Jesus Brand Spirituality » The Gospel is Our Message

The Gospel is Our Message

Teachers’ notes

We are wrapping our arms around what it means to be a church for the people we love here in Ann Arbor area: A church, not just for ourselves, but for those on the outside of faith looking in.

Last week we considered the first of four core values: Jesus is our Center.This week we consider the second of four core values: The Gospel is our Message

The best business book of all time is Good to Great, by Jim Collins. This book is based on extensive studies of companies that made the leap from good to great companies that are “built to last.” (As the church is meant to be: the gates of hell will not prevail against it…)

According to Collins, the first two steps in moving a company from good to great are these:

1. First who, then what [get the right people on the bus]

2. Then confront the brutal facts. That’s what we’re trying to do in A2VC, confront the brutal facts about our business.

The brutal facts are plain to see if hard to face: they revolve around the pervasive negative perception of American Christianity. Thirty years ago, if you did a “man on the street interview” asking the question, “What keeps you from attending church?” I suppose you would have gotten a lot answers like, “I really want to, but it’s hard to find the time” or “I just don’t feel like I’m good enough and I don’t want to be a hypocrite.” Today, at least in our hometown, the answers are based on the perception that Christianity is not a religion that would help a person become what they perceive their higher-nobler selves to be.

After confronting the brutal facts of your business, Collins says, that good to great companies came to understand what he calls their “hedgehop concept” is. “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” In a show- down between the fox and a hedgehog, the fox ought to win. The fox is smart, crafty, alert, quick. While the hedgehog is slow, dull, dim of wit. But no matter what the fox does to sneak up on the hedgehog or cunningly outsmart the hedgehog, the hedgehog has one big idea that works every time: stop-drop-curl and when he does, the fox goes whimpering away.

Great companies discover the one big thing they can be better at than anyone else on planet. They never lose focus on the one big thing.

What is the one big thing entrusted to the church enterprise? It is the gospel. We are a message bearing movement and our message is the gospel.

Gospel is an old English word meaning, literally “Good News”; it is an English translation of the Greek ευαγγέλιον (euangelion) meaning, “good message”). In ancient Greece when a new king came to power, runners sent out to announce.
[see wikipedia entry on same]

The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”-”a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’…..After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mk. 1: 1-3, 14-15)
We have one Lord, Jesus. And one message, the gospel, regarding which he owns the copyright.

But now, the unpleasant part: confront the brutal facts facing your enterprise!

BRUTAL FACT #1: THE GOSPEL OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANTY ISN’T BIG ENOUGH. Fifty years ago, the big movement in the seminaries and the major institutions of the church was called “the social gospel.” This movement focused on the need for social justice as an integral concern of the gospel. But the social gospel movement lost sight of the transforming power of faith to awaken individual human hearts, to save people, one soul at a time.
So the evangelical wing of the church, named after the gospel, began to insist that the gospel was the power of God for salvation, one soul at a time over and against the social gospel movement. Evangelicals set to work spreading that message. We applied our American marketing genius to the task and distilled the gospel into simple diagrams: the bridge diagram, the four spiritual laws presentation. We insisted, this and not that, is the gospel.

By our silence on gospel’s concern for justice, we implied that it is all about receiving Jesus as Lord & Savior for forgiveness of personal sins so when we die weu can go to heaven. To use last week’s graphic: If you grew up in E (evangelical) or P (Pentecostal) wing this was the scope of gospel.

Brutal fact: that gospel is too small. The word “save” in the NT (Gk. sozo) is a big word. It applies to the whole of life: physical, emotional, spiritual, social, national, global.

So the gospel of American Christianity isn’t big enough on several counts: the big enough gospel is for the whole person, not just for saving souls; the big enough gospel is focused on nations not just individuals (in fact, it was Jesus’ attempt to save Israel from national destruction; to get them off the path of violent resistance and on the path of loving their enemies, the Roman occupiers); the big enough gospel is not just about going to heaven when you die; it is also about bringing heaven down to earth here and now, where all the suffering is.

The first brutal fact: the gospel of American Christianity isn’t big enough. And the second brutal fact is like unto it: THE GOSPEL OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH

Those on the outside of faith looking in don’t hear our message as good news at all. It’s widely viewed as bad news. I have a friend through my work with scientists & evangelicals united to protect creation who, for a very short period of time was the head of one of the largest Christian political action groups: the Christian Coalition. He only lasted a brief time as the head of that organization because he wanted to expand their agenda beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage to include justice issues like taking better care of the environment. They said, “No, we want to keep our focus as is.”

