6 Ways to Begin Developing a Gospel-Centered Culture

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, Leadership, Pastoral3 Comments

Over the last several years, there have been numerous ministries, books, conferences, blogs, and churches gravitating toward gospel-centered ministry. Thankfully, I was blessed to be a member of one of those churches during seminary. Through that church I came to understand that the gospel must be what all our ministries are based on, empowered by, and result from. After seeing that modeled for three years, when I left for my first pastorate, I immediately began working to create a gospel-centered culture within my church. Three and a half years later I am still working, but by God’s grace a lot of progress has been made.

Recently, I was asked what exactly I am doing to help create a gospel-centered culture here at Sycamore. Although my ministry and I are imperfect, I want to share with you six things I have been doing over my time here.

6 Ways to Begin Developing a Gospel-Centered Culture

(1) Preach the gospel

Pastor, your pulpit ministry has a huge influence over your church, which means if you want your church to be gospel-centered, your preaching must be gospel-centered. Gospel-centered preaching involves more than tacking the gospel on to the end of your sermon, as if it was an after thought. Instead gospel-centered preaching involves the gospel taking center-stage. You know that has happened when you use the gospel to encourage; convict; draw out; spur on; and promote joy, hope, and courage among your flock. So if you desire to create a gospel-centered culture in your church, make the gospel the center of your preaching.

(2) Counsel with the gospel

A pastor’s ministry doesn’t end after he steps out of the pulpit. In most cases, it is just beginning. That’s because faithfully preaching the gospel week in and week out will inevitable draw questions and sin to the surface, questions and sin that must be dealt with in the counseling room. Just like in the pulpit, the gospel must take center-stage in your counseling. You must not motivate your people to change through positive thinking and bootstrap mentality. You have to motivate them with the gospel. Doing so is not only what is best for them, but also it’s what will help create a gospel-centered culture in your church. As your people see the power and benefit of the gospel for both salvation and sanctification, they will begin applying it not only to themselves, but to those around them as well.

(3) Motivate with the gospel

When it comes to motivation, the tactic most people default to is guilt. I think that is because it works, and it is what comes natural to us. While guilt can motivate in the short-term, it can’t and doesn’t produce lasting and healthy results. That’s because it leaves our people feeling beaten up and, at times, depressed. I know you don’t want that for your people, which means you have to use something other than guilt to motivate them. You have to use the gospel. So the next time you need to motivate your flock to volunteer, tithe, reach the lost, or deal with their sin, apply the gospel, rather than guilt. It is not only what’s best for them, but also it is what will help create a gospel-centered culture in your church.

 (4) Talk about the gospel

I don’t know who said it first, but whoever said, “Your people aren’t really hearing what you are saying, until you are tired of saying it”, was right. Which means, if you want to create a gospel-centered culture in your church, you can never tire of talking about the gospel.

(5) Give gospel-centered resources 

If you are anything like me, you not only grew in your knowledge of gospel-centered ministry through your local church, but also through books, podcasts, videos, and articles. Just as you benefit, your people will as well. So as often as you can, give your people gospel-centered resources to read, listen to, and watch.

(6) Pray for a gospel-centered culture

Prayer is powerful; it truly can change things. It can change the hearts of men, it can bring about healing, and it can change the culture in your church. Often times I believe we forget the power of prayer. When we do, we begin to rely on our own strength, know-how, and ingenuity. But that alone won’t do when it comes to creating a gospel-centered culture because people’s hearts and minds need to be changed. The only way that is going to truly happen is if God changes them. So if you want a gospel-centered culture to take root in your church, go to the Lord in prayer, asking Him not only to change your own heart and mind, but those of your congregation as well.

Question for Reflection

  1. How are you working to create a gospel-centered culture in your church?

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What is Salvation?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals3 Comments

Salvation involves much more than being delivered from earthly ruin or loss. It involves deliverance from God’s Wrath and everlasting punishment.

Our Need

Deliverance is something we all need because we are all sinners who have rebelled against God. That’s our natural position because we are all born connected to Adam — the father of the human race. Adam’s rebellion against God — in what is known as the Fall of man — plunged this whole world into sin (1 Cor. 15:21). As a result, we deserve to be punished by God.

God’s Plan

God, however, had a plan to rescue and save us from punishment. His plan is Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 15:22, Paul says,

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22)

Jesus Christ came, lived a perfect life, and even though He wasn’t deserving of death or punishment, He died on a cross. As terrible a death as the cross was, that wasn’t the only punishment He faced. In fact, He faced a punishment much more horrifying — the wrath of the Father. The reason the Father’s wrath was poured out on Him was so He could pay the penalty for our sin.

