers into family. So when we call each other “brother” and “sister” we are, in a roundabout way calling attention to the Gospel.

5. The Gospel is the church’s lasting power for mission.
The Gospel is STILL the power of God unto salvation for all who believe (Rom 1:16). We do not go into the world with an insecure hope that people will desire what we are trying to offer them. We do not approach evangelism and missions the way a salesman seeks to sell a product. We go to the world with the confidence that the Gospel we proclaim carries the very power of God.

The Gospel does not need our help. It does not need to be dressed in modern garb. It does not need to be made more palatable for modern or post-modern tastes. It can stand on its own. It is that good. “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!...So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:15b, 17).

The Gospel Driven Church

The church must never move beyond the Gospel. It seems odd that a church could “lose” the Gospel but it is more common than we dare imagine. So much of the preaching and worship of the church is focused ultimately on what we can do rather than on what God has already done in Christ. Much of Christian spirituality is driven by achieving subjective mystical experiences rather than resting in the objective reality of the accomplished work of Christ. When this happens we begin to embrace, albeit unknowingly, a religious program of self-salvation. D.A. Carson writes:
"Many have commented on the fact that the church in the western world is going through a time of remarkable fragmentation. This fragmentation extends to our understanding of the gospel. For some Christians, “the gospel” is a narrow set of teachings about Jesus and his death and resurrection which, rightly believed, tip people into the kingdom. After that, real discipleship and personal transformation begin, but none of that is integrally related to “the gospel.” This is a far cry from the dominant New Testament emphasis that understands “the gospel” to be the embracing category that holds much of the Bible together, and takes Christians from lostness and alienation from God all the way through conversion and discipleship to the consummation, to resurrection bodies, and to the new heaven and the new earth."

To be Gospel-driven means that the Gospel will be our central message, the narrative of our lives, our motive for ministry, and our power in evangelism and missions. In this sense, we never move past the Gospel. Part of the genius of the Gospel is that it operates on two levels of reality. It is the simple message of salvation: Jesus died for sinners and rose victorious over the grave. It is also the deepest of deep truths. Who can fathom the mysteries of grace that caused the Son of God to become a curse in the place of sinners?

Therefore, the Gospel is a reality that drives the people of God. The Gospel will drive our worship. Our singing, preaching, and practice of the ordinances (Lord’s Supper & Baptism) are all shaped primarily by the cross. The themes of serving, sacrifice, and humility that are inherent to the Gospel will drive our fellowship. The call to repent and believe in Jesus Christ will drive us to the world to declare the good news of salvation. The promise of God’s coming new creation where love, holiness, and justice reign will drive us to engage the culture in such a way as to give people a foretaste of these kingdom realities.

Tim Keller of Manhattan’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church points our three ways that the Gospel gives us freedom to move into our culture:
1. The Gospel makes us humble
The Gospel requires radial humility. It requires that we give up on all notions that we can save ourselves or even help ourselves spiritually. It requires total dependence upon God. People defined by the Gospel are used to receiving. In this sense, the Gospel guards us from arrogance and gives us the freedom to say, “I have much to learn.”

There is much we can learn from culture. More specifically, there is much we can learn from lost people. We are not their Savior, Christ is. We are their servants. If we listen well we can learn the best ways to serve them and embody the saving service of Jesus.

2. The Gospel makes us confident.
To be humble is not the equivalent of lacking confidence. The Gospel allows us to say, “I have much to give.” We need not fear that we are like salesmen seeking to move a product that few people really want or need. The Gospel is news. It is the announcement of what Jesus Christ did to bring sinners to God. It is the best news in the universe. It is relevant to every age, every race, and every culture. Every man, woman, and child needs to hear the Gospel.

3. The Gospel makes us courageous.
It is not uncommon to fear the prospect of moving closer to the surrounding culture for the purpose of making the Gospel known. But there is a courage that the Gospel imparts that enables us to say, “I have nothing to fear.” Paul’s attitude is instructive. His perspective on his life is that he lived to declare the Gospel and would therefore be given as many days for that purpose as God determines. But if he departed this life then, as far as he was concerned: “that is better by far.” The Gospel does not make us irresponsible but it does not allow the idolizing of safety and security.

