The 2 Faces of the Gospel

Last week at the National New Church Conference the Reverand Tim Keller spoke.  He is the senior minister for Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NYC.  In his address he highlighted a wonderful point from the book of Galatians.

In chapter one of Galatians the apostle Paul greets his readers with his familiar, “grace and peace to you” and then, rather forcefully, chastises them for backtracking on their commitment to “the gospel.”  He passionately accuses them of turning to “a different gospel” which he claims is not good news at all.  In his typical hyperbole, Paul declares that even if anyone or he, himself, were to return to the province of Galatia and preach something other than what he had preached initially and by which the Galatian Christians were converted, they should suffer eternal condemnation.  Here in chapter one Paul makes a strong case for the unity of the gospel.  There is just one gospel so Paul seems to say and if anyone presents something different he should go to hell.  Paul underscores the validity and legitimacy of the gosepl he preached by affirming that the gospel he presented to them was given to him through revelation by Jesus Christ himself.  Clearly, Paul is playing the ultimate trump card.

The interesting part comes in chapter two as he describes his relationship with the other apostles, in particular those in the Jewish church in Jerusalem.  Paul describes his trip to Jerusalem to privately present to the leaders “the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.”  On this trip he took along the Greek convert Titus who, Paul notes, is not compelled to be circumcised while in Jerusalem with all of the circumcised Christians.  Continuing on in 2:7 Paul identifies himself as the apostle to the Gentiles and Peter as the apostle to the Jews.  He reports that the leaders in Jerusalem encouraged him that such an arrangement should continue.

What is interesting is the oneness/lack of oneness of the gospel.  Apparently, Paul sees no contradiction in aruguing for the singularity of the gospel when threatened by doctrines of law-keeping and yet enbracing his role as the preacher of the unique gospel to the Gentiles, which does not enforce circumcision while accepting that Jewish Christians still do.

I think what we hear echoing in the deep caverns of the book of Galatians are Jewish Christians arguing the point.  Some are insisting that circumcision is a “salvation issue” and other, more progressivly minded Jewish Christians, accept that it may not be a salvation issue yet feel circumcision should still be practiced out of respect for their Jewish heritage.  Paul’s response seems to be harshest for the first group because they have irreparably damages the true gospel (chapter 1).  In chapter 1 Paul is writing as theologian.  In chapter 2 we see Paul writing as as missionary/church planter who understands that the singular gospel will look remarkably different as it is embedded in different cultures, sometimes to the great dismay of the other.

As the old song says, “Everything old is new again!”  How remarkable it is after 2000 years of Christian history & innumerable volumns written expounding the gospel, we are still so easily confused.  As I re-read Paul’s words, I am struck by the eternal weight of this matter. “If we or an angel from heaven shuld preach a gospel othe than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!”  The call to preach the gospel is no small matter.  And we must not be blackmailed into preaching an immasculated gospel or a gospel that keeps peace with the Judaizers.  Rather, we must preach the pure, radical & at times divisive gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world.

 

OW

Bush or Garden: a Question of Scope

While at the National New Church Conference last week one of the speakers (I don’t remember which one) told the story of George Whitefield, the Great Awakening preacher who traveled in Great Britian & in the United States preaching & drawing huge crowds.  Whitefield was contemporary with John Wesley, another great preacher of the time who, likewise, drew huge crowds.  At his death, Whitefield is reported to have said, “Wesley chose the better way.  My converts are like a fist-full of sand.”

The difference between the ministry of George Whitefield & John Wesley was not the power or impact of their preaching.  Both were thought of as powerful & compelling preachers through whom the Spirit worked in remarkable ways.  There were those who claimed that Whitfield was the more accomplished preacher.  The difference in their ministries was Wesley’s commitment to organize his followers into local groups (classes) that were trained to minister to one another.  They were taught a method of Bible study and discipleship that was easily replicated in new places and with new people (from which the lable “Methodists” comes).

If gathering a crowd to hear great preaching is a rose bush then Whitefield may have had the prize-winning rose bush.  But, at his death he looked out and saw a large and impressive rose garden under the care of John Wesley.  In my back yard is a small rose bush.  It is a climbing bush and produces medium pink blooms.  A few weeks ago when we went to the nursery to buy some rose bushes we were not looking for pink blooms but the story of this bush touched us.  This bush started as a clipping from a large bush in New Orleans that had been flooded during hurricane Katrina.  While Katrina killed many things, including gardens, this bush survived.  Having been living & ministering in the New Orleans area during & after Katrina, we had to have this little rose bush.

However large and beautiful the parent bush was in New Orleans, however many blooms it produced, however remarkable it is that it survived being buried for days in the post-Katrina floodwaters, what magnifies all of those qualities is that now that bush will reproduce its beauty in many smaller, yet equally as beautiful bushes in many new places, like our backyard.

