Home > Work > The Gospel-Driven Church: Uniting Church Growth Dreams with the Metrics of Grace
21 " The church is called to reach the lost, and we must be faithful. The church is called to be evangelistically hospitable and welcoming in its culture and evangelistically adaptable in its preaching and teaching (I’ll say more on that in chapter 8). But the church’s primary worship service should be designed with the saved in mind, not the seeker. "
― Jared C. Wilson , The Gospel-Driven Church: Uniting Church Growth Dreams with the Metrics of Grace
22 " But there are at least two errors embedded in this reasoning, no matter how sincere it might be. The first is mistaking what the worship service is for. The second is mistaking what changes people. "
23 " One way I have learned to work against handling conflict sinfully is to advocate in my mind for my critics. What if their problem isn’t with you but with change? Maybe they’re taking out frustrations on you, but it’s not really about you. What if they’re just uncomfortable? Or confused? Or unaccustomed to managing their feelings in productive ways? Or going through a difficult personal problem that is bubbling over? "
24 " Sin is sin, of course, and pastors must address divisive, short-tempered, gossiping, or otherwise quarrelsome members. But a lot of conflict could be prevented if we were slow to speak, quick to listen, and reluctant to engage in unfruitful debates. Forgive people. Give them mercy by not fighting back. "
25 " Embracing meekness keeps us from treating every meeting like a battle, every conversation like a conflict. If you die to yourself, you won’t need to die on every hill. "
26 " Know-it-alls will almost always identify negative reactions to their decisions as the cost of standing for the truth and suffering for the Lord. But leaders may not realize they can wrongly wound people with the right thing. The right thing done the wrong way demonstrates a lack of pastoral wisdom and care.5 "
27 " Do not assume that vision-casting is a one and done deal. Communicate what you’re doing, where you’re going, how you’re getting there, and especially why you’re doing it, and don’t stop. Overcommunicate. Then re-overcommunicate. Then re-overcommunicate again. As Thom Rainer says, “I have never seen or heard a major change initiative and its accompanying vision repeated too much.”6 "
28 " What, then, should we look for as signs of spiritual fruitfulness? Again, let’s turn to Edwards. As you might guess, I happen to think Jonathan Edwards’s “distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God” hold up rather well. "
29 " The experience of gospel community allows us to see things in each other we cannot see ourselves. Again, this is not so we can find out who the real losers are, but so that we can find out that we are all equally losers! And so that we might, as Luther says, join together as beggars pointing each other to where we’ve found bread. "
30 " Your model is only as strong as your mentality. Of the gospel and gospel ministry, Martin Luther wrote in his commentary on Galatians, “Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually. "
31 " The Bible has a metanarrative, a grand story of God’s redeeming purpose and Spiritual mission in the earth. We often miss this grand story in our preaching and teaching. "
32 " The answer to “salvation by education” and dry intellectualism is not the neglect of theological study. Laypeople must not leave doctrine up to pastors and professors. Remember that theology, coming from the Greek words theos (God) and logos (word), simply means “the knowledge (or study) of God.” If you’re a Christian, you must by definition know God. "
33 " Deep down, most people just want to be understood. A lot of us, of course, just want to be agreed with! But I think most of us just want to be heard. Heard and understood. "
34 " Healthy, fruitful churches are made up of Christians who are searching out God’s ways and following the trails of doctrine in the Scriptures straight to the throne. In our day, emotion and experience are often set at odds with the study of doctrine and theology, and churches that devote themselves to one will often keep the other at arm’s length. Both extremes are unfruitful—a church that’s all head knowledge without heart and a church that’s all feeling without depth. "
35 " Gospel truth lovingly and consistently applied,” Ray Ortlund says, “creates a gospel culture.” Do not grow faint in this good endeavor. Don’t just overcommunicate the vision for gospel-centrality; overcommunicate the message of the gospel. "
36 " For those who prefer to go deep, it’s about the number of Calvin’s commentaries you own, how long your sermons go, how many people you expelled from the church over a disciplinary issue last year, or how well acquainted you are with 1, 2, and 3 John (John Calvin, John Piper, and John MacArthur). "
37 " The power for salvation and the sanctification that follows comes only from the gospel, not the law. In other words, the power for to-dos comes not from to-dos, but from the “was-done” of Jesus Christ. "
38 " Today’s evangelicalism faces the problem of widespread ignorance about what the Bible teaches on almost every subject of import in our cultural moment, everything from the nature of the church itself to authority and governance, from the basic understanding of the gospel to the traditional teaching on sexuality. In short, evangelicalism has inadvertently discipled people away from evangelicalism. "
39 " If your idea of God, if your idea of the salvation offered in Christ, is vague or remote, your idea of worship will be fuzzy and ill-formed. The closer you get to the truth, the clearer becomes the beauty, and the more you will find worship welling up within you. That’s why theology and worship belong together. The one isn’t just a head-trip; the other isn’t just emotion.4 "