GRACE & PEACE

Author: Dennis Griffith

  • Sentimentality in Worship

    In his book, Worship: Together We Celebrate, Leslie Flynn notes:

    In many churches the art of worship has markedly declined. The so-called hour of worship has become a time when mind and emotions are anesthetized into neutral. Out of habit, church obligation, affection for the minister, peer pressure, family togetherness, patriotism, or community expectation, people sink into their usual pews.

    I don’t know Leslie Flynn, nor much about him.  (In fact, I didn’t even know Leslie was a “him” when I wrote the first draft of this post.) But while I may not know much about Leslie Flynn, I do concur with his assessment.

    Worship of the One True God, which is  an action hardwired into the essence of humanity and, as John Calvin once said, is “our highest calling and most noble endeavor”, is a largely misunderstood and vainly practiced experience. Genuine worship, as Tozer lamented, has too often been replaced by a “program” or “show”.

    While I sympathize with Flynn’s lament of vapid reasons that motivate many people to occupy a pew, his assessment that emotions have been “anesthetized” resonates even more.  I am disappointed whenever I participate in an emotionless worship service, whether the absence is from within me or in the general atmosphere.  Genuine and acceptable worship carries deep and real passions, and engages both the head and the heart.  But I am at least equally chagrined when I participate in a service where emotion is present but substance is lacking.  In such cases, which are all too common,  what is passing for worship is really various forms of sentimentalism.

    What’s the difference?

    I am thankful that the folks from the Center for Christian Study in St Louis  have taken the time and effort to describe the differences, giving both examples and historical patterns.  Their perspective in a Q & A session below is worth consideration:

    Q: You say biblical music is emotional, but you reject sentimental music in corporate worship. What’s the problem with sentimentality, and how can you develop emotion in worship?

    Sentimental music is music with lyrics directly addressing the affections. All worship music should work on the affections, but there are two ways of doing this.

    The biblically faithful way to work the emotions in music is indirect – through God-centered content. A song addressed to God, a song that proclaims his holiness, power, transcendence or grace, or which expresses to him our utter needfulness of him; such songs work the heart with the head.

    A sentimental song seeks to bypass the mind and speak to the emotions directly. It’s the “I’m so happy” syndrome. If you sing about being happy, you won’t necessarily be happy. In corporate worship, sentimental lyrics communicate how we’re supposed to feel, rather than directing us to a God who is altogether desirable.

    Sentimentality can work in private worship, provided you actually feel the way the lyrics say you should feel. It doesn’t work in corporate worship, however. What actually frees us to worship God is a demonstration of who God is and how he is committed to us. It’s the truth that sets us free, not singing about how syrupy we feel (or don’t feel, turning us further inward on ourselves).

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  • All I Have is Christ

    I once was lost in darkest night/Yet thought I knew the way/The sin that promised joy and life/Had led me to the grave/I had no hope that You would own/A rebel to Your will/And if You had not loved me first/I would refuse You still

    But as I ran my hell-bound race/Indifferent to the cost/You looked upon my helpless state/And led me to the cross/And I beheld God’s love displayed/You suffered in my place/You bore the wrath reserved for me/Now all I know is grace

    Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
    Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

    Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone/And live so all might see/The strength to follow Your commands/Could never come from me/Oh Father, use my ransomed life/In any way You choose/And let my song forever be/My only boast is You

    ~ from The Gathering: Live from WorshipGod11

  • Can Mission Become an Idol?

    “There is a first-rate commitment to a second-rate mission.” That is what Roger, a leader in global church planting, said as he looked at the rock climbers ascending a cliff in the Alps. Many of us called into ministry feel the same way. Rather than giving our lives to climbing a rock, building a business, or amassing a fortune, we are committed to what really matters; a first-rate mission – advancing the Gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ.

    But what if we’re wrong?

