The Gospel Coalition

This post is a much belated entry in the Prologue to Missional Discussion Synchroblog.

I think I am three weeks late answering this question, but the powers that be have not emailed any since then, so maybe I’m golden.

Here are the questions for this round of the synchroblog: Is there a “primary” concern in the mission of God? Is that evangelism, making disciples, societal transformation, or something else? Or, are they of equal value?

I believe there is a primary concern in God’s mission, and that is for persons to know him relationally, to be personally forgiven of their sins and be reconciled to him. The question behind the question is really this: Which is more primary, the gospel of personal salvation or the gospel of the kingdom? This sort of presupposes these are separate concepts. I do believe they are not the same thing, but disagree (with qualifications) that they are separate. Clear as mud, I know.

I believe the gospel, as Tim Keller says, is both one and more than that. But you cannot properly receive and enjoy the “more than that” without the “one.” This is to say that the gospel of the kingdom (which some try to say was Jesus’ gospel) and the gospel of justification by faith (which some say is Paul’s gospel, as if ne’er the twain shall meet) are degrees of magnification of the whole. This is something I explore a bit more fully in my current book in progress, so I don’t want to steal its thunder. But suffice it to say, I would say the kingdom gospel presupposes and succeeds justification by faith.

I don’t think the church enacting “social justice” is the gospel. It is an implication of the gospel, our living as if the gospel is true. But I do think God restoring all things is the gospel. The big hinge difference is that none of the works of our hands can be gospel, but they can be means of proclaiming the gospel. Yet not the primary means. The gospel is news to be articulated, and its implications are to be demonstrated. This is of course, in some strong sense, “proclamation” as well, but it cannot replace or even take precedent over verbal proclamation.

So, again: I would say the priority of God’s mission is evangelism/discipleship, but this is not to say that acts of mercy, societal transformation, or whatever you want to call it are optional. The best means of pinpointing this distinction comes from Scripture’s strong words about faith and works. Faith alone justifies but faith is not alone. You cannot separate works from it or it is not faith. In the same way, I do not see how we can urge evangelism as the whole of mission, given all we see just in the synoptic gospels. In Acts, we see the personal gospel taking hold of individuals, which grew the counter-culture of the church, which resulted in all sorts of cultural and social fallout, from care of the poor to the bankruptcy of idol-makers.

But the priority is there from God’s creation of Adam and Eve for relational closeness, of which subduing the earth was the outflow. And in his carving out Abraham to himself (through Abraham’s faith) in covenant, of which the building of a people, a nation, that is like the sands on the beach or stars in heaven was the outflow. And in the prophets calling Israel to repentance of sins, of which the prosperity of the covenant people was the outflow. (At the heart of all the covenant people did throughout the Old Testament beat the blood of the sacrificial system, atonement for sins and reconciliation with YHWH.) And in Christ calling the twelve to him, of which the kingdom ministry was the outflow. And in Christ proclaiming riches for those spiritually poor, of which the kingdom blueprint of the Sermon on the Mount was the outflow. And in Christ commissioning the disciples to make disciples and baptize, of which the explosion of the kingdom-witness of the church was the outflow.

He has come to seek and save the lost.

Acts of mercy, caring for the poor, bringing God’s justice to bear, ministering to widows and orphans, and all other good works are integral ways to seek and demonstrate God’s saving purposes, but none of them save somebody’s soul, which Jesus seems fairly preoccupied with in Mark 8:36.

I am uneasy with the implicit reductionism in Vance Havner’s famous statement, “If social gospel had been around in the prodigal son’s day, he would have gotten a bed and a meal but never returned home,” but I affirm the spirit behind it. I would perhaps reframe it to ask, “What would it profit the prodigal son to receive a bed and a sandwich but lose his soul?”

I am on board the mission to live and proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. I am only concerned that many who want to do this do so as if this kingdom has a King behind the curtain, that embracing the yoke of God’s sovereignty in the gospel of Christ’s cross and resurrection is a minor note. It at least sounds that way.

To return to the question, “Are [evangelism/discipleship and social transformation] of equal value?” I would say, no, they are not of equal value. But neither is either of them optional.

