What Is The Gospel, Really?
What is the gospel?
It's a simple question, but with potentially complex answers.
One volunteer guessed that only about a quarter of the students in our ministry could answer it accurately and with any confidence. I felt like that percentage was too low, seeing that one of my core ministry values is the Gospel is everything.
Every message I give, every opportunity that comes up, every spiritual conversation, and every prayer comes back to the Gospel for me. It's all about the good news of Jesus.
Yet maybe the news isn't getting through.
For a missions trip I'm leading this summer, we asked the applicants to answer this exact question. Even with time and research allowed, a few didn't even mention Jesus at all. And these are the students who make up the core of my ministry, the ones leading their peers and giving their lives to serving Christ. (They just don't mention him when they're sharing the good news about Him.) Of course, some had phenomenal responses--one even properly used the word "propitiation" in her answer--but the lack of clarity about the good news of Jesus was frustrating at best and alarming at worst.
It's causing me to ask all sorts of questions:
- What are the basic elements of the Gospel? (1 Corinthians 15 and Mark 1 come to mind)
- What isn't the Gospel?
- How much has moralistic therapeutic deism infiltrated my ministry?
- What am I doing to foster the spread and understanding of the Gospel? What am I doing to hinder it?
- How can I empower my volunteer leaders to embody the value of the Gospel is everything?
- What is the minimum understanding one must have in order to find salvation in Jesus? (This question itself could take up an entire blog post...or a book)
- What is "success" in terms of knowing and articulating the Gospel? Should I expect more than 25% to know it?
- What are the barriers to hearing/responding to the Gospel? (I know, theologically, that the answer is "sin." I'm wondering about more cultural and philosophical barriers)
- How am I being good news to others?
More from Joel Mayward or visit Joel at joelmayward.blogspot.com
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