The Gospel We Preach…

Date February 19, 2007 | 12:00 AM

“The Gospel we preach produces the churches we get.” -Scot McKnight

I was talking through this statement with my roommate, and my thoughts went like this:

If the Gospel we preach produces the churches we get, then we’re not preaching the right Gospel. Either we’re not preaching the full Gospel, or we’re not reaching the Gospel at all. And if we’re not preaching the Gospel, then how can the church members be Christians? And if the church members aren’t Christians, then maybe that explains why the churches we get are so filled with mean, unChristlike, destructive individuals. If our churches are filled with a majority of unregenerate people, then it’s not really the church at all. It’s a gathering of lost people who think they are Christians.

And if they’re lost, and they have their own culture (which we call “Churched”), then we should send missionaries to them. Maybe we’ll call them “recent seminary graduates.”

Thoughts…


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Category Posted in Christianity, Theology

6 Responses to “The Gospel We Preach…”

  1. blaize said:

    Yeah…I talked about that too this morning. I guess what I really need to do is not fix the church, but fix the message and the church will follow suit.

    February 19th, 2007 at 1:12 AM

  2. adam said:

    dude, billy graham was a pioneer of this sort of ministry. i mean that totally respectfully and with deep gratitude for his contribution to the faith.

    February 19th, 2007 at 11:25 AM

  3. Joe Kennedy said:

    Actually, Adam, when I was thinking about this… I nearly quoted that statistic of Graham’s… that over 80% of the church is lost.

    At the very least, at NOBTS they beat into us that it’s probably 90%, and that at least 90% of our churches are plateaued and declining. Gee, I wonder why?

    February 19th, 2007 at 11:39 AM

  4. Alan Cross said:

    Sobering, Joe. Perhaps this is what Tom Ascol (and Marty Duren) were talking about a couple of weeks ago when they asked if we had lost the gospel. 80% of the church is lost? Wow.

    February 20th, 2007 at 10:47 AM

  5. adam said:

    same wave length, bro.

    February 20th, 2007 at 4:03 PM

  6. Andrew said:

    Sometimes I think we look at the big churches and attribute their flaws to everyone’s church. My pastor faithfully preaches the full and true Gospel (thank God!) and we have seen some growth….
    Speaking of that, I have found my despair at big churches to be the result of their watering-down the Gospel to make it palatable….
    I seem to remember Jesus not being very palatable (”I bring a sword” and all that)….
    Perhaps we should care less about how many PEOPLE attend our church and more about how many REGENERATE BELIEVERS do!

    February 26th, 2007 at 4:35 PM