10 Things You Can Do With The Gospel

It’s great to be reminded of how much is packed into two verses you might otherwise glaze over. How often do we do any of these?

“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

  • preach it
  • hear it preached
  • deliver it
  • receive it
  • believe it
  • be saved by it
  • remember it
  • remind others of it
  • stand in it
  • hold fast to it

Thanks to Justin Taylor for posting this.

What Evangelicals Don’t Know: The Bible & Salvation

The PEW Forum released a study last week looking at what Americans know about religion, their own and others. Aside from the prominently-circulated headline that apparently atheists and agnostics know more about religion than those who call themselves religious, there are some revealing stats from deeper in the report.

The Bible

For example, only 43% of mainline Protestants and 71% of Evangelicals can name the four Gospels.

Salvation

Only 28% of Evangelicals know that Protestant Christians believe in salvation by faith alone. Half of that number, 14%, of Mainline Christians know that. More than 80% of both groups know instead that Mother Theresa was Catholic. Historically, Evangelicals have been defined by a high view of Scripture and the centrality of the Gospel, Jesus’ death on a cross for our sins and resurrection to conquer satan, sin, and death. Yet, this study shows that large portions of Evangelicals can’t even tell someone what the four Gospels are (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) or that we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. The truth is, many Evangelicals and most mainline Christians need the Gospel just as bad as non-believers. It simply cannot be assumed that just because someone is in your church or calls themselves a Christian that they are. Here are two practical ways we try to do communications in a way that points to Jesus - and thereby point to the authority of the Bible and God’s gift of salvation - here at Mars Hill Church.

  1. Make the distinction between a testimony and a biography. Whether you’re doing one in church, on a blog, or on video, having someone tell their story will either reveal the hero to be God or someone else. A testimony is a teaching piece, a mini sermon - an opportunity to explain what the Gospel looks like in someone’s life. God is the hero, not them.
  2. View all of your communication operations as supporting the pulpit, not isolated ministries. If your pastor is preaching through books of the Bible and all of the content you produce supports that, you’re communication will not only be unified, it will point to Jesus as the hero of the Bible (and of them).

… Where Christian faith is offered as a means of finding personal wholeness rather than holiness, the church has become worldly.

There are many other forms of worldliness that are comfortably at home in the evangelical church today. Where it substitutes intuition and feelings for biblical truth, it is being worldly. Where its appetite for the Word has been lost in favor of light discourses and entertainment, it is being worldly. Where it has restructured what it is and what it offers around the rhythms of consumption, it is being worldly, for customers are actually sinners whose place in the church is not to be explained by a quest for self-satisfaction but by a need for repentance. Where it cares more about success than about faithfulness, more about size than spiritual health, it is being worldly. Where the centrality of God to worship is lost amidst the need to be distracted and to have fun, the church is being worldly because it is simply accommodating itself to the preeminent entertainment culture in the world. Is it not odd that in so many church services each Sunday, services that are ostensibly about worshiping God, those in attendance may not be obliged to think even once about his greatness, grace, and commands? Worship in such contexts often has little or nothing to do with God.
David F. Wells, “Introduction: The Word in the World,” in The Compromised Church: The Present Evangelical Crisis, ed. John H. Armstrong (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1998), 31.

Watch this interview with Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll, and Josh Harris as they talk about Francis’ recent decision to leave his church.  It’s an amazing example of 3 men asking each other hard questions; giving humble, honest answers; and challenging each other to love Jesus, the church, and others more.

Do your community groups, Bible studies, friendships, or heck, marriages have this directness, humility, and openness?

(via The Gospel Coalition)

What is the Bible Basically About?

I never thought I’d see Tim Keller and Tristeza in the same piece of media. Nice.

(via The Gospel Coalition)

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5