That's Entertainment...

Ok, I've been on a LONG break in the "Is Evangelicalism Still Christian?" series, and I really am coming back to it. (Really!) But I saw this video this evening (using a recent White Horse Inn pod cast and adding some examples)... and I believe that this DEMANDS the careful attention of every Evangelical today. It is well worth your time in watching.

You may say that this isn't representative of your church... but while the examples may be extreme, the philosophy of "worship ministry" just may seem all too familiar.



So, what do you think? Reactions? Comments? I'm especially interested in thoughts from anyone involved in a worship ministry: Where are the White Horse Inn guys wrong - or right?

The No Pearls Comment Section is wide open...

Is Evangelicalism Still Christian? - Pt. 3: Focus on God's Glory vs. Man's Benefit

Evangelicalism is a divided camp these days... I'm not talking though about the usual denominational differences, or even the sparring over issues which, on the surface, look like relatively harmless intramurals (for example, gender roles in leadership). There is a struggle for the very soul of the Church - and it is, accordingly, extraordinary in its scope and practical import*. It is a division between “ME-Centered” and “HE-Centered” Christianity.

In Part 2, we discussed briefly the difference in approaches to defining the Gospel and suggested that ME-Centered Christianity defines the Good News of the work of Jesus Christ in terms of our benefit (or INTERNAL to us), but HE-Centered Christianity understands that the Good News is THE WORK OF JESUS itself (EXTERNAL from us). The difference is significant first because your definition of the Gospel determines the message you proclaim – it defines your FOCUS. And the Evangelicalism is divided today in its message to the world.

The “ME-Centered” message is framed in terms of how God can help you, and a “HE-Centered” message proclaims God’s Glory and man’s responsibility. And while it is important to note that the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, they are not necessarily always compatible either.

I’ll illustrate the distinction with two very pointed examples… two views of the “Gospel” from Evangelicals with very different focuses (emphasis added):

First, in anticipation of Mother’s Day, Moody Radio ran several times the following “evangelistic” 60 second spot (listen here):

“It’s that time of year again when we honor the most influential women in America. That’s right, our mothers! This is a day we pay tribute to the noble job they do in raising the next generation. But to be quite honest, sometimes as moms we don’t feel so glorious. Our love is masked by anger and frustration. We can’t seem to do it all, and we certainly don’t feel like a super mom. The good news is, we are not alone in this job of parenting. We have a wonderful Heavenly Father who is able to strengthen us with His love, wisdom and patience. The Bible says, “God redeems our life from the pit and crowns us with love and compassion. He satisfies our desires with good things so our youth is renewed like the eagles.” God loves you and desires to help you. If you would like to know more about a relationship with this wonderful God through His son Jesus please call 1-888-Need Him. Someone is waiting to talk with you. Call 1-888-Need Him. I’m Karol Ladd wishing you a Happy Mother's Day!” (Emphasis added)

Second, consider this from John Piper’s book God Is The Gospel: (available free at the link!):

“Today—as in every generation—it is stunning to watch the shift away from God as the all-satisfying gift of God’s love. It is stunning how seldom God himself is proclaimed as the greatest gift of the gospel. But the Bible teaches that the best and final gift of God’s love is the enjoyment of God’s beauty. “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple” (Ps. 27:4). The best and final gift of the gospel is that we gain Christ. “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8). This is the all-encompassing gift of God’s love through the gospel—to see and savor the glory of Christ forever. (Introduction: What The World Needs Most – The Gospel’s Greatest Gift, God, page 8)” (Emphasis added)

Ladd's focus in the first quote is on MAN's BENEFIT, while Piper's is on GOD's GLORY in the second. There is no small distinction between the two.

• If your understanding of the heart of the Gospel is that God PRIMARILY wants to do something for your benefit, then your message will be something like this: “YOU can experience God's best... God has a wonderful plan for YOUR life... 'God loves YOU and desires to help YOU.'”
• On the other hand, if you believe that the Good News is PRIMARILY about God bringing glory to Himself and us into line with His will and purpose, your message will be something like this: “GOD’s greatest gift to the world is Jesus Christ … God’s love for us is demonstrated in His amazing sacrifice of His own Son, and gaining Him is greater than anything else – any loss, any suffering, any pain – all are nothing compared to Him. It is worth EVERYTHING to 'see and savor the glory of God in Christ forever!'”
  

In practical terms, ME-Centered Christianity sees and proclaims the Gospel as “about us” and for our benefit. HE-Centered Christianity sees the Gospel as all “about God” – from Him and through Him and for Him from beginning to end. Consider the following perspective, shared by John Piper at Wheaton College Chapel in October, 1984, Piper said this (the whole talk in context is on the link):

“I would like to try to persuade you that the chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy Himself forever. Or to put it another way: the chief end of God is to enjoy glorifying himself.

The reason this may sound strange is that we tend to be more familiar with our duties than with God's designs. We know why we exist - to glorify God and enjoy him forever. But why does God exist? What should he love with all his heart and soul and mind and strength? Whom should he worship? Or will we deny him that highest of pleasures? It matters a lot what God's ultimate allegiance is to!...