Our Response

All those who believe Jesus paid the penalty for their sin that day on Calvary by dying the death and facing the punishment they deserve, and all those who admit they are a sinner, repent of their sin, and believe Jesus is their Lord and Savior, will be saved from God’s wrath, and they will experience eternal life with Christ. As well as they are called into God’s mission. He uses us as His instruments to make more disciples, which is simple amazing, because we were once God’s enemies, who were bound to face His wrath, but we are now drawn into His mission.

Question for Reflection

  1. Do you believe Jesus is your Savior?

Resources

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Post adapted from my sermon: Only in Christ are our deepest longings fulfilled

The Crucible of Refinement

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, QuotesLeave a comment

The lion’s den, the crucible, the cold tomb: each offers a second calling. It may come in nudges or whispers, crises or shouts; regardless, these subsequent callings probe us both further into and out of ourselves. In each direction, they bring us closer to God. And, I have found, they make the Bible even more alive. The Word of God becomes increasingly relevant in its reverence. We know this refinement, too, to be true, for “the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times” (Ps. 12:6).

Some crucibles work by heat, others by cold. Some by flame, others by water. We are compressed by too much, or we are cut loose by too little. We burn under pressure or freeze in isolation. Regardless of inner or outer weather, the effect is the same: the extremes in experiences gauge the extremes in our spiritual temperatures. Often the differences in extreme shake us out of the “in” of indifference. We are forced “out,” we are forced through and beyond, we are thrust into the realm of the absolute other – from the personal and particular of self into the infinite and all of God.

Why? Jesus does not want us to be mediocre, to be lukewarm. Indifference is literally revolting to him…We are burned and frozen so that we may find him in our midst.

“For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver…We went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance” (Ps 66:10-12)

Question for Reflection

  1. Do you recognize that the trials you face are designed to sanctify and bring you closer to God?

Resources

Carolyn Weber, Holy is the Day, 63-64.

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Our Deepest Longings are Only Fulfilled in Jesus

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

As soon as I was able to hold and swing a bat, my dad had me in the backyard hitting off the tee. As soon as I was old enough, I was playing coach pitch baseball on a city league team. I played baseball every year thereafter until high school, when I finally gave it up for soccer. 

Save

The two positions I played were shortstop and pitcher. As a pitcher, I mainly started the game, but sometimes I was brought in as a reliever. For relieving pitchers there is a statistic known as a “save.” A save, as you can guess, is earned when the reliever comes in and finishes out the game with his team still in the lead. 

Celebrate

If you watch the nightly ESPN highlight reel, you will notice saves are highlighted over the myriad of other statistics, and that’s because we love to hear and celebrate salvation stories. Stories where the relieving pitcher enters the game in the bottom of the 9th with the bases loaded, no outs, and strikes everyone out to win the game for his team. We love to hear and celebrate stories like that, because salvation is the natural longing of the human heart.

While it’s exciting to watch your favorite closer save the game, the excitement and joy we feel in that moment doesn’t last. It doesn’t last because we long for a greater salvation, a true and lasting salvation. Something we can put our faith, our trust in, knowing it will not let us down.

Lasting Fulfillment

The only One who can provide us with a true and lasting salvation is Jesus, because He is the only One who could pay the penalty for our sins, repairing our relationship with the Father (Col. 1:19-20). So the next time you celebrate your favorite pitchers save, remember that there is an even greater salvation available that will eternally fulfill the deepest longing of your heart, and that is the salvation Jesus provides through His cross.

Question for Reflection

  1. What are you trying to fulfill your God sized hole with?

Resources

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Post adapted from my sermon: Only in Christ are our deepest longings fulfilled 

 

Gospel Motivation for Gospel Living

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, PracticalLeave a comment

What should be our motivation to live for God? In Colossians 1:3-14 Paul provides a model.

Paul’s Model is the Gospel

Looking at this section, you should notice that Paul mentions the gospel right after he talks about the Corinthians faith and love. Then down in verses 12-14, you should also notice that Paul expounds on the gospel, right after he calls the Corinthians to live lives pleasing to God.

Paul’s focus on the gospel tells us that he wants us to be motivated to live gospel-centered lives out of the gospel.

What Paul Could Have Done, But Doesn’t

You see, Paul could have motivated the Colossians to live for God in a number of ways. He could have told them to live for God because God said so, or because that is what will win favor with God, or because that is how we will make it to heaven, or because this is what makes you a good person. Paul could have used any number of tactics to motivate the Colossians, but he didn’t. Instead he used the gospel.

