The Gospel Coalition

Topic: “Can’t Buy Me Love”

Summary: What elements must accompany a faithful presentation of the gospel? What can a pastor do to ensure that others in his ministry are presenting the gospel in all its fullness? What are some ways you have seen decisions for Christ effectively acknowledged? What responsibilities does the preacher have to lead people in a public response to the gospel? When have we oversimplified or made the gospel formulaic? When have we made the gospel too complicated, and demanded more in our evangelism than the Scriptures do?

Speakers: Steven Furtick and Crawford Loritts, moderated by James MacDonald

Disclaimer: This is merely a summary of my notes, taken down live during the event. They may not be word-for-word and will need to be seen on video in order for their context to be fully understood. I will be updating this post every few minutes as the session goes on.

MacDonald: Nothing matters more than the gospel. In our desire to protect it, we must let it loose.

Loritts: We gravitate in recent years and get confused between what is the gospel and the effectiveness in sharing the gospel. We’ve gotten sloppy in terms of the framework. We’ve become pragmatic. If it produces results, it defines our theology. Pragmatism takes us to the wrong place. What is the content that does not change and what is the holy, anointed God-given motivation and approach? The content of the message itself (what the gospel is) and secondly, what is the holy approach given to us in the Scriptures that maintains the boundaries. Pragmatism flows out of that. People end up in heresy because they gravitate toward what works and they edit the content rather than questioning what exactly is working and why. We’ve given too much of a broad definition of the gospel. In its restrictive sense, what does it take to enter the kingdom of God? Paul did not have a speech impediment when he wrote 1 Corinthians 15:3-11.

MacDonald: So good to come back to that. The non-negotiables. You have the banks of the river. Contents can’t change, but we must stay within the riverbanks. Steven, you talk about presenting the message creatively and you say it isn’t watering it down.

Furtick: I would never give a gospel presentation without talking about the sinless life of Jesus Christ, and man in his sinful state needs a Savior. I would never leave out the cross and resurrection and the need to be saved by grace through faith. But when we hijack the term gospel, we begin making it mean our particular propensity to believe certain things and our theology. I love the gospel. The greatest evidence is that I am giving my life to preach it, not critique it. A deep and solid love for the essentials is so important. I was a traveling youth evangelist. I saw a lot of things that were good, but other things were confusing, coercive, manipulative. Kids crying because they’d been up 4 nights straight. It became so troubling to me that when we started our church, I wouldn’t give a public invitation. I was so reactive to what I’d seen done wrong that I took the message of Jesus (which is offensive – double-meaning, it offends and is on the offense), and I was playing defense with the message. Through studying the Scriptures and through seeing people far from God come into our church, I started to come under conviction that it was wrong for me to not invite people boldly to receive Christ. I studied the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13. It means that I ultimately can’t judge someone’s heart. We read the book of Acts over and over again. 3000 baptized that day. Public, immediate profession of faith. I focus my energy on the authenticity of the message, to make sure I am presenting the truth of the gospel, and to leave the Lord ultimate judgment. I do believe that the Lord has called me primarily to preach the gospel, not to critique it. There’s a place for us to achieve clarity, but I’m going to err on the side of urgently pleading with people to respond to the gospel, knowing God alone can save them.

Loritts: I affirm everything you said. Doing cartwheels in my heart. Inherent in the gospel is urgency. That is a reason why certain methods (lifestyle evangelism, relational) may be okay. But what we have lost is that hell is forever! FOREVER. The style of preaching today that is so conversational and nonchalant and journey-ish is not biblical preaching. There is inherent urgency in the cross of Jesus Christ.

MacDonald is standing up like Eric Mason, when he likes something.

Loritts: That doesn’t work for you, James. What I press on our young preachers, is… Please! Don’t be casual about eternal matters. Secondly, the balance you have to hold is that you give people an opportunity to respond, but you don’t get them to respond. That’s the approach you have to hold. We are not peddlers. You don’t dilute the gospel to get people to respond. You don’t violate the message. You give them an opportunity. I think sometimes our theological constructs get us in trouble. I warn younger Reformed guys… Please stop front-loading the gospel. When you are drowning in Lake Michigan, do not point out the features of the rescue boat! Point them to Jesus. Don’t cloud the cross. Let Jesus do His work. We get confused with our constructs. We preach what someone else says about the gospel instead the gospel. I’m lost. He died. He rose again. I turn from my sin. I trust Him.

Furtick: The only thing that was in my heart about conversational style… even that, to me, we need to make sure we don’t alienate our brothers who are preaching, like Paul, through tears. Sometimes there is boldness that comes through in a different way. I want to be careful to understand someone’s context and the entirety of their ministry. I’ve heard of people who others said don’t preach the gospel, but then I listened to them and heard the gospel. We just had a funeral for a 17-year-old boy. They asked me if I would preach his funeral. When I gave his message, I pleaded with the people. There are hundreds of people who need to hear the gospel. My theology says God will save them if they confess and believe. I asked the family if I could ask people to raise their hand to give their hand to Christ. I slowed down, because you have to be careful that people don’t answer from emotion. When people raised their hands, I could tell the family, Riley’s life was not in vain. I’m not saying that everyone who raised their hands necessarily gave their hearts to Christ. But I’m going to err on the side of asking people to respond.

