I SO LONG TO BE A PART OF A GOSPEL-CENTERED CHURCH

Success is not always immediate results…

Think with me if you will about what the modern day church in America looks like in contrast to the way Jesus did ministry. Most churches in the western world define themselves by what programs they offer, what events they host, what type of music they have, and the personality of the pastor. Jesus’ ministry however, was very basic; He simply focused on preaching, teaching, and discipleship. Often the main concern in the western church is to draw a crowd, whereas Jesus often retreated from crowds in order to disciple His apostles. Why did Jesus do this? In Robert Coleman’s book The Master Plan of Evangelism he writes:

“Why did Jesus deliberately concentrate his life on comparatively so few people? Had he not come to save the world? ... Surely the Son of God could have adopted a more enticing program of mass recruitment. Is it not rather disappointing that one with all the powers of the universe at his command would live and die to save the world, yet in the end only have a few ragged disciples to show for his labors? The answer to this question focuses at once on the real purpose of his plan for evangelism. Jesus was not trying to impress the crowd, but to usher in a Kingdom.”

Jesus’ view of ministry was not one of quantity but of quality. Yes, Jesus cared/cares deeply about the world, and we know that He is saving people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. But what we see in His ministry is not a neglect of the world but a ministry that takes the long view in order to have a larger impact. Jesus’ example makes us ask ourselves the question, “What if instead of trying to casually impact everyone, we focused our efforts to radically impact a few?”

Robert Coleman continues:

"Here is where we must begin just like Jesus. It will be slow, tedious, painful, and probably unnoticed by people at first, but the end result will be glorious, even if we don't live to see it. We must decide where we want our lives and ministry to count - in the momentary applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of our lives in a few chosen people who will carry on our work after we have gone. Really it is a question of which generation we are living for."

The way in which many churches do ministry often seems to be having much immediate success; but how many are actually agents of true lasting change in their people, their community, and out into the world? How many are really seeing lives transformed? I heard David Platt say in his sermon at Together for the Gospel this year, “If we’re not careful we will deceive ourselves, mistaking the presence of physical bodies in a building for the existence of spiritual life in a church.” So, in other words, numbers do not equal success. We can’t measure success by immediate results. Ultimately what equals success is faithfulness to the gospel; and God’s Word teaches us that faithfulness to the gospel will lead to true lasting impact and change.

A vision for something closer to Jesus’ ministry philosophy…

If we don’t need a whole bunch of programs to do ministry, what do we need to reach people and transform lives? I propose three things: gospel-centered discipleship, community, and worship. These three not only transform the lives of the individuals who make up a local church, but they also transform the church as a whole, the community the church is in, and on out into the world; and this all works together to glorify God.

The gospel is the glorious message that tells us that God has made a way for lost wicked sinners to be reconciled to Him and live forever with Him in a world free of sin and its effects through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is at the center of the Christian life because it is what creates and empowers the Christian life in every stage; therefore every aspect of the Christian must be tethered to the gospel. A person hears the gospel and gets knowledge of this glorious message. Faith comes upon hearing this message and as that faith grows the character of this person will begin to grow in Christlikeness. As the person becomes more and more like Christ the person’s faith and character will lead to action; the action of being a doer of the word. And then the cycle continues because the riches of God’s grace in the gospel are unsearchable; we’ll never reach the bottom of this glorious well (Romans 11:33). So, for the individual, discipleship—the Christian life really, would flow something like this.

Now for the church as a whole there is a similar pattern of life. Like the individual, the church as a whole is created and empowered by the gospel; therefore every aspect of the church must be tethered to the gospel. God accomplishes His purposes for His people through His Word (Gen. 1:3; Isa. 55:10-11; Acts 12:24), so the doctrine of a church is crucial. As gospel doctrine is laid out week in and week out through discipleship and preaching the lives of the members begin to be transformed by the power of the gospel leading to a gospel lifestyle. As the lifestyle of the members of a church become more and more in step with the gospel (Gal. 2:14) the overall culture of the church begins to become gospel-centered.

To be gospel-centered means that the gospel and Jesus himself is our greatest hope and boast, our deepest longing and joy, and our most passionate song and message. It means that the gospel is what defines us as Christians, unites us as brothers and sisters in Christ, changes us from sinners to saints, and sends us out to live our lives with intentionality to edify the saints, evangelize the lost, and worship God. A gospel-centered church is about Jesus above everything else. The sermons we preach, the lessons we teach, the songs we sing, the prayers we pray, the way we do life with one another, and the way we live our lives when we are scattered into the world will be focused on and saturated with the gospel and its implications.

As this culture becomes established in a church it will begin to shine out the nature and character of God to the watching world, leading to true gospel witness. As the witness of a church grows in gospel clarity it will have more of an impact on the surrounding community because as Christ says, it will shine out like a city on a hill. So, the greater the gospel transformation in the church the greater the gospel witness. The greater the gospel witness the greater the influence, impact, and evangelistic witness on the world. And this too is an ongoing cycle. So, for the local church, life would flow something like this.

The gospel creates something beautiful and powerful…

In his new book The Gospel, Ray Ortlund says, “Gospel-centered churches are living proof that the good news is true, that Jesus is not a theory but real. . . . When the doctrine is clear and the culture is beautiful, that church will be powerful.” So simply through gospel-centered discipleship (evangelism and helping others pursue Christlikeness), community (living life together and fulfilling the “one anothers” of the New Testament), and worship (both corporate worship through the preaching of the Word, prayer, and singing, as well as living a lifestyle of worship), we can become true agents of change for the mission of the gospel in our city and to the nations.

This may sound great but in real life this is slow moving, hard work. Along with the church being made up of a bunch of repentant sinners, the world is made up of a bunch of unrepentant sinners; add that combination to an already fallen world and a real enemy who hates the gospel and gospel-centered churches and you have a recipe for grueling hard work. But, by God’s grace this vision for the church can be accomplished. As Robert Coleman said, “It will be slow, tedious, painful, and probably unnoticed by people at first, but the end result will be glorious, even if we don't live to see it.” So, the question is, are we willing to put in the time and effort to see gospel transformation in ourselves, our churches, our communities, and the world? Are we willing to pour our lives into a few as Jesus did in hopes of having a more meaningful impact? When each member of a church focuses on discipling a few and living lives that are in step with the gospel I truly believe we will have a much bigger impact than we ever could through an event or a program. Oh, how I so long to be a part of something like this...