Friday, November 27, 2009

The Gospel Coalition's Theological Vision for Ministry

From Justin Taylor's blog at The Gospel Coalition:

This week I’m highlighting the Gospel Coalition’s Theological Vision for Ministry and their characteristics for “gospel-centered ministry.”

The first was “empowered corporate worship,” the second was “evangelistic effectiveness,” the third was “counter-cultural community,” the fourth was the "integration of faith and work", and the fifth is the doing of justice and mercy.

God created both soul and body, and the resurrection of Jesus shows that he is going to redeem both the spiritual and the material. Therefore God is concerned not only for the salvation of souls but also for the relief of poverty, hunger, and injustice.

The gospel opens our eyes to the fact that all our wealth (even wealth for which we worked hard) is ultimately an unmerited gift from God. Therefore the person who does not generously give away his or her wealth to others is not merely lacking in compassion, but is unjust.

Christ wins our salvation through losing, achieves power through weakness and service, and comes to wealth through giving all away. Those who receive his salvation are not the strong and accomplished but those who admit they are weak and lost. We cannot look at the poor and the oppressed and callously call them to pull themselves out of their own difficulty. Jesus did not treat us that way. The gospel replaces superiority toward the poor with mercy and compassion.

Christian churches must work for justice and peace in their neighborhoods through service even as they call individuals to conversion and the new birth. We must work for the eternal and common good and show our neighbors we love them sacrificially whether they believe as we do or not.

Indifference to the poor and disadvantaged means there has not been a true grasp of our salvation by sheer grace.

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