That’s an important question. We’re called to do many things, but what is the one thing that informs and makes sense of every other thing we’re called to as Christians and as the church?

Yesterday, Kevin DeYoung posted an article written by Ryan Kelly about the word, “Missional.” In this post, Ryan follows up on his recent round table discussion with pastors Greg Gilbert and Kevin DeYoung on the subject of the mission of the church. Ryan argues for the centrality of gospel proclamation if all of the Church’s doing and helps clarify the relationship between showing mercy in tangible ways and sharing about Mercy in Jesus Christ, between offering help in this life and telling persons about the only Help for life eternal.

Ryan offers three suggestions to help inform the ongoing conversation concerning “the vocabulary and content of the church’s mission.” I’ll paste them here, along with highlights from each explanation. However, don’t waste your time reading it here – go to Kevin’s blog and read the entire article.

1) Insisting on a definition of missional or asking for specifics of one’s view of the mission is not curmudgeon fundamentalism—it’s still needed.

…There are a few take-aways here. 1) Those skeptical of the term missional should give the benefit of doubt about another’s definition until there’s reason to be concerned. The term itself has no necessary bearing on gospel fidelity. 2) Conversely, those who identify themselves with the term missional should be gracious and eager to clarify when another asks him what that word means. I’ve seen too many young pastors get bent out of shape simply for being asked what missional means to them. That’s silly. 3) We should all strive to avoid repetitive empty vocabulary, and instead make pains to be clear about what we think the church should be doing. Again, this is a good discussion if we navigate it openly and graciously.

2) Especially we younger evangelicals have to give a more sober and careful hearing to our fathers in ministry when they warn us with historical examples of when the church’s deeds eclipsed, or became, her gospel.

….Read Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism every five years. Read the work of George Marsden, especially Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism, which chronicles the missteps of both fundamentalism and left-wing evangelicalism in the last century. Surely we don’t think our generation or our camp is so sharp, so vigilant that we are above repeating such mistakes. So perhaps we young, mission-impassioned, ambitious types need to do a little less eye-rolling and a little more prayerful listening when others—especially those more historically astute and/or experienced—seem more cautious and suggest more careful nuance about the relationship between deeds and gospel.

3) Partly influenced by the need to protect the gospel, but mostly based on the Bible itself, it seems to me that there is warrant for prioritizing gospel proclamation over other important commands Jesus gives his followers.

• While Jesus healed and fed, the gospel accounts culminate with the disciples’ commission to proclaim and make disciples. This doesn’t mean that this is all they are to do, but “famous last words” do seem particularly noteworthy, especially when they are quadruply given.
• The book of Acts not only begins with another such commission (1:8), but continues with dozens of preaching/conversion stories to makeup a rather overwhelmingly consistent theme.
• Paul insists that the facts of the gospel weekend—Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection—are of “first importance” (1 Cor. 15:3). Those who want to have social and cultural issues right alongside the gospel have to provide a satisfying explanation of what Paul meant here if he didn’t see any priority. I, personally, haven’t heard one yet.
• The word “gospel” implies that there’s a message—a message which must be proclaimed. As Carson recently wrote: “…the very nature of announcing or proclaiming (good) news—whether ευαγγελιζω or kηρύσσω—is that words are the primary medium. What we might call the logocentrism of Scripture is massively reinforced by the nature of the gospel itself: it is news, good news, to be proclaimed.”
• There are some very good NT scholars who have written on the mission of the church and have rather consistently put the emphasis of the church’s mission on its proclamation (e.g., Kostenberger, O’Brien, Plummer). As I’ve already noted, this seems to be a growing consensus among some of the most prominent missionalleaders as well.
• Most agree that good deeds are, in part, validation of the gospel message to unbelievers. But by nature this sets up some kind of priority: the validation of a thing cannot be greater than or completely on par with the thing itself.

Again, visit Kevin’s site for the whole article.

In this series of posts introducing DSC to The Gospel Coalition (TGC), we’ve been looking at the foundation documents that provide the basis for the partnerships that make up The Gospel Coalition network of churches and church leaders.

Grounded in these commitments, TGC is serving the church in a numerous practical ways:

• Resources: A large database of sermons, articles, lectures, and interviews searchable by topic, text, date and author. This is a vast treasury of Scripture rich reflection, exposition and instruction.

