Gospel Culture
In 2017, how many people had the opportunity to experience deliverance from the power of darkness and be translated into the kingdom of God’s dear son because of the gospel being preached by you?
If we really take God at His word, it should be challenging to measure the answer to that question. Are we not to preach the gospel to every creature (Mar. 16:15)? How many people do you believe you encountered in 2017 where you were prompted by the Spirit of God to preach the gospel?
Unless you’re a hermit, in any given week and month, those opportunities were plentiful. From the server at Applebee’s to the technician servicing your furnace for winter to the UPS driver delivering a package to your home, all those people should have walked away from that encounter knowing that Jesus came, died for their sins, was buried and rose again on the third day so that they would not have to enter eternity without Him.
In his book, “Design for Discipleship,” J. Dwight Pentecost says, “…we come to the unshakable conclusion that the ministry of a disciple is the ministry of introducing Jesus Christ to men who do not know Him. The ministry of a disciple is the ministry of imparting to others the truth concerning the Father and the Son that has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. The ministry of a disciple makes one a channel through which the Spirit of God brings divine truth home to men who are ignorant of God because of their natural blindness.”
As the years pass, my appreciation for our faith-based position on the word of God, which shapes our philosophy and approach to ministry, continues to deepen. What we have is priceless, rare and extremely special. However, a sobering vulnerability exists within our ministry:
WE CAN BE VERY STRONG IN THE KNOWLEDGE AND TEACHING OF THE WORD, BUT TAKE A VERY PASSIVE APPROACH IN OUR STEWARDSHIP OF THE GOSPEL.
Charles Spurgeon said, “If a student should learn a thousand things, and yet fail to preach the gospel acceptably, his college course will have missed its true design. Should the pursuit of literary prizes and the ambition for classical honours so occupy his mind as to divert his attention from his life work, they are perilous rather than beneficial. To be wise to win souls is the wisdom ministers should possess.”
Making disciples begins with seeking to lead the lost to Christ, not looking for believers in the church to disciple. At Midtown, we approach our stewardship of the gospel in two basic ways:
1. Instantly
Instant opportunities are one-and-done opportunities. These are people that we encounter where it is unlikely we will encounter them again (e.g. Santa Cali Gon Days, fellow passenger on a flight, pizza delivery driver, etc.).
Regarding these opportunities, we need to trust God and swing for the fences with the gospel!
2. Progressively
Progressive opportunities represent opportunities where we can maintain a relationship with an unsaved person and present Christ to them over time (e.g. Creation to Christ, discovery Bible study).
As stewards of the gospel, we must walk with a Spirit sensitivity to identify when we need to preach the gospel instantly or progressively. Either way, the urgency to establish a gospel culture within the discipleship ministry at Midtown has never been greater. From the Cost of Discipleship class to LFBI, students should be exposed to teachers who possess a burden for preaching the gospel (instantly and progressively). Students should sense and see that preaching the gospel is a very basic practice of the believer.
Sadly, many people have sat under a teacher in discipleship for 18 lessons and learned many precious truths, but never witnessed the teacher preach the gospel to an unsaved person during that time.
Would you agree that that is unreasonable?
We must establish a gospel culture.