Just as Paul wants the Colossians to find their motivation for Christian living through the gospel, he wants us to do the same.

Examples of Gospel Motivation

Looking at Colossians 1:3-14, we see that if we are struggling:

  • In our faith – we need to remember that if God provides His Son for our salvation and guarantees our future inheritance, He is able to provide for our daily needs.
  • With loving others – we need to remember the love of God in giving His only Son for our sins.
  • With doing good works – we need to remember that sin no longer masters us, but God is our Master, freeing us to live for Him and not for sin.
  • With growing in our relationship with God – we need to remember that God so desires a relationship with us that He sent His Son to pay the price for our sins, redeeming us from His wrath.
  • With enduring trials and tribulations patiently with joy – we need to remember that this world is not all there is. Jesus will return, defeat our enemies, and setup His perfect kingdom one day.
  • With worshipping God – we need to remember that He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, qualifying us to share in the inheritance with the Saints.

You see, the gospel is not only given for our salvation, but it is also given as motivation for godly living. So the next time you are struggling in any of these areas, meditate on the gospel; allow it to motivate you to live lives pleasing to God.

Questions for Reflection

  1. How have you tried to motivate yourself, or others, to live for God in the past?
  2. How does a gospel motivation change the way you look at living for God?

Resources

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Why Aren’t Christians Growing?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, Discipleship, Practical4 Comments

Why aren’t Christians growing? More specifically, why do Christians become stagnant in Christ-like growth?

What Occurs in Salvation?

If we think about some of what occurs in salvation, this question becomes even more urgent. When we come to Christ, we are:

  • Delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of Christ, releasing us from bondage to sin and Satan (Col. 1:13; Rom. 6:5-7).
  • Redeemed from God’s wrath and forgiven our sin, restoring our relationship with God (Col. 1:14).
  • Given the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13; Rom. 8:9-11).
  • Made a new Creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
  • Given a new desire for the things of God (Rom. 7:22).

If these things, and more, occur in salvation, how can we be stagnant in Christ-like growth?

How is it Possible to be Stagnant in Christ-like Growth?

Paul addresses this issue with the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3, when he says starting in verse 1,

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh (1 Cor. 3:1-3a).

The reason they had not grown. The reason Paul wasn’t able to feed them solid food, even after some time, was due to their source of wisdom.

Prior to penning the opening verses of chapter 3, Paul spends the better part of two chapters expounding the difference between the world’s wisdom and God’s wisdom. Paul ends chapter 2, by telling us the natural person is not able to understand the wisdom of God; therefore, they believe it is foolish. On the other hand, Paul tells us, the wisdom of God is understandable to the Christian, and it is prized instead of rejected.

Why are Christians able to understand God’s wisdom, when the world can’t? Christians are able to understand and prize the wisdom of God because they have the mind of Christ. They possess His mindset, which leads them to see God not as a foolish old man in the sky, but as a wise Father who is to be worshipped, sought, led and governed by.

The Ability Isn’t Used

But while the Corinthians have the ability to understand the wisdom of God, they are not seeking it, nor are they living by it. That is the reason they aren’t growing. They aren’t looking to God for wisdom, even though they are able; they are, instead, looking at the world, allowing its wisdom to direct and guide them.

We Do the Same

The Corinthians aren’t the only ones guilty of leaving their God-given ability on the table. We do the same. I believe that is because we often forget the pervasive nature of the world’s wisdom. We forget that the world’s wisdom is there confronting and influencing us every time we turn on the radio, television, and computer. It is there when we open the newspaper and magazine. It is there wherever we go. Since the world’s wisdom is all around us, influencing us in ways we may not readily be aware, we naively believe that that’s just how things are supposed to be done.

We Must Fight With a Christian Worldview

We, however, must fight the tendency to go along with the status quo of society, thinking that is the way we must do things. We must instead turn to God’s Word, to His wisdom, as often as we can, in order to develop a distinctly Christian worldview. One that allows us to judge the world’s advice, thoughts, and judgments with Scripture. One that causes us to look to God’s Word for advice, instead of the latest New York Times best seller. One that causes us to seek Christian counsel, instead of asking our non-Christian co-worker what therapist, pill, or self-help guru pulled them through their latest crisis. If we do that – if we turn to God’s Word and use our God-given ability to discern and understand His wisdom, we would see more Christ-like growth in our lives.

So why do Christians remain stagnant in their growth in Christ-likeness, in their ability to understand the deep things of God’s Word? Because we consistently seek and live by the world’s wisdom, rather than God’s wisdom.

Question for Reflection

  1. Whose wisdom do you often turn to in times of need?

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