Like the crowds that gathered to hear both Wesley and Whitefield, people like to hear good preaching.  They may travel impressive distances to hear a skilled homeletician work his wonders with the Word of God.  Yet, history has repeatedly demonstrated that the Kingdom of God breaks into the darkness more effectively through simple, reproducable discipleship than through even the very best preaching.

Rose bush or rose garden?

 

OW

National New Church Conference

We just got back last night from Orlando, FL after 4 days at the National New Church Conference.  We are exhausted & invigorated.  There is nothing like joining the largest gathering of church planting people in the country (probably world).  As big & broad as it is, every expression, theology or strategy is expoused by someone.  It has a similar effect on me as a Super Wal-Mart; I appreciate the availability & convenience and am nauseated by the consumeristic impulse it surfaces within me & apparently in others (if judged by the hoopla).

In spite of the unapologetic commercialism, I enjoyed a number of speakers & workshops.  Perhaps there were many theologically minded presenters but the only ones I heard were Alan Hirsch, Neil Cole (to some degree), Sally Morganthaler (again, to some degree) and Tim Keller.

Alan Hirsch seems to have surfaced in recent years as one of the preferred missiologists for this generation.  Originally from Australia, less than a year ago Hirsch moved to the States and teaches at Fuller in Pasadena, CA. and is involved in Shapevine, an online repository of contemporary & missional ministry resources.  (http://www.shapevine.com/)  He is also “the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network, a highly innovative action-learning system focused on developing missional leaders in western contexts.”

Neil Cole is best known for his book “Organic Church”.  He founded Awakening Chapels, which are small, simple house churches that reproduce themselves easily and can be modified for virtually any context, and Church Multiplication Associates (CMA) (http://www.cmaresources.org/).

Sally Morganthaler authored “Worship Evangelism” and ran the website Sacramentis.com for several years.  She is a creative thinker an innovator in worship forms.

Tim Keller is Senior Pastor for Redeemer Presbyterian Church ( http://www.redeemer.com/ ) in New York City.  Redeemer Pres. has as one of its many ministries the Redeemer Church Planting Center.  They have blazed a trail of church planting in the city and around the world.  Keller is a pastor’s pastor with a clear missional orientation.

I attended 3 session with Gailyn on developing Networks and Alliances of church plants & planting churches.  At this stage in Mission Alive’s development it is hard to see broad enough or far enough to consider developing geographic networks of existing churches & church plants.  Yet, the Kingdom is a place where lines that seperate are blurred, resources are shared and Christians that look for the redeption of the world work together to bring about little redemptions until the eschaton.  So, I left with an appreication for our need to be thinking broader and longer.

On a much smaller scale, I attended two sessions with Steve Ogne on coaching.  I have a copy of his June 2005 dissertation on coaching that will be coming out in book form this October.  I wanted the sneak preview of his views.  He is reputed to be among the more theologically oriented thinkers in the arena of coaching.  I appreciate the orientation toward spiritual formation that he brought and the wisdom he shared about developing effective coach training, something I am working on in Mission Alive.

The biggest disappointment of the conference was (but for those named above) a shameful pragmatism that permeated almost every session.  Little theological reflection seems to have informed the practices of most church plants.  In some cases what speakers intended as a theological orientation was little more than “bible verse cut and paste.”  This doesn’t come as a surprise, but with so many seminaries around the country, I would think that theological and historical reflection would be a more commonly practiced discipline.

Gailyn and I had an opportunity to sit with Ed Stetzer for an hour or so and talk about his perceptions of individuals and organization that could be helpful to Mission Alive as we strive to further develop our ministry.  Ed offered a few names but said that our emphasis on theology is fairly unique in the church planting world and there were few, if any, organizations that reflect our commitment to planting churches rooted in theological reflection.

OW

Basic Cremation

While driving today, my wife noticed a sign on a local cremation service that read, “Basic Cremation $895″.  What followed was a erratic conversation about the differences between basic cremation and delux cremation.

What does delux cremation get you?  Does it increase the temperature with which you are cremated?  Perhaps they play some nice funeral music while you are buring, like the musak that plays in funeral homes.  Or, better yet, maybe you can get something with a bit more culture to it, like Disco Inferno, Springsteen’s I’m on Fire or Smokin’ in the Boys Room.  Maybe with delux cremation they add some phosphorous to the fire to make all those nice colors.  Does the deluxpackage give you preferred burning so that you get burned up before anyone who settled for basic cremation?  Or does it afford the gratifying opportunity to be cremated with your favorite pet (e.g. ancient Egyptians who were buried with their horses, dogs & cats) or Hindus whose wives prefer to throw themselves on the funeral pyre rather than suffer life without you.  That’s a nice option.  “Honey, what do you think?  Shall we go for the delux package?”

I saw another funeral home advertising, “Complete cremation $975″.  Of course, a discerning consumer searching for a bargin must ask, “What do they cremate for…say…$750?”  

It just makes an O.W. wonder…

 

OW