I am not a fan of an individualistic gospel. But there is no gospel without the first importance of a personal gospel for individuals. God’s plan for “Creation/Fall/Redemption” in fact encompasses and is contingent upon the working of “God/Man/Christ/Response.”

Here are a couple of angles on this subject I have found helpful . . .

The first is this recent blog post from Ken Prater of Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan on Preaching the Cross to Its Fullest Dimensions.

The second is this video interview of Mark Dever by Ed Stetzer on the gospel and social transformation.

I agree with both of them.

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Others participating in the conversation:

Ed Stetzer
Rick Meigs: The Blind Beggar
Bill Kinnon: kinnon.tv
Brother Maynard: Subversive Influence
David Fitch: Reclaiming the Mission
Tiffany Smith: Missional Mayhem
Jared Wilson: The Gospel-Driven Church
Jonathan Dodson: Creation Project

Feel free to explore and read their takes on the question. So for the sake of conversation, leave a comment with your own answer to the questions, “Is there a “primary” concern in the mission of God? Is that evangelism, making disciples, societal transformation, or something else? Or, are they of equal value?”

God through Malachi comes to the end of a series of rebukes of the priests of Israel (for offering polluted and blemished sacrifices) and says this:

Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.
– Malachi 1:14

This is a curse you and I bear. We are — every one of us — cheats. Hucksters. Phonies. Charlatans. Hypocrites. We go through the religious motions, we muddle through. We soak in lukewarmness. We vow our best to God and then give him half our heart (or less). And truth be told, there is not a single one of us whose best would not be blemished anyhow, total depravity being what it is.

So there we have it. We sinful, scheming cheats are under a curse. And God, as R.C. Sproul says, “will not negotiate his holiness.”

But he will have his glory one way or another. That is not up for debate. His name “will be feared among the nations.” He has predetermined this, and our sin, though great and total, is not some kind of kryptonite for God’s plans for his own fame. His glory will cover the earth like the waters cover the seas. That’s a promise.

So what to do? Nothing we can do. Just be cursed cheats, I s’pose. Something must give, though. God won’t negotiate the price but he will have his own glory. Could it be — oh my goodness, dare we think it? — that he’d paid the price himself?

And here we see in the harsh tones of Malachi the whispers of the Messiah. Between the lines of the heavy words of rebuke ride the heavy beams of the cross. These old covenant shadows are cast by the emergence of the new.

God vows a male from his own flock, but an unblemished one. The spotless lamb of God bears the curse for us. (As the Scriptures say, cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. And while he hangs there, cheaters play beneath his feet.)

Because he is a great King. And his name will be feared among the nations.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

The gospel is the most compelling, the most fascinating, the most incomprehensibly wonderful news ever. So how come we don’t preach or teach or talk like it is?

Fog-and-lasers churches don’t trust that the good news is compelling. Sturm und drang churches don’t act like it is.

It is true that the cross is an offense, a stumbling block, “foolishness.” And it is true that attractional-ism is an imbalanced mode of ministry.

But gospel-driven churches ought to be attractive. They ought to radiate joy. Their preachers should be self-deprecating, winsome, and visibly moved by the power of the gospel. If we truly believe the good news is that good, why don’t we make it sound like it is? Why do we sound bored? Angry? Disinterested? Or why do we seem excited about and interested in all sorts things other than the gospel?

This is not about tickling ears. It’s about speaking and living as if we feel that the gospel is true.

I am hearing more and more of husbands who are not tending well to their wives’ hearts. This occurs in the form of “using” their wives for ministry ends and business ends and family ends.

Some church planters and pastors will wield their wives like instruments in building the ministry or furthering the cause.

Some husbands will use up their wives for the cause of a “well-run family” or a “well-ordered home.”

Gentlemen, are you doing this? Are you spending your wife to gain a ministry? That is marital suicide. Your primary ministry is to your wife.

Are you spending your wife to gain your children? That is a lose-lose enterprise, because you will lose your wife’s heart and still not gain your children’s (because they will see how you treat their mama).

The best thing you can do for your ministry and your kids is love your wife gently, tenderly, honorably, affectionately, wisely, romantically, and — above all – Christly.