This is the strategy of some of the largest Christian organizations in the United States, the ones with the largest mailing lists and the largest media megaphones. As a result, those on the outside of faith looking in know more about what Christians are against than what they are for.

They see Christians playing political hardball, taking no prisoners, and they think to themselves, “If this is what good news is all about, I’m not interested. You may win the argument, but you’ve lost my heart.”

We may say, “Well, people misunderstand the gospel. They are hearing it through distorted lenses. It really is good news. Too bad for them if they misunderstand. That’s on them.”

We can’t go along with that cop out! If you’re married and want to stay that way, can you cop that attitude? I know what I meant! If she didn’t hear that, too bad for her!

People we love are not hearing! That’s not acceptable! Not good enough!

Jesus kept his instructions pretty simple: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” (Mk 16: 15)
In English, there is only one adjective modifying the noun: the noun is “news” the modifying adjective: GOOD.
If there’s one thing about the news we are under orders to communicate (by word & deed) it is that the news is good!

It’s not good enough to say, “We know it’s good.”
It’s not good enough to sing songs to each other about how good it is.
It’s not good enough to brighten our teeth so our smiles are unnaturally white when we tell the news.
It’s not good enough to put all the pretty people on the platform singing happy-clappy songs, so it looks good because we do.

We have to take our communication task more seriously that that! How can we communicate–tell & do–the goodness of this news?

We have to wrestle with this message and it’s implications for our lives on every level: personal, social, global. If our message is not good news on each of those levels, it’s not good enough and it’s not the gospel!

Personal: Are we wrestling with the gospel so it’s scent rubs off on us? Are we learning to approach God as Abba, Father so Abba’s love for us and others is rubbing off on us? Are we becoming the people who don’t gossip in the office because we’re concerned to protect even the reputation of people we don’t like? Are we the ones learning to listen to others as we would want to be listened to, because our master’s rule is the golden one?

Social: Are we wrestling with the gospel and it’s implications for the intractable social problems around us? Are we applying the gospel aiming for results?

SE Michigan is the most racially segregated place in the United States.
The churches in SE Michigan are MORE racially segregated than the neighborhoods and the workplaces are! Not good enough!

It’s not enough to contend for gospel: that is, to defend the gospel against unwarranted attacks. We have to first contend with the gospel. We have to wrestle with the gospel until we realize that comfortable-homogenous churches are not good enough! We’ve got stretch beyond our comfort zone!

If we’re wrestling with the gospel we will become increasingly diverse. Sociologists define a diverse church as at least 20% non-majority culture. We’re currently about 13% non-majority culture. That means we have some more wrestling with the gospel to do, so that diversity–which is not just a PC term, but a sign of the coming kingdom–becomes a reality!

One of the great social needs facing our local community is the severe pressure on the family unit. Single mom families under unique pressure. In many churches, if you are a single mom, you feel marginalized, ignored, perhaps, even, shamed. That’s not good enough!

James, the brother of Jesus, said true religion means taking care of the widows & orphans. In our generation: single moms & their kids; families struggling to get by without a dad in the home.

That’s why we invest as we do in a single moms ministry. That’s why the best food we ever serve, with the best-dressed and most professional wait staff, is to the single moms at the MNO.

This isn’t feel-good do good-ism. This is real-good good-news-ism.

Global: What are the 3 major GLOBAL concerns of our day? 1. Abject poverty; 2. The Growing conflict between the Christian West and radical Islam; 3. Global environmental distress. If our gospel isn’t good news for these problems, it’s not the gospel!

Thanks to hundreds of thousands of ordinary people involved in global missions, the American church is beginning to face abject global poverty. Quietly, American Christianity is taking a leading role in addressing it on a grass roots level.

Which leaves two other global concerns. First, global terrorism fueled by rising Islamic fundamentalism.

Jesus had a big idea: love your enemies; do unto others as you would have them do unto you; don’t return evil with evil. Man, do we have some wrestling to do with the gospel on this one!

Personally, I think nations need a Dept. of Defense and a military. My father fought in WW2: I’m not a pacifist. But crush your enemies is not the gospel! It’s not the big idea entrusted to us! I don’t have the answers, but I know the gospel does, and we haven’t been wrestling with it enough concerning one of the biggest challenges of our time.

It’s not good enough that homeland security is doing its job. Are we doing ours? Are we bringing OUR BIG IDEA–the gospel–to bear on this global concern?

Emily Swan, one of our leaders devoted to global missions, has been to Middle East, wrestling with the gospel and it’s implications for engaging Islam. Emily will be preaching two weeks after Easter on this topic. You won’t want to miss it.

