Monday, October 13, 2014

The new gospel vs. the old gospel

It's tempting at the beginning of a church plant to jump to the "what" questions: What will we do as a church? What will our services look like? What will our engagement with the community look like? It's tempting to jump to the tangible and practical and neglect theology and the "why" questions. But I'm convinced that we must spend considerable time asking questions that get to the root of motivation: What is God like? Why has God saved us? What is the gospel and its implications for our lives?

If, in our concern to meet practical needs and be relevant, we skirt around these questions, our gaze will slowly become less on God and more on man, and we will miss the purpose for which God saved us: his glory. As J.I. Packer explains so well:

“[The new gospel]... fails to make men God-
centered in their thoughts and God-fearing in their
hearts because this is not primarily what it is trying
to do. One way of stating the difference between it
and the old gospel is to say that it is too exclusively
concerned to be 'helpful' to man - to bring peace,
comfort, happiness, satisfaction - and too little
concerned to glorify God. The old gospel was
'helpful', too - more so, indeed, than is the new -
but (so to speak) incidentally, for its first concern
was always to give glory to God. It was always and
essentially a proclamation of divine sovereignty in
mercy and judgment, a summons to bow down and
worship the mighty Lord on whom man depends for
all good, both in nature and in grace. Its center of
reference was unambiguously God. But in the new
gospel the center of reference is man. "
- JI Packer

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Sunday: Join the discussion for a gospel-centered, mission church plant

The vision is for a new church plant in the Stanwood-Camano area. We are starting a community group as the first step in that direction. The first group is this Sunday at 5 at the Fekkes home (text or Facebook me for address/directions: 770-714-3865). This group will serve two purposes:

1. A place to discuss the vision for this new church and invite others into the discussion.
2. A functioning community/small group where we seek to help one another live more and more in line with the gospel.

Although this is a community group through Communion Church in Mount Vernon (the sending church for the intended plant), you do NOT need to be a part of that church to be a part of the group.

* Come to hear about and discuss the vision for a gospel-centered, missional church in the SC area.
* Come to both receive from and contribute to the health of other believers.
*Pass on the invitation to others you think may be interested.

For more info, see my series of blog posts this vision.