#1 Francis Chan is leaving the pastorate. Or at least, he’s leaving his current pastorate. Check out the video interview with Catalyst here. He says, “I’d love to be obscure again.” What an anomaly in the celebrity pastor world.

#2 On a related note, you can now watch the Band of Bloggers presentations on “Gospel Fidelity and Internet Idolatry” at Tim Brister’s blog. My bit was on incarnating integrity and blogging gospel exultation. The feedback was great, and I was grateful for all the hard work Tim, the Sojourn crew, Owen Strachan, and other volunteers put into making it all come together.

#3 One of the attendees, though, who received a copy of the leader kit for my new book Abide wrote me this past weekend to complain about the warmed-over Catholic mysticism and New Age spirituality in the book. I was perplexed. Some of the stuff he put in quotation marks in his email aren’t even actual phrases from the book. The other things he seemed concerned about didn’t sound familiar as something I’d write. As I pressed deeper, I realized he was objecting to some of the language used in the exercise sections of the book, which weren’t written by me, but by Threads editors. Still, my name is on the book, so I am responsible for all that’s in it, I know. Some of the stuff recommended seems kinda frou-frou to me, but I don’t see how one could get “New Age spirituality” from it. The other thing the guy didn’t like was a sidebar quote from Bill Hybels. I totally own that, as that came from my text. I understand the impulse to reject anything somebody says if we disagree with their approach to ecclesiology or what-have-you. But I don’t share the impulse. Anyone who reads my stuff long enough knows I have serious issues with the seeker-driven, attractional mindset. But I can recognize when a brother in Christ I disagree with on some things says others that I find helpful. (The quote in question was about prayer.)

#4 So before the T4G conference last week I posted something about dudes not watching porn in their hotel rooms, and it got a lot of traction. Now I wonder if someone should have posted something about not being idiots at restaurants and cafes, because while I was in Louisville I kept hearing horror stories. One waitress told us that one party she waited on left her a $7 tip on an $80 bill but also left one of those fake million-dollar-bill gospel tracts. Another got “Way of the Master”ed while she served a table. She was in tears relating this to another pastor, who ministered to her more gently. I abominate whoever left the fake money tract. The lines for service were long last week, so there was a lot of sighing and eye rolling and short temperedness from Christians who forgot they were there to serve.

#5 Celtics are up the first game against Miami in first round of playoffs. Game 2 is tomorrow night but no Kevin Garnett.

A word of warning for the thousands entering Louisville next week for the Together 4 the Gospel Conference: what you do in the privacy of your hotel room can be a witness against the gospel. Think this is unwarranted?

From Steve Farrar’s Finishing Strong:

A number of years ago a national conference for church youth directors was held at a major hotel in a city in the mid-west. Youth pastors by the hundreds flooded into that hotel and took nearly every room. At the conclusion of the conference, the hotel manager told the conference administrator that the number of guests who tuned into the adult movie channel broke the previous record, far and away outdoing any other convention in the history of the hotel.

My friend Justin Holcomb, who is a sociologist, an author, a pastor at Mars Hill Seattle, director of Mosaic Peace, and the academic dean of Re:Train helped me in looking into this phenomenon, recalling from his own research in an email to me:

I interviewed hotel managers about this when I was teaching in the sociology department at Univ of Virginia. All managers said that porn rates increase during conferences in general. That’s normal because they have more guests. A few admitted that it seems to be the same or a bit more when Christian conferences come to town. One manager was a Christian and he said a line I’ll never forget: “Unfortunately, ‘they know you are Christians by your…porn consumption’ is more truthful than ‘love’ when it comes to this.”

Friends, this should not be.

We may flood to the area hotels next week and outwardly demonstrate a solid witness for the gospel, and then put a black eye on the church, thinking viewing pornography in our hotel room is easy, confidential, and inconsequential. Will the church stun Louisville hotel managers with its porn consumption next week?

If you believe you are susceptible to this, take precautions now. Secure a roommate, have your TV removed or stations blocked, whatever you have to do. Thinking longer term, utilize Internet filters or accountability software, or seek out help with a pastor or counselor if you need it.

And of course you shouldn’t not view porn next week merely because you could contribute to a black eye to the bride of Christ. You should not view it any time because it dishonors God and because the joys of Christ and his gospel are stronger and more fulfilling than lustful indulgence.