    Roger spent decades serving Christ by planting churches on four continents. But after reflecting on his labors for the kingdom of God, his confession surprised many of us. “I’ve given most of my energy to a second-rate mission as well,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong. Church planting is important. But someday that mission will end. My first calling is to live with God. That must be my first commitment.”

    What Roger articulated was a temptation that many of us in ministry face. To put it simply, many church leaders unknowingly replace the transcendent vitality of a life with God for the ego satisfaction they derive from a life for God. Before exploring how this shift occurs in church leaders, let me take a step or two backwards and explain how I have seen this tendency within the Christian college students I’ve worked with in recent years.

    Is impact everything?

    The students I meet with often worry about what awaits them after graduation. This is a reasonable concern for any young adult, but for many of them the worry extends far beyond finding a job with benefits. They fixate, and some obsess, about “making a difference in the world.” They fear living lives of insignificance. They worry about not achieving the right things, or not enough of the right things. Behind all of this is the belief that their value is determined by what they achieve. I’ve learned that when a student asks me, “What should I do with my life?” what he or she really wants to know is, “How can I prove that I am valuable?”

    When we come believe that our faith is primarily about what we can do for God in the world, it is like throwing gasoline on our fear of insignificance. The resulting fire may be presented to others as a godly ambition, a holy desire to see God’s mission advance–the kind of drive evident in the Apostle Paul’s life. But when these flames are fueled by fear they reveal none of the peace, joy, or love displayed by Paul and rooted in the Spirit. Instead the relentless drive to prove our worth can quickly become destructive.

    Sometimes the people who fear insignificance the most are driven to accomplish the greatest things. As a result they are highly praised within Christian communities for their good works. This temporarily soothes their fear until the next goal can be achieved. But there is a dark side to this drivenness. Gordon MacDonald calls it “missionalism.” It is “the belief that the worth of one’s life is determined by the achievement of a grand objective.”

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  • Go And Make Disciples…

  • God’s Glory Among the Nations: What’s it Worth to Us?

    by Rick Wood

    As evangelical Christians, we often speak of living to glorify God. I usually sign my columns here with, “For His Glory.” But what does that really mean in our everyday lives? How does this desire to glorify God affect the way we live, the commitments and sacrifices we make, and the price we will pay to build God’s kingdom so He will be worshiped and glorified by all peoples?

    As we seek to establish God’s kingdom within every unreached people and destroy Satan’s dominion over their lives, we must ask ourselves the question, “Are we willing to pay the price needed to see these peoples come to Christ?” Is there a price we are unwilling to pay? Will we say to God, ‘I am sorry, but Your glory among the nations and Your worship by all peoples is not worth my time, my money, my ________?’” You fill in the blank. Are we willing to give up the possessions we hold dear, to suffer, or even risk the loss of our lives for the sake of His glory and His kingdom? These tough questions strike at the heart of our concept of God, the nature of our relationship with Him and our priorities in life. They are difficult for all of us to honestly face and answer.

    In a world wrapped up in the passionate pursuit of materialism, comforts, pleasures, safety and the abundant life, where do the examples of a Jim Elliot or a Graham Staines fit in? Both were martyred as they attempted to bring the Gospel to an unreached people. Do we see their lives as well spent, or do we pity them for being so foolish as to leave the comforts of their homes and risk their lives to bring the love of Christ to people who were unworthy of their attention?

    Who chooses most wisely: the one who plays it safe and seeks all of the things this world has to offer or the one who “gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose,” as Jim Elliott wrote, so that God’s kingdom would be established and His glory made known to all peoples? The answer that each of us gives to these very important questions will reveal a great deal about where our heart is, what we value most and the quality of our walk with Christ.