• Blogs: Seven blogs are hosted at TGC’s site, all of them valuable regular visits. We recommend two in particular to those working through theological issues and interacting with culture: Justin Taylor and Kevin DeYoung.

• Publications: Themelios is a theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith.

• Book Reviews: TGC  Reviews is home to book reviews, interviews with faithful readers, and book excerpts.

• Conferences: A National Conference is held every two years in April in the city of Chicago, alternating years with Together for the Gospel, another fine conference. The 2011 conference theme is Preaching Jesus and the Gospel from the Old Testament and includes breakout sessions with about fifty different speakers, most of whom are pastors.

• Networking: The Gospel Coalition Network, Regional Chapters, and the Church Directory are all ways for gospel minded believers and church leaders to network for strength of the church and the spread of the gospel.

And that concludes this five part introduction to TGC. We are happily listed in TGC’s Church Directory and are encouraged with the recent news of Ryan Kelly’s appointment to the council. Bookmark TGC’s site on your browser and take advantage of what you find there for your encouragement and help in living and spreading the gospel for the glory of God.

This post is fifth in a series of posts introducing DSC to The Gospel Coalition (Read, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4)

In our last post introducing you to The Gospel Coalition (TGC) we explored the first half of the coalition’s Theological Vision for Ministry.

The second half of this document is worthy of its own post. It is framed with two questions concerning the gospel and its implications.

First, In what ways is the gospel unique?

Secularism tends to make people selfish and individualistic. Religion and morality in general tend to make people tribal and self–righteous toward other groups (since their salvation has, they think, been earned by their achievement). But the gospel of grace, centered on a man dying for us while we were his enemies, removes self–righteousness and selfishness and turns its members to serve others both for the temporal flourishing of all people, especially the poor, and for their salvation. It moves us to serve others irrespective of their merits, just as Christ served us (Mark 10:45).

Secularism and religion conform people to behavioral norms through fear (of consequences) and pride (a desire for self–aggrandizement). The gospel moves people to holiness and service out of grateful joy for grace, and out of love of the glory of God for who he is in himself.

Some implications of this gospel are worked out in answer to the final question raised in this document: What is gospel-centered ministry? The document follows this question with an explanation of five marks of gospel-centered ministry:

• Empowered corporate worship: “In corporate worship God’s people receive a special life–transforming sight of the worth and beauty of God, and then give back to God suitable expressions of his worth.”
• Evangelistic effectiveness: “Because the gospel (unlike religious moralism) produces people who do not disdain those who disagree with them, a truly gospel–centered church should be filled with members who winsomely address people’s hopes and aspirations with Christ and his saving work.”
• Counter cultural community: “Because the gospel removes both fear and pride, people should get along inside the church who could never get along outside…Thus the gospel creates a human community radically different from any society around it.”
• The integration of faith and work: “The good news of the Bible is not only individual forgiveness but the renewal of the whole creation. God put humanity in the garden to cultivate the material world for his own glory and for the flourishing of nature and the human community.”
• The doing of justice and mercy: “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.”

Who doesn’t believe in “empowered corporate worship” or “evangelistic effectiveness”? Certainly most evangelical churches do. In fact, we should say that all true churches must. But the actual manifestation of these fruits is something different than agreement. At DSC, we want these things, and we want them as described in this vision for ministry because we want the gospel to be central in our life together.

This post is fourth in a series of posts introducing DSC to The Gospel Coalition (Read, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).

Recently Ryan announced DSC’s hopes to partner with the Acts 29 Network in our effort to become a church planting church. For some of us, Acts 29 calls to mind familiar churches, church plants, and church leaders. Others of us are flipping through the Bible to find out what happened in Acts chapter 29.

The Acts 29 Network is a trans-denominational network of churches distinguished by three commitments:

Our men: We believe local churches should be governed by godly husbands and fathers who are biblically qualified elders serving under the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Head of the church.
Our mission: We believe Lord Jesus desires the planting of church planting churches.
Our message: We believe the reformed gospel about Jesus Christ is the central message of the Bible.

Outside of these commitments, Acts 29 churches are relatively diverse. Some are denominationally associated, many are not. Some are rural, some are suburban, others are urban. In terms of church ministry methods and style, Acts 29 churches are all over the map. But they are all centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, committed to the authority of Scripture and distinguished by their commitment to qualified biblical male leadership, multiplying churches that plant churches, and a reformed understanding of the gospel.

