My own research finds that we live in a culture where many are uninformed about Christianity, hold pluralistic views about morality and spirituality, distrust the institution of the church, care mostly about the here and now rather than the hereafter, but still hunger for spiritual experiences, and value community. What do we preach in a culture like this?
One word: Gospel. What’s needed in a changing culture is gospel preaching.
But perhaps not the gospel we think. For example, I still remember one of the oldest members of a congregation for which I preached saying to me (after listening to my preaching for 4 years) “I haven’t heard a gospel sermon since the 1950’s in Pampa, TX!” We all have our own definition of gospel don’t we?
But some of our greatest thinkers have been warning that some of us may be preaching less gospel than we realize. N. T. Wright (How God Became King) proposes that conservatives have removed the “middle” from the gospel, focusing primarily on the manger and the cross and virtually ignoring everything in between. Liberals have removed the “ends” of the gospel (manger and cross, focusing primarily on the middle (the life of Christ)). Wright states that what’s needed is the whole gospel, especially in a time like ours.
A decade and a half ago, David Bosch wrote similarly (Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission). He encouraged churches and church leaders to rediscover the “six salvific events” which make up the gospel: incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, Pentecost, Parousia. and the Return. These events provided all that was needed for the church to communicate and complete its mission. All six are fundamental to the gospel. Lose one and you no longer have the gospel.
Consider how a focus on the whole gospel equips us to speak to our changing culture…
First, gospel-preaching equips us to address the spiritual hunger of this generation.
Timothy Keller writes that “The gospel is news about what has been done by Jesus Christ to put right our relationship with God.” [Keller, Timothy J. (2012-09-04). Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City (Kindle Location 528)] In other words, the gospel is ultimately about us and God. Preaching in a changing culture needs this gospel emphasis. God-centered or theocentric preaching will find an eager hearing in a culture energized by the spiritual.
Too often we’ve satisfied ourselves with preaching that is bibliocentric (here’s what this text says), factocentric (here’s what the Bible says about this topic), or anthropocentric (here’s what God wants me to do) rather than theocentric (here’s who God is and what God has done). Historically, as Kay Northcutt reveals, preaching has emphasized persuasion, explanation, or communication–not formation (a focus on one’s relationship with God). [Kay Northcutt Kindling Desire for God] But, as Paul Scott Wilson writes, “The central purpose of preaching is the disclosure of God, an encounter with God through the Word, more than information about God.” [Paul Scott Wilson, The Practice of Preaching, 20.] In a culture as spiritually interested as ours, preaching finds common ground with contemporary listeners when its primary focus is the identity and actions of God on our behalf. That’s gospel preaching.
Second, gospel preaching equips us to address the pragmatism of this generation.
David Kinnaman finds that one of the charges young adults make about Christianity is that it’s shallow–it doesn’t seem to have anything to offer for living life here and now. It’s all about pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by (David Kinnaman You Lost Me). This, of course, is a misunderstanding of the Christian faith. But it is a misunderstanding to which some of our preaching has contributed. What’s needed today are ways to demonstrate how Christianity informs and impacts life right here, right now.
Timothy Keller writes that “Most of our problems in life come from a lack of proper orientation to the gospel. Pathologies in the church and sinful patterns in our individual lives ultimately stem from a failure to think through the deep implications of the gospel and to grasp and believe the gospel through and through.” [Keller, Timothy J. (2012-09-04). Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City (Kindle Locations 1195-1197). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.] That is, a correct understanding of the whole gospel has implications for the whole life–the here and now and the hereafter. Gospel preaching, due to the very nature of the gospel, will naturally take up two key questions: So what? and Now what? [see Andy Stanley and Lane Jones Communicating for a Change (97, 127)] Gospel preaching allows us to speak Scripture so that listeners understand the relevance of what’s being preached (so what?) and how it applies to daily living (now what?). After all, the gospel is not just about a Savior who died but also about one who showed us how to live.
Third, gospel-preaching equips us to address the pluralism of this generation.
It does this in two ways. First, it moves us to push against pluralism by maintaining that Jesus alone is King and that Jesus alone provides salvation. After all, the gospel is primarily the story of Jesus as King. Scot McKnight writes, “There is a Person at the very core of the gospel of Paul, and until that Person is put into the center of centers in Paul’s gospel, we will not comprehend his–scratch that–the apostles’ gospel accurately. The gospel Story of Jesus Christ is a story about Jesus as Messiah, Jesus as Lord, Jesus as Savior, and Jesus as Son…If I had to sum up the Jesus of the gospel, I would say ‘King Jesus.’” [Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel, 56] The very essence of the gospel is a message about Jesus as King. To give up on that message, though it is disliked in a pluralistic culture, is to give up on the gospel.
Yet, an emphasis on the whole gospel allows us to preach Jesus as King in ways that build bridges rather than burning them. Consider the table below. Each element of the gospel makes Jesus a unique King. The left side of the table thus may turn listeners away. The right side, however, may draw them in. Why? Because each element of the whole gospel makes Jesus the kind of king worth having.
In his book Who is This Man? John Ortberg has written extensively about the ways in which Jesus is the kind of king which almost any listener would truly long to have in his/her life. Jesus may be king. But he’s a king most of us would die to have. He’s a king who’s died to have us.
