A number of years ago I attended a brown bag discussion with Tim Keller on Preaching, which followed the now famous Gordon Conwell Preaching Lectures on Preaching to the Heart. During this discussion Keller shared a number of extremely helpful thoughts for young preachers. One on his points was that young preachers won’t find their voice until they have preached 200 sermons, so don’t be so hard on yourself! There are, however, a number of things we can do to improve as we struggle to find our voice and reach the “200 mark’! My friend Josh Otte recalls that discussion and posts more of Keller’s advice here.
Top Posts of 2008
Reviewing ReJesus – I
I’ve appreciated Frost & Hirsch’s previous writing, their willingness to look at Jesus, community, and mission from a fresh perspective. Although I struggled through The Forgotten Ways, I definitely found the struggle worthwhile. ReJesus offers the same fresh perspective but from a much better pen. Either Frost or Hirsch have improved in their writing ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church!
The thesis of the book is that the Western church has overlooked the wild side of Jesus and under-emulated it. Sounds like Wild at Heart repackaged, but hardly!Attempting to retrieve the humanity of Christ, they build upon the theological foundations of imitatio Christi, the imitation of Christ. The notion that we should imitate Jesus was jettisoned from theological reflection for several centuries due to its moralistic overtones. Frost & Hirsch seem to be aware of these dangers, but it will be interesting to see how they relate their thesis to Chalcedonian christology.
In order to sufficiently reJesus the Church, they propose a three-fold focus (and take us on a Latin tour!): missio Dei, participatio Christi, & imago Dei. They write:
Those taken captive by the sight of Christ must be prepared for a reintegration of the theological concepts of missio Dei, participatio Christi, and imago Dei. These three concepts are foundational for a rediscovery of missional practice in our time. They are also foundational for us to reJesus the church in the West.
They go on to claim that a fresh perspective on mission, Jesus, and church will release Christianity into a renewed level of impact. I’m excited to keep reading but concerned about some of the conclusions. Already they have mixed theological concepts that are at odds, affirming total depravity in one breath and prevenient grace in the next. Hopefully thier missiological creativity will not outpace theological integrity!
The 50/50 Gospel – II
In an effort to recenter church methods debate back onto the gospel, I recently proposed that we should be debating the strength of our gospel, not the effectiveness of our methods. There are varieties of methods from organic house church to attractional mega church that have been used by God to advance the gospel. But what kind of gospel?
The 50/50 Gospel
I attempted to answer that question by suggesting that some church methods operate on a 50/50 gospel, an understanding of the good news that relies on 50% of our behavior and 50% God’s grace. This gospel assumes that people are good enough to chose Christ but that they simply need to be reminded how good Christ is. Broken marriages, patterns of sexual sin, deep-seated anger, and financial hardships are primarily the product of our failure to behave like Jesus. Enter the Church. The church can reminds us, exhort us, even train us to be like Jesus, to make good moral decisions, not bad ones. We need the grace of God’s example and a faithful commitment to behave accordingly. This is the 50/50 gospel, and it is anathema.
50/50 Concoctions: Morality, Community, & Mission
The 50/50 gospel relies, not on the power of grace, but on the power of morality. As a result, the Church becomes a half-way house between our moral failures and our moral successes. We rehabilitate our decision-making under the faithful instruction of a faithless institution. But the 50/50 gospel is sometimes mixed differently. Try 50% mission, 50% grace. We need the grace of Jesus example and the goal of Jesus mission. In this concoction, churches serve as a inspiring non-profit, moving us from missional failure to missional success. We soften our social consciences under the weight of a missional institution. And then there is the 50% community, 50% grace combo. We need the grace of God to become “like the early church,” to have real community, to jettison our individualism in order to truly become “the church.” The gospel becomes a quick-fix to our lack of community.
100 Proof Gospel
Each concoction of the 50/50 gospel is actually quite dangerous. They propose that churches should attract as many people as possible to their moral-laden messages, missional activities, and communal experiences. The goal of the Church is reduced to converting people to a better way of living, not to better God to be believing. What we need is a gospel that is 100 proof grace, the work of Spirit to violate our dulled taste for what it good, true and beautiful and to get us drunk on God. We need more than changed behaviors; we need changed hearts, new affections, from which a life of worship flows. We need churches that are more concerned about pointing us to the multi-faceted splendor of Jesus Christ, than the innovative ways we can be the church through community or mission. What we need is 100% gospel.