Living the Gospel
It comes to us in subtle ways. For me it came most recently as I was reading “The Forgotten Ways” by Alan Hirsch, a book that has deeply challenged me on many levels about how the church is called to live out the gospel. As I momentarily put the book down I started looking at the houses that surround me in Marlton, NJ and began wondering what hope my church has of bringing the love of Jesus to these people. That's when I felt it, the tension in my own spirit about the Great Commission and my role in it. It is beginning to dawn on me that one of the problems that I, and many other Evangelical Christians have, is that we are living a “disembodied gospel”...a phrase I am borrowing from a man much wiser than me. Programs have their place in the life of a church, they always will. But the problem is that many of us have been trusting in our evangelistic programs to reach our neighbors with God's love. We are good with proclamation, apologetics and a quick scripture reference, but going beyond articulating the gospel verbally and actually becoming the gospel to those all around us is a weakness that we just need to admit. So what do we do? Hirsch writes, “Many efforts to revitalize the church aim at simply adding or developing new programs or sharpening the theology and doctrinal base of the church. But seldom do we ever get to address the hardware or the machine language on which all this depends.” The hardware includes acknowledging why we are here on earth in the first place. In John 1:14 we see that Christ became flesh and lived among us to redeem humanity to his Father…and you and I are to follow him in this mission. Again, tracts, programs and invitations to attend have their place, but the most compelling case for the authenticity of who Jesus claims to be is His love being poured out through his followers. I pray that God will give me the strength to risk, sacrifice my life for the good of others and the glory of God.
This is a theme that I will be blogging about frequently…not as one who has all the answers, but as one who is on the journey. I invite you to join the conversation below…