God-centered resources from the ministry of John Piper

(Here are some notes from Matt Chandler's session at Resurgence, "Preaching the Gospel in the Center of the Evangelical World.")

Early in Matt Chandler's Christian life, the mission excited him but the church was frustrating. So he took his eagerness to share the gospel, but outside the church. Pastoring was not really on his radar.

However, someone convinced him to submit his resume for the pastorate at The Village Church in Dallas. He resignedly submitted it, and decided to be as ruthlessly honest as possible about where he stood theologically and philosophically so he wouldn't get the job.

He did get the job and has now been the preaching pastor for 5 years.

Preaching at his church is now his favorite place anywhere to speak, especially because of the variety of people. Every weekend he stands in front of thousands of people who are all over the map, unlike at this conference where we can pretty much predict what the people here are like. At church there are fundamentalists, fundamentalists' kids, emergent, nit-picking seminarians, and more—a huge variety.

How did evangelicalism get to look like this, with all its varieties and idiosyncrasies?

The shaping forces of evangelicalism.

Evangelicalism was birthed as a response to liberalism.

The validity of Scripture began to be questioned. Evangelicalism offered a renewed passion for the Bible. But an unfortunate tendency arose to remove texts from the larger context, even as pastors tried hard to remain faithful to the Bible.

This led to an imbalance between the how and the why of our lives as Christians. We have gotten very good at teaching the how, but we struggle with the why.

Unfortunately, even if we are spot-on with the how but we ignore the why, it won't work. Because even if we stress the literalness or inerrancy of an individual text, it's still possible to ignore the larger setting, that it's all about Jesus.

There is a thriving evangelical head, but a shriveling heart.

Liberalism often paints evangelicalism as morons. In response, evangelicalism seems to have over-emphasized the head at the expense of the heart. There are too many smart believers without the grace to try to overcome the baggage that comes with evangelicalism.

Evangelicalism has withdrawn where liberalism took over, and has its own institutions. Now we're trying to re-engage. But the disengagement we want to come back from has created a lot of baggage. We who want to be missional try to engage, but when we interact with unbelievers we have to overcome that we're from the church that has hurt people.

But even if this difficulty arises from the way the church acted over the last decades, we must still diligently love fundamentalists. Without them we wouldn't be here. If they hadn't stood up to liberalism like they did, we would be Europe.

Instead, when we encounter fundamentalists who seem hard toward the work of Christ nowadays, we should be like the father who goes out and entreats the older brother. He doesn't stay in at the Prodigal's party and ignore him.

On the flipside of being a stubborn fundamentalist, you don't have to be the guy who drinks beer and cusses to engage culture.

Evangelicalism has been shaped by pop culture.

Religion entered the free market when the US said no to having a state religion. So now popular culture votes on what religion will be. It went the way of entrepreneurialism. This is why evangelicalism nowadays is democratic, moralistic, and individualistic. That's the way popular culture has shaped it.

The Enlightenment destroyed the soul.

The poison of the enlightenment for evangelicalism was the death of the soul. Earth became the new heaven. All that was deep was replaced by rational pragmatics. Numbers replace transformed souls. A full room became a win and changed lives lost their importance.

This resulted in a surfeit of how-to manuals. When you start to see a bunch of messages and books on how to—"If you do this, you'll get a large church."—it is a sign that the movement is failing. What makes it even scarier is that it actually works. Then, when churches boom by following these instructions, people forget that the movement is impotent.

Evangelicalism relaxed in response to the 60's.

In the 60's people became disillusioned with the idea of progress and with institutions. In response, Evangelicalism created a new liturgy. Out with invocation and creeds; in with contemporary and relaxed models. Too often what was deep and real got replaced by light fare. Sermons became more about how the Bible applies to your personal life than about unpacking who Jesus is. Pastors became more and more motivated by trying to show how the Bible is still cool, instead of helping people walk closer with Christ.

We're back to the how without the why.

(This isn't about the worship wars. Because it's not about how. How is not as important as who you are. The issue is not traditional or contemporary. It's about who is real and full of life. Both kinds can be both real and fake. It's not about style, but heart.)

9/11 reminded America that religion matters.

It was a rude reminder in September 2001 that religion motivates people. That new awareness has had 2 effects:

1. In the last 10 years almost all major newspapers have developed a thorough religion section. They are no longer just service times at the back of the business section, but full-blown sections with extensive journalism. This actually isn't that great for Christianity. Now Jesus is more respected than ever, but he's not necessarily talked about or treated as God.
2. It has created a fear of fanaticism. And, strangely, it's not so much a fear of fanatics as it is a fear of being labeled as fanatics. So, it's OK to like Jesus-—no problem—but don't love him too much.

How do we preach and teach into the complexity of a growing secularism and a stubborn brittle fundamentalism?

Chandler mentioned 5 thoughts on this "from his deep well of personal bias."

1. Put to rest thoughts of bigness. Bigness attacks the rudiments of real deep change. If you aspire to bigness for bigness' sake, you're a peddler of God's word. It's not about being on the stage. If you're goal is to grow a crowd, you will sell out. Growth can be a whore. Preach faithfully and let God grow the church if he wants to.

2. Preaching is not just explaining the text. You must explain the text, but that's not enough. We must also reveal Christ in the text. Pay attention to the deity of Jesus.

3. Continue to preach the truth of the gospel boldly with less combative language. How you wear your counter-cultural-ness matters. Coming across as arrogant and smug is not a win for us. Paul respects others spiritual journey. He begs people to believe. Begging is not confrontational. An effect of evangelical baggage is that the second you go combative, you will be labeled a fundamentalist, and people have very often already made up their minds about fundamentalists. And what they've made up their mind to do is ignore them.

4. Trust not only in the integrity of the Scriptures but also their sufficiency. If you believe that the Bible is sufficient, you will not need to be concerned about making it relevant. Ignoring that the Bible is sufficient turns it into an ethical call to just be nicer to people.

The gospel is not that hurt goes away, but that Jesus is sufficient regardless of the hurt. If your people are in pain, what will they have to rely on if you have not already been giving them Jesus every weekend.

5. Preach and teach a biblical ecclesiology. Our people need to not just know but observe what Christ has commanded, so there needs to be accountability.

Conclusion: An Encouragingly Discouraging Note

Chandler wondered whether many pastors nowadays have the call of Isaiah to preach to a people that will not see or hear.

Discouraging, perhaps, but it in a way it is encouraging, because it means that if nothing seems to be happening in your ministry, it may not be your fault. All we must do is play our part well. Be faithful. Fearlessly proclaim the gospel.

Be aware of Christ's presence. Party with the prodigal. Entreat the older brother.