Third global concern: Environment degradation at a massive scale. This has to be a concern to the Jesus movement because his message is good news for the poor and the poor suffer the most from environmental degradation.

Here at home: Coal burning power plants are big polluters. They spew out mercury that harms unborn babies and other pollutants that raise asthma rates wherever the plants are located. (The pollution is worse near the plants.) We who are well off can keep coal burning power plants far away from us. Failing that, we can afford to move away from them. Not so, the poor. Is that good news for the poor?

One billion people are without access to clean water. They drink dirty, polluted, disease-bearing water every day of their shortened lives. Is that good news for the poor?

Gus Speth, the first advisor to a U.S. President about climate change and other environmental concerns said at a retreat I attended: “I thought thirty years of good science would solve these problems. I was wrong. We need a spiritual and cultural transformation to solve these problems.”

Whose job is that, the scientists? No, that’s our job!

If, in a very short time, the gospel does not become known as something that empowers people to care for God’s creation, it is going to be suffer enormous loss in the marketplace of ideas. If it’s not good news for the earth, it’s not good enough.

So. We’ve got our work cut out for us.
We have one CENTER, Jesus.
We have one BOOK, the Bible.
We have one AIM, LOVE.
We have one MESSAGE, the Gospel.

But the message has been buried. And we’re called to do something about it. We have our work cut out for us.

Isn’t this exciting? Isn’t this invigorating? We have a challenge before us. If we embrace this challenge together as a church, we can be part of turning this thing around. I know we can.

And this will be good for us. This challenge will press us into the gospel so that we can discover the gold in them there hills. And the gospel will press us into our community…and that’s the combination that led to the stories that ended up in the book of Acts.

It’s going to take a little boldness. It’s going to take a little courage.
It’s going to take a little creativity. A lot of faith spelled R-I-S-K
And it’s going to take a lot of God, a lot of Jesus, a lot of LOVE.

Are you ready for the ride? The train is leaving the station.

—Ken Wilson, March 02, 2008

Participants’ Notes

Good to Great, by James Collins, list three steps that companies take who successfully transition from good to great companies:

First who…then what
Confront the brutal facts
Identify your “hedgehog concept.”

Hedgehog concept: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” [How to stop-drop-curl when threatened.]

Great companies discover the one big thing they can be better at than anyone else on planet. They never lose focus on the one big thing.

What is the one big thing entrusted to the church? The gospel.

Gospel is old English word meaning, literally “Good News”; English translation of GK ευαγγέλιον (euangelion, “good message”). In ancient Greece when a new king came to power, runners sent out to announce. (wikipedia)

“The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—”a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’…..After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mk. 1: 1-3, 14-15)

We have one Lord, Jesus. And one message, the gospel.

But now, the unpleasant part: confront the brutal facts.

BRUTAL FACT#1: THE GOSPEL OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY ISN’T BIG ENOUGH

The American Evangelical Movements’ reaction to “the social gospel movement”.
Exclusive emphasis on the gospel as a message of salvation one soul at a time;
combined with an understanding of salvation as “going to heaven when you die.”

That “gospel”" is too small. The word “save” in the NT (Gk. sozo) is a big word. Applies to the whole of life: physical, emotional, spiritual, social, national, global.

The gospel of Jesus emphasized bringing heaven down to earth: “May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

The gospel of popular American Christianity isn’t big enough.

The big enough gospel is for the whole person, not just for saving souls; the big enough gospel is focused on nations not just individuals; the big enough gospel is not just about going to heaven when you die; it’s about heaven’s influence down to earth here and now, where all the suffering is.

BRUTAL FACT #2: THE GOSPEL OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANTY ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH

Those on the outside of faith looking in don’t hear our message as good news at all. Thirty years ago, people stayed away from church because they felt they weren’t good enough to be Christians. Now, they away from church because they don’t see Christianity as good enough to help them achieve their highest aspirations. The gospel of American Christianity is widely perceived as bad news.

We may say, “Well, people misunderstand the gospel. They are hearing it through distorted lenses. It really is good news. Too bad for them if they misunderstand. That’s on them.”

If you’re married and want to stay that way, can you cop that attitude? I know what I meant! If she didn’t hear that, too bad for her! If it’s not good enough for your spouse, it’s not good enough for Jesus.

If there’s one thing about the news that we are under orders to communicate as effectively as we can, it is that the news is good!

Personal:

Social:

Global:

Conclusion: We’ve got our work cut out for us. This is time for us to be bold, courageous, creative; it’s a time for faith [spelled R-I-S-K]