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  • Rock of Ages

  • Children of God With Orphan Mentalities

    There is a scene I recall from Little Orphan Annie worth taking note.  Annie has just arrived at her new home, a virtual palace that has been set up for her and for her enjoyment by her adopted father, Daddy Warbucks.  Upon entering the foyer, with household staff lined up to greet and welcome her, Annie gazes at her new surroundings.  Daddy Warbucks asks: “What do you think, Annie?”  “It’s beautiful”, she replies.  “Well, where do you want to begin?”  She muses for a moment, then shrugs her shoulders: “Bring me a bucket. I will start with the stairs.”

    This scene presents a vivid illustration of the way many Christians, those adopted by God the Father through the blood of Jesus the Son, view life and their relationship with our Redeemer-Creator.

    Jesus makes the promise:

    “I will not leave you as orphans.” (John 14.18)

    Yet, like Annie, we are conditioned to think like orphans and feel we must do something to earn our keep, or else face some kind of rejection.  Even if our theology tells us otherwise, this is a common dilemma.  This cognitive dissonance is the difference between our confessional faith and our functional faith.

    What does it look like to be a Child of God with an Orphan Mentality?  Consider the distinctions from the two lists below:

    ORPHAN FAITH

    • Confidence in Self, People, and/or Circumstances
    • Confidence constantly shaken by disappointments with circumstances, people, or self.
    • Fears increase through life; fears fluctuate depending upon circumstances.
    • Confused handling of criticism from others – moving back and forth between denial/self justification and self flagellation/discouragement/depression.
    • Gossip and lack of tongue control reveals defensiveness and judgmental attitudes.
    • Lifestyle characterized by insecurities, jealousies, and concealed grudges.
    • Ignorance of the potency of prayer in securing the Spirit’s presence and power.
    • Purpose of life is living for our significance (sometimes even erroneously basing our identity & reputation on Christian endeavors & successes rather than in our Union with Christ…) and/or our own comfort.

    SONSHIP FAITH

    • Confidence in Christ ALONE.
    • Confidence in Christ increases even as self, people, and/or circumstances disappoint.
    • Fears are increasingly overcome by faith and love.
    • Sifting through criticisms, and discerning in light of the gospel, rejecting false and misplaced allegations, while accepting valid criticisms, finding even the kernels of truth in them, and repenting of sin while believing the gospel anew.
    • Speak the language of Praise to the Father, affirmation of others and, when wronged, forgiveness & reconciliation (directly to the persons involved whenever appropriate).
    • Gospel is made the center of motivations and the basis for behavior.
    • Lifestyle characterized by forgiveness, blessing, and prayer for our enemies and those who have wronged us.
    • Understanding the potency of prayer in securing the Spirit’s presence and power.
    • Purpose in life is to discover true happiness, and understands that true happiness is found in laying down life for Christ and for others.

    As we think through these two lists we will likely notice, if we are honest with ourselves, that even on our better days we have characteristics of both, or that we fluctuate between them.  This is not cause to despair, but rather opportunity to believe anew what Jesus has done for us.  Don’t make the mistake of unreflectively assuming and assigning to self only the better qualities.  The psalmists provide us with a model worth emulating of raw honesty – both confessing and believing.   Honest reflection is the essence of spiritual authenticity and genuine vitality.

  • A Word From a VBS Valedictorian

    Trekking incognito along the Emmaus Road, shortly after his resurrection, unrecognized even by the few of his own disciples who walked with him, Jesus challenged the groans of perplexity and faithlessness:

    He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24.25-27)

    All of the Scriptures speak about Jesus? Really? Yep.  And in the video above, this young guy recounts the overarching reflections of the Messiah revealed in every book of the Bible.

    Impressive.

  • Suggested Reading for Season of Lent

    The Season of Lent is a time of preparation and anticipation.  It is a season that should be characterized reflection, soul-searching, repentance, and ultimately looking forward to celebration – the celebration of all Jesus accomplished for us on the Cross. As Daniel Montgomery, of Sojourn Church writes: “Lent helps us focus on why He had to die.”

