A Gospel Church is definitely all that Shannon New Spangler talked about in the previous post. She did an excellent job articulating the central importance of the Gospel message. This is not an easy task, writing a blog post about these themes, especially as the primary poster. Whole books could be written around any one of these themes, and we are trying to tackle them in a thousand words, give or take a couple hundred. So we have to make choices about how much gets said on any given theme. The advantage of the responder is that they get to pick up a thread that was not allowed to make it into the primary post. Thank goodness; otherwise I’d have nothing else to say.
So, that being said, I’d like to take what Shannon said about A Gospel Church and the centrality of the gospel, and stretch it. I absolutely agree that a gospel church has, at her core, the central message of Jesus Christ and his salvific work. However, I would like to push us a little further in understanding how a gospel church proclaims the gospel.
Shannon did an excellent job expressing what it looks like for a church to proclaim gospel, at least verbally/intellectually. It is vitally important that we are able to articulate and verbalize the gospel message to anyone we meet. But I am convinced that to be a gospel church means more than just articulating a message. Being a gospel church means that the gospel message is not just a central teaching, but a central part of what the church is. If the gospel is at the core of the church, then the gospel must find expression in all areas of church life, not only in its teaching and preaching.
What I am talking about is that the gospel is not just something that it taught and expressed verbally, but it is something that is to be practiced, lived into, expressed in our behavior and actions. Dr. Gil Stafford, in Church of God at the Crossroads, said that “a church that is pleasing to God is one in which the predominant sound is that of the Gospel.” He goes on to describe the Gospel sound as “God in Christ forgives, sanctifies, and restores us to his image, and that it is all by God’s grace.” Therefore, if being a gospel church includes living the gospel message, it must mean that we live as forgiven, sanctified and restored people. I think it also means that a gospel church views people as bearers of God’s image, no matter how tarnished sin has made that image. When the church views people as image bearers and treats people as God’s loving handiwork, we are living out the gospel message. When we treat all people with dignity and respect, when we meet the needs of hurting and helpless people, we live into the gospel message.
St. Francis of Assisi is popularly attributed with saying, “preach the gospel at all times; use words when necessary.” We preach the power of the gospel when we offer the love of Jesus Christ to everyone and all we meet. We are preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ when we serve the least of these. We are a gospel church when we proclaim that gospel from the pulpit, in the classroom, and with our actions. By all means, tell people about Jesus and the salvation he brings for everyone! But it cannot end with our verbal proclamations. It must permeate every part of our lives, including good deeds. We aren’t called to be a church with a very important gospel; we are called to be a gospel church.
So well said and so true, Jonathan.