Of course, DSC can be happily committed to these things without an official association with the Acts 29 Network. But a partnership with Acts 29 offers DSC an invaluable help in fulfilling our mission to plant churches. That, after all, is risky business.

This Sunday, Ryan prefaced his message with a number of reasons for our partnership with Acts 29. Here they are:

• Simply put, A29 is one of the most effective church planting networks in history
• We share their theology and ministry philosophy: The solas, male leadership, being missional, differentiating between open and closed hand issues
• We need help, partnership, & resources for church planting – like 1615 helped us for global missions.
• It will also help DSC grow towards an identity of “every member missional living” – it pulls us in that direction, and we need energy and momentum in that direction.
• It is not a denomination, so this is consistent with what we’ve always said that we want to be a non-denom church but not an unconnected church. We want to find strategic, helpful partnerships even across denominational lines.
• Possible Acts 29 connections and partnerships for our work in Guatemala and in North Africa.

The attrition rate is high among church plants and the costs are great. The network is young, but we see God’s blessing on their work and the application of the kind of hard learned church planting wisdom that DSC needs. It is just bad stewardship to reinvent this wheel with help like this available.

This video trailer for Darren Patrick’s new book, Church Planter: The Man, The Mission, The Message, communicates in a personal, serious and compelling way the heart of this network of church planting churches. For more information about the Acts 29 Network, check out their website, and the Frequently Asked Questions page, which details the doctrinal commitments, ministry philosophy and leadership structure of Acts 29.

As you may have discovered, there are only 28 chapters in the book of Acts. The Acts 29 Network is so called because “God is at work today continuing the building of His church and expansion of His kingdom through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are simply seeking to follow in the pattern of Spirit-led and Scripture-directed church planting and evangelistic ministry that began in the book of Acts and has continued in every age since through God’s faithful servants.”

That is a chapter we want to help make. Actually, it’s a chapter we’re already a part of, and a partnership with the network by this name will serve us in spreading God’s glory broader and deeper in the years ahead.

For this third post in our introduction to the mission and work of The Gospel Coalition (TGC), we turn to TGC’s third foundational document, a Theological Vision for Ministry.

While the Confessional Statement was designed to unify leaders and churches around particular doctrinal commitments, this document further clarifies TGC’s concern and mission.

The first half contains three sections addressing three major areas of concern for the church today. Three questions frame this section addressing the issues of epistemology, hermeneutics and contextualization respectively. Here they are, with a few significant lines from the explanation:

• How should we respond to the cultural crisis of truth? “We believe the Holy Spirit who inspired the words of the apostles and prophets also indwells us so that we who have been made in the image of God can receive and understand the words of Scripture revealed by God, and grasp that Scripture’s truths correspond to reality. The statements of Scripture are true, precisely because they are God’s statements, and they correspond to reality even though our knowledge of those truths (and even our ability to verify them to others) is always necessarily incomplete. The Enlightenment belief in thoroughly objective knowledge made an idol out of unaided human reason. But to deny the possibility of purely objective knowledge does not mean the loss of truth that corresponds to objective reality, even if we can never know such truth without an element of subjectivity.”
• How should we read the Bible? “To read along the whole Bible is to discern the single basic plot–line of the Bible as God’s story of redemption (e.g., Luke 24:44) as well as the themes of the Bible (e.g., covenant, kingship, temple) that run through every stage of history and every part of the canon, climaxing in Jesus Christ. In this perspective, the gospel appears as creation, fall, redemption, restoration…To read across the whole Bible is to collect its declarations, summons, promises, and truth–claims into categories of thought (e.g., theology, Christology, eschatology) and arrive at a coherent understanding of what it teaches summarily (e.g., Luke 24:46–47).”
• How should we relate to the culture around us? “We want to be a church that not only gives support to individual Christians in their personal walks with God, but one that also shapes them into the alternative human society God creates by his Word and Spirit.”

These are important questions. The answers we hold, however consciously or unconsciously, give shape to our vision for the church, its function in God’s plan, its purpose in this world and how ministry should be carried out.

We enthusiastically endorse this Theological Vision for Ministry and encourage you to give it a read.

This post is third in a series of posts introducing DSC to The Gospel Coalition (Go here to read, Part 1 and part 2).