Try to imagine . . .

When I talk to people about the decline of Gospel-centrality in the church, I often get a surprised response. I've come to believe that there are people out there who define "the Gospel" so loosely that almost any "positive message" fits. But no one has ever said better just what the loss of Gospel-centrality looks like in the church than Ray Ortlund, Jr. Thanks to Jared Wilson for providing us with this deadly accurate quotation from Ortlund's book, A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans:

Imagine the evangelical church without the gospel. I know this makes no sense, for evangelicals are defined by the evangel. But try to imagine it for just a moment. What might our evangelicalism, without the evangel, look like? We would have to replace the centrality of the gospel with something else, naturally. So what might take the place of the gospel in our sermons and books and cassette tapes and Sunday school classes and home Bible studies and, above all, in our hearts?

A number of things, conceivably. An introspective absorption with recovery from past emotional traumas, for example. Or a passionate devotion to the pro-life cause. Or a confident manipulation of modern managerial techniques. Or a drive toward church growth and “success.” Or a deep concern for the institution of the family. Or a fascination with the more unusual gifts of the Spirit. Or a clever appeal to consumerism by offering a sort of cost-free Christianity Lite. Or a sympathetic, empathetic, thickly-honeyed cultivation of interpersonal relationships. Or a determination to take America back to its Christian roots through political power. Or a warm affirmation of self-esteem. The evangelical movement, stripped of the gospel, might fix upon any or several of such concerns to define itself and derive energy for its mission. In other words, evangelicals could marginalize or even lose the gospel and still potter on their way, perhaps even oblivious to their loss.

Like I said, deadly accurate. But this is just a snip. Read the whole passage.