Tag: american ecclesiology

The 50/50 Gospel – II

Posted on December 22, 2008

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.

Church Planting on a 50/50 Gospel

Posted on December 19, 2008

In recent posts and comment interaction we have tried to expose a certain fruitlessness in the debate regarding church planting methods. To a degree, this debate ignores what is most critical in church planting—our understanding, articulation, and embodiment of the historic gospel of Jesus Christ.

Are methods entirely untethered to gospel? Are there certain, more biblically faithful understandings of the gospel that will produce certain, more theologically faithful churches? If so, what about the gospel needs to be debated? What misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the gospel are we in danger of succumbing to?

In his newest book, Christless Christianity, Michael Horton argues that it is a semi-pelagian understanding of the gospel that most endangers the American church. He claims that American Protestantism has been dominated by semi-pelagianism, what I’ll call a 50/50 understanding of the gospel—we are saved by fifty percent grace and fifty percent works—God’s assistance in our choosing.

This gospel unabashedly undermines the doctrine of original sin and total depravity. We aren’t enemies of God; we’re just wayward souls in need of redirection. But did Jesus die merely to redirect meandering people? Surely his teachings would have sufficed to correct our wayward morals. No, Jesus died to atone for our high treason, both inherited and enacted, against the Lord of All. We have deliberately refused holiness and sought therapy for our sin sick souls. If we are not truly sinners and need just the divine assistance of a kindly Christ, then the gospel is reduced to moral rehabilitation and spiritual highs.

How does a 50/50 gospel affect church planting? A fifty-fifty gospel will produce a thrifty, nifty church. Like a church building I pass every time on my way to Dallas, we will end up offering “30 minute worship, guaranteed!” Harmless, cheap, convenient, or your money back guaranteed. A 50/50 gospel will inevitably lead to no gospel at all and a church that is reduced to attracting people interested in an occasional dose of moral redirection and a quick spiritual high. We will produce addicts not disciples, events not churches.

In the end, a 50/50 gospel will result in churches that are mainly services, places where the weary moralist turns up for a fresh filling of “you can do its” in order to continue tickering along in his own strength for his own goodness. This kind of gospel is worse that diluted gas. The human engine will putter along without ever knowing the difference between 100 proof gospel and 50/50, puttering all the way to hell. If  the American church is to faithfully embody the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will have to get our doctrine of sin and grace right, not just in our preaching but also in our planting.