God did not leave us to guess in this affair. He answers the question at every point in redemptive history from creation to consummation… From beginning to end, the driving impulse of God's heart is to be praised for his glory. From creation to consummation his ultimate allegiance is to himself. His unwavering purpose in all he does is to exalt the honor of his name and to be marveled at for his grace and power. He is infinitely jealous for his reputation. "For my own sake, for my own sake I act," says the Lord. "My glory I will not give to another!"

My experience in preaching and teaching is that American evangelicals receive this truth with some skepticism if they receive it at all. None of my sons has ever brought home a Sunday school paper with the lesson title: ""God loves himself more than he loves you." But it is profoundly true, and so generation after generation of evangelicals grow up picturing themselves at the center of God's universe.” (Emphasis added)

Is this hard for you to hear? I winced when first I read that, but the more I think about it in light of Scripture, the more I realize that it is true… and very different from our “default setting” in proclaiming the Gospel – which too often may sound like a sales pitch for how the non-believer’s life will be better than it is now if they will just come to Christ. But faith in Christ certainly does not promise a more comfortable life now, temporal benefit, exemption from sickness or freedom from the pain and suffering of humanity. Christians suffer in all kinds of ways, through their own imperfections, through the common effect of sin in the world... and for God’s Glory consistent with His will and purpose (Romans 8:28).

Proponents of ME-Centered Christianity frequently argue that they aren’t changing the heart of the Gospel by focusing on the benefit to Man, they are simply trying to make the Gospel more ACCESSIBLE by speaking in terms of Man’s need. HE-Centered Christianity argues that, intentionally or otherwise, attempts to make the message ACCESSIBLE frequently are actually seeking to make the Gospel more ACCEPTABLE – and the world WILL NOT, and therefore CAN NOT accept the truth of the Gospel (Romans 8:7). Our responsibility is to tell the Whole Truth to a world we understand is, by nature, hostile to it. ME-Centered Christianity avoids that hostility altogether and, to paraphrase William Willimon:**

"Unable [or unwilling] to preach Christ and him crucified, we preach humanity, and it improved."

The focus of the Gospel is NOT primarily to bring benefit to us - but to bring glory to God. There are today hundreds of thousands of people in misery around the world. Many of those people’s stories are unknown and untold. We read about Typhoons, Earthquakes, Tornadoes (just during the past week!) and the toll of death, destruction and misery is almost unimaginable. What is the Church’s message to those in the real world – including those in such desperate circumstances?

The Evangelical ME-Centered Gospel falsely promises (implicitly and sometimes even explicitly) deliverance from temporal difficulty because it places MAN'S BENEFIT as the focus of the message. But this type of thinking isn’t just “historically aberrational” in Christian theology, it’s silly. Worse yet, it is empty – imagine carrying that message to the people in Myanmar or China this week! The Gospel doesn’t EXEMPT us from the world’s problems, it gives us reason to GLORIFY GOD as we go through them and, as a result, to TRIUMPH over them. This is the focus of HE-Centered Christianity… and it is the message the World desperately needs to hear.

Next Time: Our Focus: What’s “THE Problem?”

*By the way, others much smarter than me have written insightfully about this issue. If you look on the right side of the blog here, you’ll note a series of books which do a great job of articulating our current state – or which provide helpful background material from prior generations. If you’re interested, I’d recommend in particular David J. Wells’ new book The Courage To Be Protestant, which ought to be required reading for every Evangelical leader today.''

**On a related note, you may be interested in this very helpful interview with Willimon called "A New Evaluative Question: "Would Jesus Have to Be Crucified to Make This Sermon Work?" from Modern Reformation Magazine.

Is Evangelicalism Still Christian? - Pt. 2: External vs. Internal Gospel

In Part 1 of this series, we suggested that there are two competing religions in Evangelicalism these days - The Christianity of "He" vs. The Christianity of "Me" (and its close cousin in many circles, the Christianity of "We"). The differences are startling, and so I hope to begin to demonstrate how important it is for us to understand the issues and, more importantly, stand up for the right side in the argument. As I noted before, the wrong one appears to be winning today.

Before we dive in, a word of explanation: I've styled the issues as dichotomies and they are philosophically; in application, practice is more likely a question of priority and focus. I've "cartooned" the issues in summary to point to highlight and clarify the issue. So think through this carefully with me.

Let's start at (arguably) the MOST IMPORTANT POINT: What is the Gospel? What is our primary message - the thing that is "...the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16)?

The nature of the Gospel is that it is External to Man , as opposed to Internal to Man. It is an external reality which has, of course, internal result. But the Gospel itself is external, not internal. And if we get this message wrong, we miss the point - and the power of the Gospel itself.

What do we share as the Gospel? What do you share when asked? Are you ready to answer the question?

Today, many sadly share, as the Gospel, a message of their own experience - something like this:

"I was once [fill in the blank, usually not good], and now I am [much better, thank you] because I [did something, for example (a) accepted Jesus as my personal savior (b) asked Jesus into my heart (c) trusted Christ for salvation (d) walked an aisle (e) prayed a prayer (f) etc.]"

