BLOG 10.4.12: THE UN-EVANGELIZED CHURCH?
The very word: gospel, is a translation of the Greek word: euangellion, which means something like: a thrilling and insistent announcement. The Christian church uses it to speak of the thrilling announcement of what God has done in Jesus Christ.
So, a question: Is the church a part of the gospel message … or not? Is it rather an enigma, or a contradiction, a religious institution with members and typical church-like activities, but utterly confusing to those still outside? Is it populated with members who are not in any way self-consciously disciples? Persons not in any way conscious that they are each a dynamic part of the mission of God, or the kingdom of God, i.e., mindless, passive religious folk who have become part of the institution without much conviction of either knowledgeable faith in Jesus, or transforming repentance?
When such a very pervasive image of the church is considered, then you have a scene where Christ’s own mandate (commission) to his followers is not fulfilled inside of the church, and thus such a church is itself un-evangelized.
You see: disciples reproduce. Disciples make disciples. Disciples are contagious with the life and teachings of Christ. Disciples “live Christ” and have Christ’s passion to seek and to save those still out there living meaningless and broken lives, or folk content just to entertain themselves to death comfortably and never facing the meaning of it all, or the possibility that there really is life-transforming good news in all that Jesus did and taught. Disciples are never passive about what they have been called to be and do.
Disciples “get” the joyous sound of who Jesus is and what he came to do, and they run with it. Disciples are those who are being conformed deliberately and self-consciously into the image of Christ in their knowledge, behavior, and lives in conformity to the divine nature (holiness). Disciples are Christ’s agents of seeking and saving the lost sojourners out there.
Disciples move toward the irreligious, the secular, the broken, the indifferent, etc. as Christ’s agents of love and grace. They do this as incarnations of that very gospel, as the sons and daughters of Light.
Disciples “abide” in Christ and so bear all the fruits of that living relationship. Disciples are thrilled with who they are, and by what they have been called to be and do by Jesus.
What is so tragic is that the creation of such disciples is unimaginable to such a vast number of ostensible churches, and their constituent ‘church members.’
Disciples are not content to just be members … they want to reproduce, make disciples, plant new churches, shine in the darkness, storm the gates of hell.
True churches—churches that have real gospel integrity—are those made up of those who have responded to Christ’s call to become his disciples, to observe all that he has taught (commanded), who are the doers of his word.
If such is not the self-understanding of some ostensible church, then that church is itself a mission field. And, alas! There are a whole lot of them. But conversely, there are a lot of churches that are themselves communities of the gospel, and so are part of that same gospel.
Now there’s good news!
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