There is an interesting discussion going on over at Kingdom Come regarding gospel-centered preaching. Some of those commenting on Pastor Rob’s post are wrestling with what it really means to preach gospel-centered sermons and whether it is actually necessary. You can check it out here.

I have found that the term “gospel-centered” often confuses and sometimes even offends people. Questions about the term and its implications abound.

“What does it mean to be gospel-centered? Aren’t all Christians gospel-centered?”
“Isn’t it arrogant to refer to one’s self or one’s church as gospel-centered? Doesn’t that imply that other believers and churches are not gospel-centered?”
“Why don’t you just say Christ-centered? Don’t they mean the same thing?”
“What distinguishes a gospel-centered person from a non-gospel-centered one?”
“What’s the big deal about all this gospel-centered talk anyway?”

I have heard questions like these fairly frequently. They are not hard to come by. Answers, on the other hand, can be very difficult to come by. So, what are we left with—a lot of questions about gospel-centeredness without any substantial answers? I hope not. Below you will find some lectures by Mark Lauterbach of Gospel Driven Life where he attempts to answer the “so what?” question of gospel centrality. The three-part series (plus a Q & A session) is entitled “Gospel Centrality…So What?” If you want to download each session, right-click on “download” and click “save as”.

Session 1 - listen / download
Session 2 - listen / download
Session 3 - listen / download
Q & A - listen / download

Matt Hand writes: When I used the term “kingdom” in my original posting, I meant for it to be understood in two simple ways. The first is to think of the kingdom in terms of the in-breaking of Christ’s reign, bringing true righteousness, justice, holiness, and peace. Dan explained this aspect of the kingdom well in his posting (Part 2, comment #4), so I won’t belabor that.

The second is to think of other believers in terms of “fellow citizens” of God’s kingdom. A key passage in my thinking that stresses this kind of unity is Ephesians 2:11-22. Paul is exhorting believers to live in the reality that Christ came in the flesh and, through his bloody death, killed the social/ethnic/racial/political hostility that too often exists between fellow believers (in context, Jews and Gentiles). He tells them all to live with the new perspective that they are fellow citizens of God’s kingdom, fellow members of God’s household, and fellow stones of God’s temple.

It’s not my purpose here to write an exhaustive theology of the kingdom. I simply want to think in terms of these two aspects of the kingdom (the in-breaking of shalom, etc., through the incarnation of Christ, and our resulting fellow citizenship). Kingdom work, as this passage continues into chapter 3, involves making known the mystery of reconciliation in Christ so that the glorious wisdom of God is put on display.

Suburban churches can display these two aspects of kingdom living by partnering with like-minded urban churches for the sake of the gospel. Urban churches (like ours) have on-the-ground know-how, but few resources. Suburban churches often have those resources, but may (repeat: may) be guilty of using those resources fairly selfishly for maintaining happy church people, rather than reaching out to the unchurched/lost in their own urban centers. When I use the term “maintenance” I’m not talking about a discipleship program or Bible study curriculum or anything like that which is designed to grow believers in Christ. I AM talking about the tendency for suburban churches to “tear down barns and build bigger barns” just because they can. I’m talking about professing Christians who have an insatiable appetite to have more, bigger, better, newer, glitzier stuff — all in the name of doing church. I’m talking about Christians who limit their conception of (and interest in) the work of Christ to what He’s doing in their own heart or just their church. Is it really that selfless to give away a dollar when you know 99 cents of it is going to be used on you?

One way suburban Christians can advance the gospel of the kingdom is by looking at urban Christians and genuinely thinking of them as fellow citizens in Christ — as brothers and sisters and members of the same Body. If the watching world began to observe that degree of community among believers, it would destroy their ability to stereotype the Church as being urban or suburban, white or black, rich or poor, young or old. If suburban Christians had a kingdom-like concern to eradicate the disparity of wealth, healthcare, crime, abortion, etc., THROUGH THE COMPREHENSIVE TEACHING OF THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM in their own urban centers, what would be the result? The world doesn’t have categories for explaining away that kind of radical commitment to Christian reconciliation and shalom. As a result, the Church (not a church) would be a city set on a hill, an alternate kingdom of God in the cities of men.

Chris Giammona, who formely served with Tim Keller at Redeemer, adds his thoughts to the discussion on The Gospel and Suburban Churches at A Mind Awake.

We need to keep the dialogue going on this issue. So below you will find Matt Hand’s thoughts on The Gospel and Suburban Churches from the comment section of the original post. Let’s continue to think hard about what it means to be missional in suburbia. Matt writes:

For a suburban church to be truly gospel-centered, it must be kingdom-minded. We can’t miss this connnection between the gospel and the kingdom in Mark 1:14-15 – ‘Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.’” Authentic belief in the gospel of Jesus is inseparable from kingdom living.

Local churches (both surburban and urban) are often guilty of losing (or never having) a kingdom mindset. This myoptic worldview is perhaps more clearly recognizable in suburban churches, simply because they tend to grow faster and they tend to own more real property than comparable urban churches. Even a new church can very quickly shift focus from mission to maintainance. The church budget, programs, and even teaching drift from an emphasis on reaching out with the gospel (to make and mature disciples) to maintaining happy church people. While the teaching of the church may still be relatively “gospel-centered, Christ-centered,” the applications of the gospel are dangerously limited to the individual or that local church, rather than to the kingdom of God. No amount of this kind of teaching will undo the harm unless the body of Christ re-focuses itself on the broader mission of Christ’s good news, which is to draw other sheep that are not of this fold.

