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When Faith comes to Life
Preface by Pastor Richard van Lieshout
The gospel is the good news about the person of Jesus, that is announced through words, spoken or written.
But the gospel, when truly believed upon, doesn’t stay just as a concept in our minds. It travels to our hearts and starts to change the way we see our lives. We start to see ourselves differently, the people around us in our communities differently, indeed our view of the whole world changes!
This inner transformation then leads to an outward change in behaviour, in all three of these dimensions. The way we behave on our own, the way we interact with those around us, and the way we interact with the outside world all start to change.
This is the inevitable Gospel trajectory: from minds to hearts into all practical areas of life!
What this quite simply means then, is that the gospel is something that should be visible. To be sure, it is first heard, and then believed upon, which are all very internal! But the gospel comes not just as a doctrine but a power (Rom 1:16, 1 Cor 1:18, 1 Cor 2:4 & 4:20, 1 Thess 1:5), a power which ultimately transforms us from the inside out.
Gospel Doctrine + Gospel Culture = Gospel Flourishing
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”
John 20:30-31
This journey is essential to every Christian individually, but as a Church we have a particular burden for this as a community.
Churches can very easily default to working only on their doctrine. To be sure, that’s always where we start: orthodox gospel doctrine! But true gospel doctrine must create a gospel culture.
By ‘culture’ we mean the intangibles of our church community or, everything that is said without actually being said directly! It’s what you truly experience as a person having been part of our community for a while.
Tragically, a church can unsay by its culture what it says by its doctrine, and never even realise it. In other words, our behaviour can contradict our beliefs. This is terribly dangerous for those already in the community, but also for those on the outside looking in.
For example, it’s one thing to say we believe in the doctrine of grace, but if a person only feels condemned in our Church community, then clearly our gospel culture doesn’t match our gospel doctrine.
Only when an orthodox, true and comprehensive Gospel Doctrine combines with a Gospel Culture that is visible and felt in the beauty of human relationships, will we be truly harnessing the power of the gospel.
Gospel Doctrine + Gospel Culture = Gospel Power
10 Culture Codes
- Warm Acceptance
- Mutual Correction
- Confession and Vulnerability
- Christlike Love
- Comprehensive Forgiveness
- Transformative Reconciliation
- Humble Servanthood
- Hopeful Perseverance
- Singular Generosity
- Gospel-Driven Zeal
Series Summary
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