    Traditionally speaking, Lent is often associated with fasting – whether from certain foods, or some other habit or practice.  It is important we understand that there is no merit n fasting. Benefit, maybe. Merit, no.  The purpose of fasting is to remind us how dependent we become on things rather than God.  This reveals to us our need to repent. It whets our appetite for the grace of God in Christ.

    With this in mind, here are a few readings I suggest for the Season of Lent:

  • Entering Lent

    Today is Ash Wednesday, which means we have now entered into the Season of Lent.  If you are not from a church with a liturgical background Lent probably won’t mean much.  In fact, for some it may even evoke some negative connotations. While I understand those sentiments, I wish they were not so.  At least, I wish more Evangelical Christians would be open to the beauty and grace of this ecclesiastical season.

    One of the primary emphases of the Season of Lent is repentance.  On the ecclesiastical calendar it is a time when Christians are encouraged to fast, sacrifice, and to recognize how prone we are to become dependent upon things rather than on God.  It is intended to be a time of reflection and renewed commitment to dependence upon the Lord.  But in non-litugical circles Lent is ignored, if not even scoffed about.  Contemporary Evangelicals often point to the deadness of ritualistic practice, and  eschew it altogether.

    I am not part of a litugical tradition. Nor am I necessarily encouraging everyone to embrace litugical practices.  But I do believe there might be some benefits “normal” Believers might be able to glean from our litugical side of the Family of God.  Maybe there are some things that we can consider that would break us out of our own dull routines.  It seems to me that we may be able to engage in some practices without them necessarily leading to ritualistic deadness.

    So weather you adorn your forehead with ashes today or not (and I won’t be), I hope you will give some thought to how you can spend the next 40 days in spiritual renewal.  Below are a few short articles by guys from non-liturgical traditions about what they have learned and why they embrace this ecclesiastical season.

  • Some Guiding Principles for Worship

    Most Christians would probably acknowledge that worship is important, essential even.  But what exactly are we supposed to do? What is worship, exactly.  Is it any thought or action offered to God?

    Below are a few simple thoughts that I hope will be helpful to shape your practical expectations…

    Corporateness

    God calls us to worship Him together. The pictures of worship in the Pentateuch, Psalms, Revelation, etc.,  for example, are of throngs of people worshipping God… TOGETHER. We do not come to Sunday worship service to worship God individually. We come to worship Him as a church family together.

    Costliness

    We should be on time to worship service. We should sing our best and give attention to all that goes on in the service. We should make sure our children know the importance of going to worship. If we are leading in worship, we should maintain high standards of performance. Why? Because we should want to give God the best. He deserves it.

    Our attitude ought to be like King David’s, who said:

    “I will not offer to God that which costs me nothing” (2 Samuel 24.24)

    Drama

    Worship should engage our intellect and emotions. Our worship service is designed to have intellectual and emotional tension, challenging and stimulating the mind and heart.

    Physical Expression

    Not only should worship engage our intellect and emotions, but it should involve our bodies, too. The Bible gives us examples of how to use our bodies to worship God:

    Each of these actions demonstrates a recognition of a different attribute of God:

    • His majesty
    • His creatorship
    • His victoriousness
    • His power for healing

    Newness

    In the Bible, we see the use of both that which is ancient & time-honored, as well as that which is new & spontaneous. Our worship is a blend of the use of traditional music & liturgies, which ground us in the worship of the Church Universal, and contemporary songs and newly-created prayers, creeds and litanies, which allow us to express ourselves in our contemporary culture and to use the creative imagination God has given us.

    Responsibilities

    > Of the Congregation

    The members of the congregation are, ultimately, all responsible for worshipping God. This is one of the implications of the priesthood of all believers. (1 Peter 2.5)   Our attitudes and actions are the primary elements of the worship service. We should participate fully in all elements of the liturgy because they are not meant solely, or even primarily, for our benefit, but for the glory of God.  Our main concern should be: “Is God pleased with our worship?”

