I’ve arrived at the third of my list of six common factors that create an environment conducive to spiritual renewal and what might be described as the roots of revival: a renewed gospel emphasis. Honestly, this should be no surprise, but most of us have been living through a period of drought when it comes to confidence in the gospel.
‘We need to earn the right to preach the gospel’ = we’ll never get round to it.
‘People aren’t interested today’ = we’re embarrassed about being followers of Jesus.
‘People are too busy’ = we don’t believe the claims of the gospel ourselves.
Just to be clear when I talk about a renewed gospel emphasis, I’m talking about: A return to foundational Christian teachings, focusing on the message of grace, salvation, and personal relationship with God.
Reminder the global pandemic? What was your response as a church leader, once you’d learnt the new vocabulary … ‘unprecedented’, ‘new normal’ and of course ‘zoom’! If we’d never heard of zoom at the beginning of 2019, we had by the end. It was as if God pressed the pause button, which gave us the opportunity to stop, listen and potentially learn (or re-learn).
Our observations, as a team, boiled down to this: those churches which re-focused and consequently re-aligned their best energies on amplifying the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ thrived, whereas those churches which avoided making the person and claims of Jesus Christ known shrunk. That was our crude conclusion then and five years on, it appears to hold water.
I’ll take a few moments to quickly highlight the three elements I’m flagging up – grace, salvation and personal relationship with God. It is difficult to over-emphasise the vital importance of grace. Whether we focus in on Martin Luther and the birth of the Protestant Reformation, or scratch under the surface of the Jesus Movement (I’m still yet to catch up with the film!) the unconditional love of God is standing right in front of us. My observation (and possibly huge over-simplification) is where we were selling grace short was by omitting to talk openly why we all needed to encounter the grace of God: sin.
As Christian church leaders it’s embarrassing to reflect on how little we have spoken clearly about salvation during the first two decades of this century. An avoidance to speak openly and honestly about sin leads rapidly into becoming mute about salvation. When I listen to teachers working within so-called church schools, I am often left with the impression mindfulness has replaced prayer, mental health has become the fill-in-the-blank for anything we don’t want/welcome/enjoy and spirituality synonymous with a pick and mix sweet shop (yes, we still have a few in our area).
A personal relationship with God. I do understand the argument this could sound too good to be true to someone with no understanding of spiritual things. I get this could sound arrogant to someone with a mind-set shaped by post-modernity. But God …
‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes’ (Rom. 1:16) This means that the message of Jesus Christ, particularly his death and resurrection, has the inherent ability to bring about salvation for those who believe. This salvation is not just a future hope, but a present reality, a transformation that begins when anyone accepts the gospel.
Rather than there being a single factor behind why we’ve been downplaying our core message, there appears to be several influences. Whilst not intended to be an exhaustive list, it illustrates some elements of the barrier we face:
- Cultural pressure and fear of offending.
Pluralism and relativism have made exclusive truth claims (like “Jesus is the only way”) socially uncomfortable. Leaders may fear being labelled intolerant, bigoted, or outdated, sadly not solely in secular environments, but among other Christian leaders. The strong cultural push toward inclusivity and non-judgmentalism, can make us feel clear gospel preaching seems confrontational.
- Desire to be seeker sensitive.
I’ve been there, done that. I previously advocated being seeker sensitive is more about our presentation and doesn’t need to avoiding the authority of scripture. However, sadly, I’ve observed how some leaders and churches have incrementally focused on more on felt needs, rather than core elements of gospel truths. Our preaching can soon sound more like the latest self-help manual than revealing the light of the world.
- Theological drift or deconstruction.
I’ve come to recognise this has become more prevalent than I previously thought. It’s through our preaching the reign and rule of expressive individualism, or a life with the heart desire to honour God becomes apparent.
- Relying on the assumption everybody already knows.
This is a particular issue for my generation, especially if we’ve been involved in Christian leadership for more than a couple of decades. We can never treat the church as a whole, although made up of individuals, as if everyone is in the same place in relationship to God. The reality is I see and hear this assumption made very regularly. The Christian of ten weeks is in a different place to the one of ten years, but we cannot assume the Christian of more years is more faithful and fruitful. Yes we all know this, so let’s check our words, attitudes and assumptions more carefully please.
The more conversations I have with people coming to encounter Jesus today, the more it’s apparent there is a dissatisfaction with the more general moral relativism. The gospel offers an antidote. I’ve seen and heard people caught up in the meaning crisis the pandemic enabled to surface and Jesus Christ, ‘the way, the truth and the life’, is meeting this head-on. The desire for authenticity, belonging and spiritual encounter, or transcendence, are being found in churches made up of ordinary people who genuinely seek to follow Jesus Christ as Lord.
In short, there’s no point in short-changing people by offering a gospel anything less than the real thing. For me it’s a renewed call to re-align my life and ministry with a fresh to commitment to Paul’s words in Romans 1:16 and not be ashamed of the gospel, so I can continue to rejoice in the impact in more peoples lives.
