Tag: Gospel-centered
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Gospel-Centered Church
Gospel-centeredness is a vital strategic principle for ministry in the 21st (and the 1st!) century. I do not simply mean by ‘gospel-centered’ that ministry is to be doctrinally orthodox. Of course it must certainly be that. I am speaking more specifically. (1.) The gospel is “I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey” while every other…
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Benefitting in the Benefactor
Sinclair Ferguson offers this wise insight about the gospel-centered life: “…we must never separate the benefits (regeneration, justification, sanctification) from the Benefactor (Jesus Christ). The Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality may give the impression of being the most spiritual … but from the New Testament’s point of view, those who have…
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10 Gospel-centered Questions
Here are 10 questions to ask yourself – and maybe those few closest to you – that help uncover rivals of Christ as the functional savior of your heart: What are you desiring more than anything else? What do you find yourself day dreaming or fantasizing about? What lies are you subtly believing that…
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To Be Or Not To Be Missional
Dave Harvey is an expert church planter and an astute observer of trends in church leadership. At the Spring 2007 Leadership Conference of Sovereign Grace Ministries Harvey assessed the strengths and weakness of the missional movement in an address titled Watch Your Mission: To Be or Not to Be Missional. One observation Harvey offers is that…
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Gospel Discipling: The Crying Need of the Church
by Stephen Smallman “Thirty years of discipleship programs, and we are not discipled.” This is the startling assessment of Jim Petersen, the visionary leader of the esteemed discipleship ministry, the Navigators. Petersen goes on in the first chapter of his important book, Lifestyle Discipleship, to ask some very hard questions about the real effectiveness of…
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Gospel at the Center
At my core I am committed to gospel-centeredness and being gospel-driven. But I confess I don’t really know what that means. The rich complexity of the gospel and the scope of the implications from the gospel are far beyond my ability to grasp, plumb, or fathom. So I am drawn towards faithful expressions of the gospel that expand my understanding and depth of insight. I am…
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Centered on the Gospel
What does it mean for a church to be gospel-centered? That’s a popular concept these days. What if we were scrambling to be law-centered? The difference may not be so easy to see. Ray Ortland adresses this question with keen insight and simplicity in his brief post: Centered On One or the Other. And what…
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Grace Will…
I was blown away as I thought about the paradoxes of the Gospel as it was described by Paul Tripp in his book, Broken-Down House. Don’t just read through quickly. Stop and consider the contrasts: Grace is a story and grace is a gift. It is God’s character and it is your hope. Grace is…
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3 Short Books I Wish Everyone in My Church Would Read
I read a fair amount. I have been accused, and probably rightly so, of unrealistically pushing books and other reading materials on people who don’t read quite as much; who don’t have the time to read as much; who don’t get “paid” to read as much (as I, in part, am). But there are ideas…
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What is the Gospel?
To say that we, as a church, are centered on the gospel, or Gospel-Driven, is realtively easy. It is quite another thing for the typical church member to know what such phrases actually mean. The following post, by C.J. Mahaney, was originally published on the Together for the Gospel blog. I include it here in…