    > Of Worship Leaders

    There are many ways in which one can assist the congregation in worship:

    • designing the worship service
    • ushers & greeters
    • managing the lighting and audio systems
    • song leaders/cantors & singers
    • instrumentalist
    • leading in public prayer
    • offering public testimony
    • serving The Lord’s Supper
    • collecting the tithes & offerings
    • explaining God’s Word

    All of these roles are meant not only to benefit the congregation directly, but to encourage the congregation to worship God… to give to Him the glory due His name.

  • The Therapeutic Gospel

    What may be the most famous chapter in all of western literature portrays the appeal of a “therapeutic gospel.”

    In his chapter entitled “The Grand Inquisitor,” Fyodor Dostoevsky imagines Jesus returning to sixteenth century Spain (The Brothers Karamazov, II:5:v). But Jesus is not welcomed by church authorities. The cardinal of Seville, head of the Inquisition, arrests and imprisons Jesus, condemning him to die. Why? The church has shifted course. It has decided to meet instinctual human cravings, rather than calling men to repentance. It has decided to bend its message to felt needs, rather than calling forth the high, holy, and difficult freedom of faith working through love. Jesus’ biblical example and message are deemed too hard for weak souls, and the church has decided to make it easy.

    The Grand Inquisitor, representing the voice of this misguided church, interrogates Jesus in his prison cell. He sides with the tempter and the three questions the tempter put to Jesus in the wilderness centuries before. He says that the church will give earthly bread instead of the bread of heaven. It will offer religious magic and miracles instead of faith in the Word of God. It will exert temporal power and authority instead of serving the call to freedom. “We have corrected Your work,” the inquisitor says to Jesus.

    The inquisitor’s gospel is a therapeutic gospel. It’s structured to give people what they want, not to change what they want. It centers exclusively around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. It discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy. This therapeutic gospel accepts and covers for human weaknesses, seeking to ameliorate the most obvious symptoms of distress. It makes people feel better. It takes human nature as a given, because human nature is too hard to change. It does not want the King of Heaven to come down. It does not attempt to change people into lovers of God, given the truth of who Jesus is, what he is like, what he does.

    THE CONTEMPORARY THERAPEUTIC GOSPEL

    The most obvious, instinctual felt needs of twenty-first century, middle-class Americans are different from the felt needs that Dostoevsky tapped into. We take food supply and political stability for granted. We find our miracle-substitute in the wonders of technology. Middle-class felt needs are less primal. They express a more luxurious, more refined sense of self-interest:

    • I want to feel loved for who I am, to be pitied for what I’ve gone through, to feel intimately understood, to be accepted unconditionally;
    • I want to experience a sense of personal significance and meaningfulness, to be successful in my career, to know my life matters, to have an impact;
    • I want to gain self-esteem, to affirm that I am okay, to be able to assert my opinions and desires;
    • I want to be entertained, to feel pleasure in the endless stream of performances that delight my eyes and tickle my ears;
    • I want a sense of adventure, excitement, action, and passion so that I experience life as thrilling and moving.

    The modern, middle-class version of therapeutic gospel takes its cues from this particular family of desires. We might say that the target audience consists of psychological felt needs, rather than the physical felt needs that typically arise in difficult social conditions. (The contemporary “health and wealth” gospel and obsession with “miracles” express something more like the Grand Inquisitor’s older version of therapeutic gospel.)

    In this new gospel, the great “evils” to be redressed do not call for any fundamental change of direction in the human heart. Instead, the problem lies in my sense of rejection from others; in my corrosive experience of life’s vanity; in my nervous sense of self-condemnation and diffidence; in the imminent threat of boredom if my music is turned off; in my fussy complaints when a long, hard road lies ahead. These are today’s significant felt needs that the gospel is bent to serve. Jesus and the church exist to make you feel loved, significant, validated, entertained, and charged up. This gospel ameliorates distressing symptoms. It makes you feel better. The logic of this therapeutic gospel is a jesus-for-Me who meets individual desires and assuages psychic aches.