A Gospel-driven church will offer a radical alternative to any culture the world produces:
· The Gospel-driven church offers a radical alternative regarding sexuality. The world has perverted and twisted sexuality. On one hand, libertines exploit and idolize sex. On the other hand certain moralists have given the idea that there is something inherently wrong with sex. The church understands that sexuality is a good gift from God to be experienced within the blessed relationship between husband and wife. For the Christian, sex becomes an expression of love where giving is magnified over taking; mutual joy over selfish demands. Because so many people have been harmed by the fallen condition of our world the church must be prepared to surround them with a compassion and community shaped by the Gospel.
· The Gospel-driven church offers a radical alternative regarding marriage and family. Christians understand that marriage is a reflection of God’s covenant love and loyalty toward His people. They are committed to teaching God’s ways to their children. The church also affirms the goodness of singleness. Some are called to be single for a time and others for life. Whether God calls His children to marriage or singleness He does so purposefully for the sake of displaying His goodness and sufficiency.
· The Gospel-driven church offers a radical alternative regarding money and possessions. Christians are committed to generosity with all of their resources. They strive to ensure that there are “no needy among them” (Acts 4:34). The Gospel frees us from both asceticism and materialism. Christians who have been blessed with much or comparatively little will seek to use their money, their home, and their time for the benefit of others. They can give freely because they have come to know that Christ is sufficient and does not need to be augmented by material goods.
· The Gospel-driven church offers a radical alternative regarding power and status. The world craves power and status. Power is seen as having an advantage over others. Status is enjoyed by being an object of envy. The Gospel turns these worldly values inside out. Power is displayed through weakness and status is achieved by being the servant of all.
· The Gospel-driven church offers a radical alternative regarding social connections. The world is divided along racial, economic, political, and generational lines. The church fails when it reinforces those divisions. A Gospel-driven church consistently seeks to bridge man-made barriers between people. The Gospel heals racial strife and creates a community where godly older men and women mentor those who are younger. People will neither be despised nor envied because of their economic situation. When conflicts arise, as they surely will, a Gospel-Driven church actively pursues reconciliation as defined in Scripture.
· The Gospel-driven church offers a radical alternative to social action. In the world, social action becomes corrupted by political agendas from both the left and the right. The church is not a social services organization. However, it clear from Scripture that the church will be judged in part by how they treated the poor among them. There are churches today that do an excellent job of caring for poor people but are no longer faithful to God’s Word. There are other churches that are meticulously careful regarding doctrine but do little to meet the needs of the poor and lonely. The task for the Gospel-driven church is actively engage the needs of the poor without being co-opted by liberal doctrine and political agendas. On the other hand, the Gospel-driven church will watch their doctrine closely without being political bed-fellows with those on the right. The Gospel-driven church is wholly owned by Jesus Christ and cares only about His agenda and priorities.

The Gospel changes us. The Gospel-driven church says, “Because we have been forgiven, we will be forgiving. Because we have been shown mercy, we too will show mercy. Because we have been taken out of captivity, we will lead captives to freedom.” In this way, the Gospel becomes both our central message and the controlling motif for our lives. John Ensor writes in his book The Great Work of the Gospel, “Recipients of the gospel become servants of the gospel.” He continues:
“Servanthood is a way of life among the forgiven…We began as guilty sinners, living empty lives, and through the sanctifying power of His Spirit and belief in the truth, God washes, heals, molds, and spurs us on to a place where we wake up every day of our lives with the highest of all purposes for getting out of bed. We serve the living God...
“The great work takes the hostile and turns them into partners in the ministry of the gospel…It is not the Spirit of grace that for so many has made comfort and retirement the end of Christian faith; it is the Spirit of the age gone unchallenged. When grace is at work and on the move, cross-bearing in hard places, fed by the secret spring of joy in a better world yet to be realized, is found in its wake.”

Confessions of a 'Numbers' Pastor

Jim over at Old Truth has an interesting article ( Confessions of a 'Numbers' Pastor ) on the modern church's obsession with numeric success. Check it out.

