Starting to really resonate with Piper more and more these days. Just watched another one of his video’s on the “prosperity gospel” and how it contradicts the call for us to be “salty” instead.
Have a watch and let me know what you think…
Tag Archive for 'Gospel'
With all the talk these days about Emergent/Missional and Seeker Sensitive Churches plus the discussion around liberal or fundamental Churches and whatever else, I ground myself in Scripture as to what to expect as a reaction to the Gospel being taught.
As Christians, lets not kid ourselves about the message we deliver. We preach Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and the reasons for it. This is the Gospel and this is the message we are asked to spread across the whole earth.
All the different streams of Christianity mentioned above attempt to get this message across in a meaningful way in the hope that people respond to it. But what gets in the way is when we deliver it in a way to maximize acceptance rather then focus on the substance of what we teach.
More and more I am shifting my opinion to focusing on the message instead of focusing on the acceptance of it. And in doing so, scripture says that we will always encounter 3 responses to what we believe:
- Disbelief and mockery
- Interest and further discussion
- Belief and commitment
As anyone following this blog would know, I am a fan of Mark Driscoll and the Church he pastors - Mars Hill Church. Mars Hill gets its name from an interesting passage of scriptures found in Acts 17 when Paul visits Athens. The entire story can be read here.
In a nutshell, Paul visits Athens and is moved by the idolatry found there. Being the center of civilised society, Athens is alive with culture, education and arts. But because of the idols found in the town, Paul is moved to reason with the Jews, devout people, anyone in the market place and philosophers about the Gospel.
Read the passage this way: Paul speaks to everybody and anybody about the Gospel. And in doing so, he comes across Epicurean & Stoic philosophers. The “epics” taught that the pursuit of pleasure, not knowledge, is the meaning of life. The “stoics” taught that wisdom is found in being free from intense emotion, unmoved by joy or grief and a belief that everything in nature is God - aka pantheism.
In many ways, what the “epics” and “stoics” stood for is what we in modern society also hold dear to our hearts. So perceived as a “babbler,” Paul is asked to address Mars Hill - where all these goonies get together and try to “out-philosophise” each other. There, Paul tells the Gospel in a relevant and missional way - a way their mindset is able to digest.
The result of this?
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Acts 17:32-34
Here are our 3 responses:
- Some mocked
- Some wanted to know more
- Some believed
What Paul did was address Mars Hill in a relevant, and yet confrontational way - not shying away from controversial issues and then he hit the topic of resurrection. And this is when “the *@!# hit the fan” at Mars Hill. Anything in regards to resurrection was a major issue at Mars Hill given their philosophical beliefs - and this is probably why Paul didn’t get to finish his spiel and get to his favorite topic - the resurrection of his Messiah. And Paul simply left Athens leaving a few members of Mars Hill as believers, some wanted to know more and probably most chasing him out of Athens in mockery.
Fast forward 2000 years and we find ourselves in the ridiculous cycle of which “conversation” or approach is better in getting people to accept the Gospel of Jesus. I hear and get every perspective:
- To the fundamentals, I get your desire to hold onto truth and prevent the twisting of scripture in order to make the Gospel more “palatable” to the masses.
- To the emergents, I get your desire to present the Gospel in a relevant, new and fresh way - to keep up with the times.
But what I don’t get is when “fundies” hold onto traditions while forsaking modern culture. And what I don’t get is when “emergies” in their pursuit of relevance, question the doctrines of scripture. It’s OK to question traditions - but don’t question doctrine.
To both camps, I say: Remember that the truth of the Gospel will always encounter 3 responses:
- Disbelief and mockery
- Interest and further discussion
- Belief and commitment
That’s why I so like the “missional” mindset of Christianity - to present the never changing truths of Scripture in a modern cultural context. Forget about the two extremes of the church - fundamentalism and liberalism - they focus on irrelevant issues.
Paul presented the Gospel in a cultural context. At Mars Hill, he didn’t bother getting into historic Judaism as he did elsewhere - he met his listeners where they were at. But he didn’t shy away from tough topics which made him look like a goofball to some and downright offensive to others. He stuck to the truth, he experienced the “3 responses” and he moved on.