Practically, that means suburban churches need to continually “jump the curve” from maintainance back to mission. One way to do this is by gradually eliminating impersonal missions endeavors and, instead, partnering with urban ministries in the area. This breaks down the “us vs. them” mentality of the suburban church toward the urban church and helps members apply the gospel with a view toward the kingdom of God, whose influence extends well beyond any individual or single local church. Partner churches could, on occasion, worship together. They could certainly cooperate in endeavors of mercy on behalf of their city, demonstrating both to members and to the unchurched that the gospel requires selfless participation for the sake of the kingdom.

I recently learned that Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer NYC, has a blog that was launched in conjunction with Redeemer’s Vision Campaign. Tim explains that “Redeemer’s vision is to build a great city for all people through a gospel movement that brings about personal conversion, community formation, social justice, and cultural renewal in New York and throughout the world.” His church’s strategy flows out of the Apostle Paul’s practice of planting urban churches. He writes, “The greatest missionary in history, St. Paul, had a rather simple, two-fold strategy. First, he went into the largest city of the region (cf. Acts 16:9, 12), and second, he planted churches in each city (cf. Titus 1:5—appoint elders in every town). Once Paul had done that, he could say that he had preached the gospel in a region and that he had no more work to do there (cf. Romans 15:19, 23).” Tim then argues that “the way to most permanently influence a country was through its chief cities,” and “the way to most permanently influence a city was to plant churches in it.”

Tim Keller’s blog provides him the opportunity to answer commonly asked questions regarding Redeemer’s vision for the city, NYC in particular, as Redeemer moves forward with its Vision Campaign. So I thought I would submit a question that addresses a tension I have felt with this emphasis upon the city. I did and he graciously replied. Hopefully my question and his answer will encourage suburban pastors and churches to give this issue serious thought.

My question:

Tim,

I have visited Redeemer several times over the past few years and my appreciation for Redeemer’s gospel-centered, missional vision continues to grow. I also recognize the importance of planting like-philosophy churches in major cities. But what about churches like mine that have been located in “suburbia” for years. Should there be any differences in the mindset and approach of a gospel-centered suburban church than of a gospel-centered inner-city church like Redeemer?

Dan

Tim’s response:

There will be have to be some necessary differences in mindset between urban and suburban churches because context always affects us deeply. Our own daughter churches in the NYC suburbs have the same theological vision and love of the city, but they simply aren’t a) as multi-ethnic and b) as close to the poor–because the zoning laws of the suburbs tend to homogenize things economically and therefore, to some degree, racially. So it is just harder to show how the gospel brings down racial and class barriers in the suburbs. (According to Ephesians 2, that is a major sign of the truth of the gospel.) It doesn’t mean that suburban churches are ‘inferior’ or that it is easier to be a pastor in the suburbs–I actually think it will take more ingenuity and creativity to demonstrate the power of the gospel in the suburbs than it will in the city.

Do any of you blog readers have any ideas about how the suburban church can be creative?

Periodically I will try to answer common questions that people ask regarding gospel-centeredness. Over the last several years of my journey toward gospel-centeredness my own mind has raised many questions (and it continues to do so) to which I have needed answers. Therefore, what I want to do with this category of posts is help others in their journey regardless of where they are on it. So here is the first question that was posed to me on another blog. If you have questions regarding the issue of gospel-centeredness, please ask them in the comment section. You may find them used in a future post.

How does your emphasis on the centrality of the gospel square with Scriptures’ emphasis on the centrality of love in texts like Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37-39, and 1 Corinthians 13:13 among many others?

Deuteronomy 6:5 – You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Matthew 22:37-39 – And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

1 Corinthians 13:13 – So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I believe the Scriptures teach that the gospel is the very power of God unto loving God with all our heart and loving our neighbors as ourselves (Romans 1:16). The centrality of the gospel and the centrality of love are not at odds with one another. To be gospel-centered is to be love-centered because the gospel is God’s power unto the life of love to God and man. Without the gospel we will either live a life of overt enmity against God (i.e. the prodigal son who set his love on everything but the father – Luke 15) or a life of seeking to earn God’s favor (i.e. the elder brother who set his love on what he could get out of his father). In both cases love for God is absent. Only the gospel can free us from the inordinate love of lesser goods to love God, the Ultimate Good, without seeking to earn anything from Him. It is by the power of the gospel that we are put in right relationship with God and enabled to love Him for His own sake, for who He is in Himself. The gospel says that “God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). One reason God set His love upon us in this way was so that we might eternally participate in the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is (2 Corinthians 8:9; 2 Corinthians 13:14). God’s breathtaking, all-satisfying love for us is the cause and impetus of our love for Him (1 John 4:19); and it is in the gospel that we savingly and sanctifyingly see the love of God most clearly and experience it most fully. The gospel frees us to love God not for what we can get out of Him but because of what He has already given us, namely, Himself.

The same basic thoughts apply to loving others. Only in the gospel are we freed to love others not for what we can get out of them but because of what we already have—the full acceptance of God Himself. The gospel is the only thing that frees us to love people without any strings attached. Without the gospel our love for others becomes either moralistic (we love primarily because it is what we MUST do in order to be blessed by God) or consumeristic (we love in order to get something out of the person we are “loving”). At the core the moralistic (i.e. elder brother mindset) and consumeristic (i.e. prodigal mindset) motives for loving are essentially the same. Both ways of loving are motivated by what can be received from the person(s) loved. Only the gospel frees us to love not for what can be received, but because of what has already been received, namely, acceptance with God and participation in the Trinity’s all-satisfying, God-glorifying Communion of Love.