Blessings, T4G’ers. Watch your life and your doctrine closely, because your private life gives public witness, whether you realize it or not.

Sermon this Sunday is on Malachi 1:1-5. So much meat in just those 5 verses — stuff on election, God’s love, God’s wrath, his sovereignty over calamities, etc. — but the thing I see framing it all is a two-part power of the gospel proclamation that is there. Here is the passage, with the gospel proclamation(s) in bold:

1The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob 3but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” 4If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.’” 5 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!”

There is past tense and then future tense. There is “I have loved you” and there is “Your own eyes shall see . . .”

God through Malachi is addressing a half-hearted, spiritually corrupt covenant community. They have predicated their polluted religion on all that God is not presently doing. They are struggling financially and politically. They are muddling through while their enemies seem to prosper.

And God doesn’t say, “Hey, look around. Everything’s great!” He knows “looking around” is their problem. He beckons them to look back and to look forward.

This is a great reminder to us about how the gospel empowers us for daily living, even when we are in a bind or grind. When our world appears to be falling apart. When we can’t see our way out of the predicament or the grief we are in. The gospel bids us look back to what God has done in Christ on the cross and out of the tomb for his own glory and for us. “I have loved you” this says to troubled souls. And he bids us in the gospel to look forward to the blessed hope of Christ’s glorious return, our gathering together to him, our resurrection, our placement in an eternal wonderland where there are no more problems.

This is the already and the not yet of the gospel. This is the fantastic remembrance of what God has done really in history to save us and the fantastic anticipation of what God will really do in history to save us.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain.
– 1 Corinthians 15:1-2

#1 One of the BHT fellows said it best: “It sucks there won’t be any more new iMonk.” I would have loved to read his take on the Piper/Warren controversy. Although I’m sure I could guess what he’d have said, it’s not the same as actually reading him saying it.

#2 I’m really looking forward to T4G next week. The refreshment of live gospel preaching is something I need for ministry and just my general well-being. Also looking forward to reconnecting with some friends at the Band of Bloggers event and beyond, and of course meeting some for the first time face to face.

#3 Band of Bloggers and T4G may be sold out, but if you’re a student minister or youth worker, The Calling May 8 is still open. It’s in beautiful Maine. All registrants get a free copy of my new book Abide.

#4 The wife flies in tonight for her last temporary visit until permanent move in May. To say I’m looking forward to being with her is an understatement. The last 9 months have been some of the hardest of our lives, but because God is sovereign and sweet, they have been a blessing in some surprising ways. I think as they’ve “watched” us be apart in this time, the people of our church here have developed a deeper affection for both of us.

#5 Brian McLaren is a big baby. If you disagree with him, you are a poor brainwashed zombie under Pharisaical control. Or so says he.

#6 So much whining in evangelicalism today. We’d do well to remind ourselves that whining is not a sign of repentance. I think of this whenever I think to peruse the public statements of a fallen pastor who is on the fast track to planting another church. With his girlfriend. I have two things to say about this: “The stuff you’ve been through” is not stuff that happened to you. It’s stuff you did. You are not a victim. And acting like you are is more sign of unrepentance. Secondly: Only in the spiritually and theologically retarded landscape of the Bible Belt can a guy and his mistress crush their spouses, plant a church together, and have it fill with people (and have other Christians applaud them and offer cheap platitudes about “grace”).

#7 I leave you with this: My eldest singing “Morning Has Broken” during the offertory on Easter Sunday:

Macy Singing “Morning Has Broken” from Jared Wilson on Vimeo.

Our friend the Internet Monk passed away last night. This whole thing happened too fast.

Michael was a maddening, wonderful, special man. In a vast sea of bloggers, Michael was a writer.

I will write more later. Just don’t have the whatever to do it now.

Please pray for his wife Denise, son Clay and his wife, and daughter Noel and her husband.

We love you, Michael. I am glad for you that you are someplace realer.

The late John Updike, perhaps the last truly great American novelist, wrote one of my favorite poems about the Easter event:

SEVEN STANZAS OF EASTER

By John Updike

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that — pierced — died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.