PART 1: Interesting insights on the relationship between the gospel and our call to mission

From Darrin Patrick, lead pastor for The Journey in St. Louis, MO.

Today, part 1: GOSPEL - CENTERED

A Gospel-centered, missional church is one that recognizes that:

1) Authentic heart-transformation cannot happen apart from the Gospel;

AND

2) Culture is not the enemy of the church; rather it is a broken treasure God has gone to great lengths to restore.

Gospel-Centered

We are a Gospel-centered church because:

1) The Gospel is the engine that propels our mission.

The Gospel is the good news that God, the only perfect and righteous being, lovingly entered a broken, sinful world in order to bring us into right standing with himself. God has revealed himself to us through the person of Jesus and the Bible. The holistic purpose of the Bible (both the Old and New Testaments) is to glorify God by telling the story of Jesus (Luke 24:25-27; 1 Corinthians 1:22-24; 2:2): his life, ministry, death and resurrection, and to communicate God's desire for people to experience him through Jesus. It is entirely accurate to say, then, that the Bible is the Gospel, and that the Gospel is Jesus himself (Luke 24:44-47; John 1:1; 14:6).

We affirm with Colossians 1:17-18 that Jesus is "before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." Since Jesus is the Gospel, and since all things find their purpose and meaning in him, we recognize that we are only accomplishing "ministry" when Jesus is the driving force of our efforts.

2) The Gospel is the primary lens through which we view the world and the people and things in it.

The Bible, which is the Gospel story, is our ultimate authority on matters concerning the world and everything and everyone in it. This means that a right understanding of the world and the people in it, and how to address all needs and problems, will emanate from the Gospel.

Like the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:2, we profess that there is nothing in life more important than knowing "Jesus Christ and him crucified." If, by the aid of God's Spirit, we view all things through the lens of Christ, if we submit all our decisions and ministry to Jesus, we will bring glory to God through our living.

3) The Gospel is the only message we are called to teach.

Being a Gospel-centered missional church is not a strategy for growth or a self-help philosophy aimed at being a "better Christian." It is in large part an awareness that the only hope we have for transforming the world is Jesus and the Gospel that bears his name. The fundamental need of every person, Christians and non-Christians, is to hear and know the Gospel at each moment in their life. As Pastor Tim Keller has written, "All our problems come from a failure to apply the Gospel." Therefore, the primary calling of our church is to equip Christians and inform and encourage non-Christians through the teaching of the Gospel in our worship services, sermons, community groups, classes, so that they will live out the Gospel of grace in all of their relationships and contexts (family, friends, career, leisure, etc). Our desire is to uphold the essentiality of the Gospel both as the means to salvation and the pathway to sanctification.