Some mocked. Some wanted more. Some believed. Paul left Athens.
When the modern Church teaches, it has to understand that the same principles apply:
- Teach truth in cultural context.
- Don’t shy away from tough topics.
- Experience the 3 responses.
- Move on.
I hope I’ve opened that can of worms inside. Please tell.
Being human in the western world these days makes you a prime target for visual and audio assault. It seems as if every moment of our day we are exposed to media. Be it advertising, TV, music, computers, books or radio.
Try a little test for me and see how long you survive in a day without succumbing to some form of media. You won’t last very long. Media assaults our brain with information almost all of our waking hours. We are saturated by it and some of us, myself being a prime candidate, can’t live without it. Even as I sit here typing, I am away on a business trip and have my iPod blaring away while I sit typing away on my laptop. We live our lives as a by product of being totally assaulted and being “made alive” by our senses constantly being bombarded by noise.
And then we have the audacity to ask someone to sit still and listen to a stranger to preach to them for an hour or so on a Sunday morning talking to them about a concept so foreign to them that they simply can’t understand nor wish to engage in.
No wonder it’s getting harder to engage people these days. Modern western society has a mass form of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and going to church to listen to someone preach to them is simply “so yesterday” that the whole concept of Church is dead before it even begins.
We need a paradigm shift on how we deliver the timeless message of the Gospel. In a society where all visual and auditory senses are bombarded with such high frequency, our timeless message is being triaged to the “irrelevant noise” section of society’s mindset.
It’s ironic in a way that the most important message to get out to people is the one that most people can’t even register. The reason for this is that the delivery of the message is still stuck in ancient times - a preacher talking.
What I propose is that we deliver the message of the Gospel using increasingly multimedia methods. The world screams images, video and sound? Fine. We need to do the same. The world is becoming increasingly online? Fine, we need to do the same. The world is delivered information in bite-sized snippets (albeit cleverly crafted)? Fine, we need to do the same.
Paul, even in his day, had insight into all this:
“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” 1 Cor 9:19-23
The gist of the above is, “I need to connect to people where they are in order to get the message of the Gospel out in a way they can understand.” This may well mean, getting rid of all denomination talk, getting rid of ‘Christianese talk”, shelving your KJV bible and popping open The Message and sharing it with someone, replacing the organ in your church with a drum kit. And the list can go on.
There is nothing wrong with any of the above. But when we act like this in front of people who don’t believe in Jesus, we look like whackos. And whacko’s we are not. We have been entrusted with the Gospel of Jesus - the most wonderful news mankind could here.
But one area I think the Church needs to excel in is in the area of relevant and engaging multimedia which assaults the senses just as well, if not better, then the typical stuff we are exposed to every day.
How many times do you watch “Current Event” shows talking about how TV commercials tend to be louder then the programs? Truth is that they are not louder. They just pack more information in their allotted timeframe and bandwidth and our brain registers them as being louder.
As the multimedia guy at my church, I’m going to pursue a more vigorous multimedia approach to what we do. Then our message will be on a level playing field to what our people hear and see everyday. And maybe, just maybe, our voice is heard a little more.
Of course, all this cannot compete with the power of God as He decides to reach out to people. But this has been tugging on my heart for a while now and I believe I have a roll to play in reaching the masses by becoming “all things to all people.” After all, Paul did the same thing. I often wonder what his missionary style would be in our culture today.
By going to the core of society in Athens and addressing the philosophical leaders in Acts 17, he went to the core of society’s influence. These days, media influences people more then they care to admit. So that’s where I aim to go.
A practical example of how this plays out is having media presentations at church, hyped up with music/sound and lyrical content delivered fast paced and with loud volume. We compete for the attention of souls bombarded by the same things from people who only want their money.
We want these people to want Jesus. We owe it to our King to “be all things to all people” and if that means stepping out of our comfort zones to contextualise the Gospel to modern society, so be it.
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