The Church in New England

I direct your attention to two posts: first, Dane Ortlund, writing at the Gospel Coalition Blog, notes the renaissance that happened in C. S. Lewis' life when he "awakened" to the truth of the gospel of grace. This "grace awakening" is something we are all, in my opinion, at any given time moving toward or away from. We are either waking up, or falling back to sleep. Another way of saying that is, we are inclined, in our nature, to nap on the Gospel. The Lewis quotes in Dane's post are of course eloquent, but I wanted to take note of something Dane says at the very end:

Something of a gospel resurgence is taking place today across various swaths of evangelicalism. All this we happily receive from the hand of the Lord. The need of the hour, however, is neither self-congratulation nor smug diagnosis of who “gets” the gospel of grace. The need of the hour is deeper reverence, new levels of wonder at the grace shown oneself, and a whispered prayer that the good news of God’s free grace in Christ would spread with a continued contagion the effects of which will be felt for generations to come.

Yes, this is very well said. But most of my awareness of this "resurgence" is via the Internet, not local.

You see, I live in New England. The situation here is summarized by the erstwhile Jared Wilson in an article at Resurgence.com entitled Why New England is the New American Missional Frontier. Jared speaks of the dearth of "Gospel awakened" churches here:

And where churches are evangelical, the evangel has not yet captured the hearts of many congregations. As the cultural environment became more worldly, conservative churches became more insular, opting to self-protect in their religious “bunkers” instead of engaging their communities in gospel mission. The need for gospel-centered missional churches throughout New England is dire. The good news is that a movement is afoot already, but it needs more workers.

Jared's estimate is accurate. There are plenty of conservative churches who include the Gospel in the "what we believe" page on their website, but the preaching is all us (Christians) vs. them (the world), or else therapeutic deism, or occasionally Todd Bentley-like nonsense. There are also the liberal churches that are all about social justice and gay rights, and put political action first on their agenda.

As I look around my city, I see one church that seems to get it. It's an Acts 29 church pastored by Angel Silva, called Missio Dei. If I was making the decision for myself alone, it would be my choice for a church, but Laurie is not so sure. That's another aspect of the ongoing "thoughts and second thoughts" I wrote about in this recent post.

Another promising item is that there exists a Gospel-driven church-planting organization (called the NETS Institute for Church Planting) which focuses mainly on New England. I note with interest that they're working on starting something in my town. Note also that their vision statement is excellent, and includes this:

According to Dr. David Wells, evangelical Christianity is currently in a free-fall. We agree. Evangelical Christians have largely confused, given up on, or flat out denied the historic gospel. The result is a massive confusion over sin, the person of Jesus Christ, the cross, and the nature of saving faith. At NETS, we desire to recover the biblical gospel through training godly men and sending them out to plant churches to proclaim the gospel to the lost and confused.

Hmmm. Finally, I notice that their board of advisors includes D. A. Carson, Sinclair Furgeson, and Bryan Chapell, all people for whom I have great respect. I'm definitely intrigued!

Legalism with a Smiling Face

I need to point you all to Jared Wilson's The New Legalism. We Christians have gotten so used to routinely defining ourselves as anything but legalistic, that we have failed miserably to recognize the pervasive "soft legalism" (legalism with a smiling face) that we preach and hear preached from week to week. These are sermons that paint a picture of the kind of life/attitude/heart/marriage we should have, give numerous Biblical examples (one of which can even be Jesus, who was an exemplary fellow, don't you know), and then tell us that God is willing to help us achieve this model life/attitude/heart/marriage if we only ask.

We really need to examine ourselves honestly about this. Jared has analyzed the situation quite well:

What it does, in message format for instance, is spend the majority of its time giving us stuff to do to achieve something, and then tacks on at the end a brief message about choosing Christ's free gift of salvation. In my estimation, this is bass ackwards. A Gospel-driven message focuses on Christ's work, on God's work on our behalf, and then moves to an exhortation or application. In most sermons in evangelical churches, the focus breaks down to 90% Helpful Tips and 10% Jesus Did it For You (if that much). But I think the reverse should be the standard....

Even as the new legalism pays lip service to grace, as it plays up the need to do this, this, and this to achieve success or victory in your work/marriage/life, it sets up success and happiness as the goal of the Christian life. Those are not bad goals, but they are not specifically Christian goals. The problem with focusing on our work with the promise that it will produce results is that we end up working for results, rather than out of joy in Christ. And when results are slow (or nonexistent), it only breeds dissatisfaction, and ultimately, despair.

And why doesn't this kinder/gentler legalism (which, by the way, I hear in my church each and every week) actually fulfill its promises? "Because it doesn't address sin."

It does not take seriously the problem of sin and therefore it does not take seriously God's all-sufficient provision for that problem. Instead it suggests, inevitably, 3 steps, or 5 steps, or 7 steps, to achieving that for which you've always dreamed. Jared again:

[T]he new legalism, for all its talk of grace and love and tolerance and anti-condemnation, is just like the old legalism in that it tells us not to be satisfied with Jesus. Don't be satisfied with Jesus' work on your behalf, it suggests. That's not enough. Do more, be more, become more. Because the real goal is not satisfaction with Christ, but success in life.

As I said before, we really need to examine ourselves carefully about this. I find that people are so used to the self-improvement style and values, and so prone to accord it respect, that they don't recognize that it is categorically at odds with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Read it and weep

How to preach a sermon that inspires, excites, and leaves people filled with new resolution, and yet withholds from them the one thing needful: the gospel.

The meaning, motive and power for Christian life

Graeme Goldsworthy's The Gospel in Revelation is one of those books that is so packed with Biblical wisdom, one feels the need to read certain passages aloud to whomever happens to be sitting near. The book was originally published back in 1984. At that time Goldsworthy had looked around the world of Evangelical religion and found a striking decline in the preaching and teaching of the Gospel. For example, he writes:

It is regrettably true that much Christian literature and preaching has lost the essential ingredient of a sound method of interpretation. It has allowed the Gospel to be demoted into something less than the preeminent and central characteristic which interprets the whole meaning of the Bible.

Or how about this one:

All problems, heresies and deviations from the true course of Christian living which occupy the writers of the New Testament Epistles derive from the same basic problem: a failure to bring the gospel to bear on this or that aspect of life. Consequently there is only one remedy that can ever be prescribed and that is the gospel. This assertion may surprise many, for Christian living or the general subject of sanctification (holiness) is so frequently dealt with in Christian teaching and preaching as if the gospel were only the means of beginning the Christian life, and not also the means of continuing it. The New Testament, however, teaches that it is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which constitute the meaning, motive and power for Christian life.