    The therapeutic outlook is not a bad thing in its proper place. By definition, a medical-therapeutic gaze holds in view problems of physical suffering and breakdown. In literal medical intervention, a therapy treats an illness, trauma, or deficiency. You don’t call someone to repentance for their colon cancer, broken leg, or beriberi. You seek to heal. So far, so good.

    But in today’s therapeutic gospel the medical way of looking at the world is metaphorically extended to these psychological desires. These are defined just like a medical problem. You feel bad; the therapy makes you feel better. The definition of the disease bypasses the sinful human heart. You are not the agent of your deepest problems, but merely a sufferer and victim of unmet needs. The offer of a cure skips over the sin-bearing Savior. Repentance from unbelief, willfulness, and wickedness is not the issue. Sinners are not called to a U-turn and to a new life that is life indeed. Such a gospel massages self-love. There is nothing in its inner logic to make you love God and love any other person besides yourself. This therapeutic gospel may often mention the word “Jesus,” but he has morphed into the meeter-of-your-needs, not the Savior from your sins. It corrects Jesus’ work. The therapeutic gospel unhinges the gospel.

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  • Kingdom-Centered Prayer

    Tim Keller writes:

    Throughout the Old and New Testaments and church history, every spiritual awakening was founded on corporate, prevailing, intensive kingdom-centered prayer.  We cannot create spiritual renewal by ourselves, but we can “prepare the altar” and ask God to send his Holy Spirit to change our hearts, our churches, and our communities.

    Read Tim’s tremendous article: Kingdom-Centered Prayer., from Redeemer City to City

  • The Gospel

    All I will say is: WOW!  …Powerful presentation.

  • Gospel Clarity for Missional Calling

    The article below by World Harvest Mission‘s Josiah Bancroft is a tremendously insightful and clear explanation of the relationship of the gospel to culture.  Not only is this an important understanding for the mission field overseas, but Josiah explains why it is essential even within the local church in North America.

    The video above is an interview with Josiah by Collin Hansen of The Gospel Coalition.

    ***

    by Josiah Bancroft

    How do you keep the gospel clear and focused on missional calling when so many competing forces, influences, and voices speak into your life, ministry, and church? I am learning that gospel clarity is tied in large part to how we understand our cross-cultural mission in very practical ways.

    For example, I was picking up a large short-term team outside of Dublin to introduce them to our Irish partners and co-workers. When the jet-lagged U.S. visitors stumbled from the bus, one of the passengers asked to pray and gathered us around her. She thanked God for safe travel, for the opportunity to serve, and then prayed for “all our boys in harms way” and asked God to protect our troops from our enemies.

    As soon as she said a tearful and happy amen and walked away, my Irish friends inundated me with questions: Who were “our boys”? Was the church supporting a national war? How were those “our” enemies that the U.S. troops were killing? Of course Ireland was neutral in the war, so their questions were reasonable and predictable. After all, they were Christians, not Americans.

    Navigating culture and mission with gospel clarity doesn’t just happen, so how—practically—can we keep clear about the gospel while pursuing our cross-cultural missional calling? We all interpret the world as cultural beings. That’s how God has made us. And yet many American believers have struggled with the basic idea that they are part of a culture or a sub-culture. That is now changing.

    With the rapid changes in U.S. culture during recent years, our churches are beginning to see U.S. culture more clearly. Our culture has changed so much and so quickly that the church sometimes struggles to engage. We are hard pressed to maintain the mental and spiritual clarity that can respond powerfully to a such pervasive cultural forces. So what can help us with our struggle? I’d like to make a few suggestions.