Losing Jesus

The late Donald Grey Barnhouse once pondered what it would look like if Satan were to take over an entire city. His observation, made some fifty years ago, bears repeating in our own day. Dr. Barnhouse believed that a city where Satan truly ran the show would quite possibly be very moralistic. People would be nice to each other, stop using profanity, and the porn shops would be shut down. All of this would, or course, lead to a feeling of moral sufficiency. Such people would find it very difficult to consider themselves “sinners.” Most significantly, in the city where Satan was in charge the church would be filled on Sundays but Christ would not be preached.

Could it be that our own community is coming to resemble the one that Barnhouse envisioned? The problem in most churches is not a preoccupation with doing bad things. Rather the problem that we must constantly guard against is failing to do the necessary things. There is no doubt that many churches do many good things. But it is possible, indeed common to focus on such things as meaning in life, purpose, child-raising, and personal wholeness without seeing them as means to help us “fix our eyes on Jesus the Author and Perfector of our faith” (Heb 12:2).

Recently, my wife and I were watching the hip pastor of a huge church in Dallas preach a message on what he called “the cantaloupe principles” (don’t ask). At the conclusion of the message he promised that if we will just apply these principles we will be living “in the zone” and “God will bless everything you touch.” Upon hearing this I turned to Karen and asked, “If you were a lost person or the average church attendee what did you just hear him say?” To which my wife replied something along the lines of “Apply these principles and you will have more money, better relationships, nicer kids, etc.” And this is why I say such preaching, rather than leading to genuine conversion actually turns people away happier pagans. It effectively inoculates them from the Gospel by giving them a weakened version of it.

The above mentioned church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. It is identified with Bible-believing mainstream conservative evangelicalism. Their highly influential pastor would certainly sign off on an orthodox confession of faith. The problem is that Jesus makes rather rare appearances in his preaching and when He does it is usually in the guise of one who will help you achieve what you want out of life. This is the Jesus that is occupying more and more evangelical pulpits. It is the magical Jesus and he bears little resemblance to the Savior Jesus. Can such a Jesus truly save?

Some of you may tire of my harping on this subject but the stakes are sky high. What lies in the balance truly is the salvation of men and women. Preaching that carefully removes Jesus as the main theme or excludes Him entirely does not produce converts but moral lost people. It provides them with the latest principles for success but not the Gospel which is still God’s power for salvation for all who believe. But how will they believe unless someone preaches to them? (Rom 10). A magical Jesus is a distorted Jesus. A “cross-less” gospel is no gospel at all.

Preaching that keeps Jesus and His atoning work at the center of our worship, our message, and our very lives will require that pastors lead their people into the wonderful but sometimes challenging depths of biblical doctrine. And how can pastors do any less than this? How can men entrusted with the responsibility to herald the “faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) give God’s precious people romantic superstitions, “cantaloupe principles”, and lessons on likeability? I think it has something to do with the fact that doctrine divides and “Jesus the Life Coach” unites. For a man seeking to build a mega-church this is a powerful reality. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you’” (Jer 23:16-17).

In a recent article theologian Michael Horton writes, “So it’s not surprising that the world would think that ‘all we need is love,’ and we can do without the doctrine, since the world thinks it can do without Christ. Doctrine is where the religions most obviously part ways. Doctrine is where things get interesting – and dangerous…Jesus was not revolutionary because He said we should love God and each other. Moses said that first. So did Buddha, Confucius, and countless other religious leaders we’ve never heard of. Madonna, Oprah, Dr. Phil, the Dali Lama, and probably a lot of Christian leaders will tell us that the point of religion is to get us to love each other. ‘God loves you’ doesn’t stir the world’s opposition. However, start talking about God’s absolute authority, holiness, wrath, and righteousness, original sin, Christ’s substitutionary atonement, justification apart from works, the necessity of the new birth, repentance, baptism, communion, and the future judgment, and the mood in the room changes considerably.”

You men who are called to be shepherds, God has not changed the call to that of church CEO or religious entrepreneur. Despite the words of some prominent pastors, God has not stopped calling pastors to be Christ’s under-shepherds. Neither is “shepherd” a culturally conditioned metaphor that no longer holds meaning for sophisticated 21st century Americans. A church CEO may have to manage growth and understand his “market niche” but he does not need to know the mysteries of the faith. He certainly does not need to feed God’s beloved sheep. Oh how the church needs more shepherds!