Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Contributors by Mark Dever

Author:Mark Dever
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2017-01-03T16:00:00+00:00

3) “Make the Gospel Relevant!”

The question here is, “How will people be saved?” The concern is with what our outreach should be like; the buzzword is “contextualization.” Many writers and pastors seem to begin with the assumption that the gospel appears irrelevant to people today. Therefore, they conclude, we should follow the example of Paul on Mars Hill, or Paul going to Jerusalem and being a Greek to the Greeks or a Jew to the Jews. As Paul said to the Corinthians, he would “become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).

In what can be described as incarnational ministry, we want to figure out what keeps non-Christians from coming to our churches, listening to our sermons, and believing our gospel. As a result, we stress similarities in an attempt to help them feel at home, understood, and cared for when they are among us. We want them to belong so that they will believe. We want to highlight the way the gospel can help them succeed or have purpose or greater joy or some other desired benefit. The more similar we appear to those we are trying to reach, the more the gospel will appear relevant to them, and therefore the more successful we’ll be at reaching them. We must beware here. A concern for evangelism, unmoored from the important revealed truth of Scripture, has often been the pathway to theological liberalism. This has always been so, from Schleiermacher in the eighteenth century to Finney in the nineteenth century to the pragmatists in the twentieth century.

In the middle of the last century, a missionary articulated “the homogeneous unit principle.” The idea behind it is that like attracts like. We will be more likely to attract unchurched Harry and Mary, or Saddleback Sam, or Indian Brahmins when people who are like them share the gospel with them. One leading proponent of such ideas has written, “Studies have shown that people make a decision for Christ sooner when there is a group support,” or, as that same best-selling book advocated, “This is what we want to do with the opening song. We use a bright, upbeat number that makes you want to tap your foot, clap, or at least smile. We want to loosen up the tense muscles of uptight visitors. When your body is relaxed, your attitude is less defensive.. . .If you can reduce visitors’ level of fear, they’ll be far more receptive to the Gospel.”7 Of course, this kind of thinking will lead us to try to make the gospel relevant to very specific groups of people. So this same book says that the style of music you use in your service “may .. .be the most influential factor in determining who your church reaches for Christ and whether or not your church grows. You must match your music to the kind of people God wants your church to reach.”8

But such evident relevance to non-Christians brings with it a host of questions.

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