WHY WE NEED TO Sample Clauses

WHY WE NEED TO. KNOW BOTH GOPSEL PERSPECTIVES We must know the gospel power (regeneration, justification, sanctification, glorification) and the gospel purpose (creation, fall, redemption, restoration) and see them both as God’s story together – the gospel on the ground and the gospel in the air. When we communicate both the gospel power and the gospel purpose it connects the story of people’s lives to a great, redemptive story that is unfolding through history. This gives meaning and purpose to people’s lives. If we only focus on the gospel work (power of the gospel – what Xxxxx did), but do not know the gospel story (purpose of the gospel – what Xxxxx is doing through the church), we will tend toward a gospel that is about saving individuals and miss the mission of the gospel – it becomes about us. God is at the center of the gospel word. Yet much of evangelism tends to place people in that position. The gospel becomes skewed toward me and how Xxxxx meets my needs. But the gospel Xxxxx proclaimed is about God exercising his life-giving rule through his Messiah for his Glory (Xxx Xxxxxxx & Xxxxx Xxxxxx, Total Church, p. 55). If we only focus on the gospel power, but miss the gospel purpose, we will tend to produce “consumer Christians” versus “missional Christians.” The “consumer church” is seen as a dispenser of religious goods and services. People come to church to be “fed,” to have their needs met through quality programs, and to have the professionals teach their children about God. “I go to church.” The “missional church” is seen as a body of people sent on a mission who gather in community to celebrate the grace, goodness and glory of God. “We are the church.”