    1. We Need Clear Kingdom Identity and Allegiance

    As missional people we belong to the kingdom of God and live in the United States as strangers and aliens. Keeping my kingdom identity clear as a believer keeps me from identifying completely with this present age. God has given each of us a role in our culture, so we should embrace our lives and do well here. But this present time and place isn’t everything, and this age doesn’t fully define a believer. So while I work to bring all things under the rule of Christ in my life and mission, I do it as an outsider. Where I forget this missional identity, I can confuse my interests and culture with the kingdom of God. Then I lose my gospel clarity and muddle the message with my culture.

    Practical Help: Keep the horizon of God’s larger global mission clearly in view even in local ministry work, so that all your concerns are kept in the right perspective for new kingdom people. Without this missional global horizon, local ministry easily appears so large to us that it obscures everything else.

    2. We All Answered the Universal Call to Cross-cultural Missional Life

    Since we are each part of God’s mission to reach the world, and because we live as strangers and aliens, therefore all of our ministry and mission is necessarily cross-cultural. All church planting is a cross-cultural exercise. All evangelism reaches across cultural boundaries, even in our own families and neighborhoods. The struggles between generations are in part cross-cultural conflicts, because the world has shifted so quickly and radically. Every attempt to reach out or serve in the church must recognize and communicate to our own culture with cross-cultural understanding and sensitivity. All ministry here is cross-cultural.

    Practical Help: We need a steady flow of outsiders and missionaries who bring in tales of the kingdom moving and struggles to take the gospel into difficult places. What worked in Congo? What is God doing in Russia? How is the God moving in the Czech Republic? Hearing how culture works and is navigated practically in other places gives us new perspectives on what things belong to the kingdom and what belongs to the culture.

    3. We Enter Other Cultures

    As a missional people we are responsible to cross the cultural barriers with the gospel rather than wait and require those outside to come and understand. Actually that’s one of the big differences that came with the church in the first century. Everyone doesn’t have to become Jewish to have access to God. Today in the church we must learn the new languages, not the nations . . . remember Pentecost? We adapt rather than require others to “eat kosher.” We go, rather than having everyone come to us. When I bear the weight of reaching out to others, here or in foreign countries, I best imitate Christ who became like us in love and won us with great sacrifice. When the gospel is small in my life, when my flesh and home culture press in, then I am unwilling to change or sacrifice for others to bring them the gospel. Missions pushes me to clarify my commitment to the gospel and to Christ.

    Practical Help: Get a larger heart for the world by spending time with others who love their enemies. That love is what motivated Christ to do the work of incarnation. Roll up your sleeves and find a place to sacrifice time, work, and money for the expansion of the kingdom in places you will never see as well as in your hometown. Turn every group in the church outward with a cross-cultural eye to be true missional communities.

    4. We Go

    We know the gospel is how we enter the kingdom. The gospel promises are also how we live daily before God in repentance and faith. And the gospel is the central message of the church as we go into the world. This might seem obvious, but it is so easy to mix cultural pieces into our speaking about Christ that we need to be clear. Paul tells Titus in his church planting and leadership to emphasize—even insist on—and confidently affirm the gospel as the life and message of the church (Titus 3:8).

    Practical Help: Get involved in short-term missions and create a global missional team to find those in your fellowship who need to go. Join with cross-cultural workers who have more experience so that you can learn from them. The New Testament way requires us to listen to these cross-cultural workers. Of course the greatest was Christ. But Paul also qualifies, and as a cross-cultural missionary he was wonderfully equipped to lead churches and planting in various places without confusing his culture or Roman culture with the call of the kingdom. I would love for our churches to find his gospel clarity and passion renewing us all for global missions and partnership in new ways.

    Perhaps there is another way to say all of this simply. The gospel always leads us believers to a global vision and a heart willing to sacrifice for a lost world. That’s what it means to follow our Savior. And learning to keep our vision clear, listening to others engaged in that same struggle, and feeding your heart with the gospel promises and the kingdom calling from Scripture are all essential to keep our missional calling centered on the gospel.

    ***

    Both the article and the video first appeared on The Gospel Coalition blog.