Friday, August 10, 2018

Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary


This is a bit of a book report, titled above, and written by J.D. Greear, a Southern Baptist pastor who was recently elected President of the Southern Baptist Convention (they often elect pastors as presidents). The church he pastors, Summit, in North Carolina, is in the “mega-“ category. He is 45 years old.

His thesis is that a clear, captivating understanding the Gospel is essential for Christianity to exercise its power in the lives of Christians and churches. Mere religiosity will not do. Theological convictions, while necessary, are not the vehicle of power. Rather it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not to grow up and go beyond the Gospel. Rather, we are to go deeper into it.

As a personal tool, Greear has developed and explained this “Gospel Prayer.” It is not magic. Rather, it is a tool that he uses to daily set his mind in a Gospel frame. It guides him in how he thinks about God and himself; what he really needs in order to be fulfilled and happy; what is his calling or mission; and what are the limits (or, lack of limits) of what he should expect God to do through his life and ministry.
  
“In Christ, there is nothing I can do 
that would make You love me more, and nothing 
I have done that makes You love me less.”

“Your presence and approval are all 
I need for everlasting joy.”

“As You have been to me, so I will be to others.”
“As I pray, I’ll measure Your compassion by the cross 
and Your power by the resurrection.”

If we were to sit and have some honest, deep-reaching discussions about how our Christianity works (or doesn’t work) in our lives, we would have to admit that we are at odds with this prayer at certain points. We sometimes fall into thinking that we have to “earn” God’s love. We often find that our desires are wrapped around lesser things than God’s presence or approval. We measure our obligations to others by how they have treated us, rather than how God has treated us. We think small, forgetting that God loves to blow out expectations and do the unthinkable.

Try praying this prayer for a few days. See if it changes how you view yourself and your world.

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