Others may share a different message, like this:

"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life..." or "You were created for a purpose..." or "the only way to true [pick as many as apply (a) happiness (b) joy (c) peace (d) security (e) prosperity (f) health (g) freedom from addiction (h) etc.] is through Jesus."

There are many variations on this theme, but the common element is this: They are "internal" messages - their primary focus on "ME" - My problem, My benefit, My action, My result.

The only problem is this: That's not the Gospel. The Gospel is external to us - and while it may result in some of the "internals" its nature and focus is very different. The Gospel of the Bible is this:

God saves sinners by grace, through faith in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on their behalf. Men are saved by grace through faith in Christ’s work, which a free gift from God, and are freed from the power of sin to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. There is no other way to be saved, and those who do not have faith in the atoning work of Christ on the cross will be judged accordingly and condemned to eternal punishment in Hell.

If I were allowed a little more precision, I’d say this:

1. Because all men are by nature sinful, they are rightly judged as guilty before God and subject to His wrath, which if unsatisfied will result in their eternal punishment in Hell.
2. There is no way for any man to satisfy God’s righteous judgment.
   
3. The Gospel (good news) is that Jesus Christ (God’s only Son and God Himself), died to satisfy the just requirement of His wrath for those whom the Father has given Him, and was raised from the dead to accomplish their justification.
   
4. Accordingly, God saves sinners by giving them the ability, through regeneration (the New Birth) to have faith in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on their behalf.
   
5. Having begun this good work in those who are adopted into God’s family through Christ’s death and resurrection, God Himself will bring the good work to completion, ultimately through the sanctification and glorification of His children.
   
6. This process increasingly allows God’s children to love, obey and enjoy God and to glorify Him.
   
7. All those who are not converted in this manner remain under the just wrath of God, and will ultimately be condemned to eternal punishment in Hell.

Here's the truth: The Gospel is not your experience. The Gospel is not primarily even about you. The Gospel is not “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” The Gospel is not “God wants to be in a relationship with you.” Apart from Christ, God does NOT love you in any way that will result in your eternal benefit! We who are in Christ are the beneficiaries of the Good News,

The Gospel is an event in history, for a specific purpose with a definite result. In that sense, the Gospel is external to us – it is not about us, but from God, of God for God. It is not an “internal” event or experience.

• It is not “I was once [ ] and now I am [ ].”
• It isn’t “asking Jesus into your heart”, or “accepting Jesus”. It is not something that I am called to do or to experience and, it is not a relationship.

The result of the Gospel in our lives is all of these things, but the result is to be distinguished from the Gospel itself – which is that God saves sinners by grace through faith in the atoning work of Christ’s death on the cross.

Finally, the Gospel is, of course, the work of God. It is a free gift – and our appropriation of the work done by God is not by any work or human effort or anything of us. And it needs to be said these days that the Gospel is not ANYTHING that starts with the phrase “God longs for…” The Gospel of the Bible is what God accomplished, not what He hopes might possibly happen.

In that sense, then, the Gospel is external – the results are internal. Why does this matter? The Gospel is what must be preached, and it – not the internal result(s) – is “the power of God unto salvation” for those who believe it.

I've heard frequently that, in witnessing, we don't need to "get theological" or cite a lot of Bible verses - we just need to tell our story - share our experience. That's fine, I guess - as long as you get around to telling people The Gospel. Your experience isn't The Good News.

So how does today's Evangelical Message stack up against this? Pretty sadly in my highly unscientific sampling. All too often in sermons, I hear the results - benefits to us, etc. discussed as “the Gospel.” Troll around the web today and look at the sermon series being offered and it's pretty astonishing - especially in the "seeker" and "emergent/emerging" oriented churches. All too often, I hear and see the following:

Power and Experience as the Gospel
Prosperity and Health as the Gospel
Personal Reformation and Life Transformation as the Gospel
Psychological Therapy as the Gospel
Social Action and Justice as the Gospel
Compassion for the Least and the Lost as the Gospel

Some of this is good, some is not. Some is right and some is wrong theologically. That's not my point here, which is this: If the "Message" preached or proclaimed is not Jesus Christ Crucified for Sin - it's not the Gospel. If the message you share is "internal" it's not The Gospel, and it's not the power of God unto salvation. And ultimately, it's like the sign above... it may be true, but it misses the most important thing.

What do we need proclaimed by the Church today? We want to see our children, family, neighbors, friends and community come to salvation - They need the Gospel. We want to grow in obedience to our Lord. We want to be more like Him - We need the Gospel.

The Evangelical Church today is overrun with messages and preaching that focus internally - and miss the mark of the Gospel itself. The Gospel is a factual description about "HE" not a report about "ME". And while this may seem picky, if you think about it, the focus of the Gospel presentation will follow through out its application... if it was all about you in the first place, it will be throughout the rest of your experience as well. But if the focus initially is on what Jesus did, it will continue to focus on Him as well.

So what's your Gospel Message?

Next time: The Primary Focus - God's Glory vs. Man's Benefit