MacDonald: It’s not the tone that’s the urgency, it’s the sense that the gospel is leading to a response. Urging people to respond to the message they’ve heard.

Cordeiro: We are giving people an opportunity to step over the line of faith. We don’t always do it well. But thank God, opportunities are being given. That’s what is diminishing in the church.

MacDonald: I got saved so many times as a little kid going to church. I don’t know which one took. But I’m glad the Lord saved me!

Jakes: I respect both viewpoints, and I don’t think they are contradictory. There are parallels of the same truth. Our age wants a recipe for everything. When we try to get our methodology down to a science, we negate the mysticism of the cross. Jesus healed a blind man through spoken word, and the next time by spittle and clay. We keep trying to formalize something beyond formula. Sometimes we will excommunicate someone who God is using differently. We all think differently. We process differently. If you don’t learn it the way I learn it, you can’t learn. If the end result is bringing people to the cross of Jesus Christ and their sins are remitted by the washing of the blood, then that is what is important.

MacDonald: I talked with Bill Hybels not long ago. All his staff was reflecting on this point. Write down the five things that if you were to leave out of the gospel presentation a person couldn’t get saved. They spent several months discussing those things. He was concerned about the staff not being on the same page of the gospel. Mark, what’s your list of five things? We don’t want to oversimplify.

Driscoll: Sinless God, we have sinned against. Jesus came, died, buried, resurrection. Repentance and faith.

Graham: Can’t add to that! God gave us the pattern of confessing our faith in New Testament baptism. I would be interested in hearing you reflect on your views of baptism. I don’t know how they processed the 3000 on the day of Pentecost. But baptism is what identified them as believers. Evangelism is not complete until they are baptized.

Furtick: First time I met Jack was when we were doing spontaneous baptisms. I preached the gospel, what baptism is, what it represents, how it identifies you with Christ. We talk about how following Christ is not like following someone on Twitter. When Jesus commands, we listen. Baptism is the first command. It is very important to our church. I wish that every time I gave an invitation we could baptize everyone right there and right then. I baptized my son this past Sunday at the end of our revival. He’s only six. I had someone on Twitter saying that I had made yet another false convert.

Driscoll: Stop being on Twitter and go for ice cream with your son!

Furtick: People on Twitter were looking up the people we just baptized and telling them that their baptism didn’t count because I preach a false gospel.

MacDonald: That is pathetic.

Furtick: My people who are on Twitter don’t know the difference. We have to be very clear. I believe in a strong gospel presentation, but I want to be really slow to judge someone as a false teacher. I want to love actively and offensively.

Loritts: I don’t disagree with you when I talk about passion and urgency. I’m not talking about tone and style. People must sense the priority and urgency in your heart. I’m not talking about style. There is an arrogance that sets in when we elevate our approach or strategy to the gospel when we take the urgency out of the gospel.

MacDonald: Some preach the gospel carefully and accurately, but without urgency. The best way for someone to confess Christ is not raising hands, signing a card, walking an aisle. The biblical mandate is for people to picture the death, burial and resurrection by being baptized. We must drive toward the urgency of calling for a response.

Loritts: Jesus puts baptism in the Great Commission. I agree. It is an act of obedience.

Furtick: I have friends who preach creatively. Some friends take shots because of what they’ll do to get people’s attention. But we know the power is in the gospel, the foolishness of the cross. I applaud my friends who are willing to tear off the roof to get people to Jesus. If we are too quick to criticize someone’s methodology, we align ourselves with the Pharisees who are watching to see what Jesus will do, rather than celebrating what He has done in healing someone.

Driscoll: It’s easier to be a critic than a pastor. God works in spite of me, by His grace.

Graham: When Moody preached in Chicago, he sent everyone home, and then the fire hit. He promised God he would never again preach without giving people an opportunity to respond. The method of response is not the issue.

MacDonald: We are ambassadors for Christ. To be casual and indifferent does not honor the truth of the gospel.

Graham: Don’t you think that evangelistic churches get characterized as shallow? Not deep? Shouldn’t we try to overcome that?

MacDonald: I’m working on a book called Vertical Church. The key is not to be an evangelistic church or discipleship church. The focus must be on bringing glory to God. I don’t care just about getting them in, but growing them up and sending them out again.

Question: How does emotion play into a gospel presentation?

Furtick: It plays heavily – both positively and negatively. Engaging people emotionally is absolutely within the bounds of the New Testament preaching and teaching model I see. We all do things in our church to meet physical needs. It can become manipulative, but there is also a danger in a cold, indifferent preacher. I’d rather have a hot heart, going into Christmas and Easter like I’m going into a burning building bringing people out. I’d rather apologize to God for trying something rather than being indifferent.

Loritts: Somehow to be passionate and emotional is inauthentic – how crazy! How can you share the gospel without being loving? We are whole people. We must care about that person’s soul. That gives authenticity to our message.

MacDonald: Martin Lloyd Jones said that a man who can speak dispassionately has no right to be in the pulpit. A theology that does not catch fire is a defective theology. God help us not to compromise the gospel, but God help us to not be so up in our heads that we can’t open the lion cage and see God change hearts.