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ADVANCING THE GOSPEL INTO THE 21ST CENTURY
Part III : Context sensitive
by Tim Keller, Senior Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church

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...at the center of the two "axes"--or to the degree you do--there is power and effectiveness.

The Practice of Contextualization. The differences between three conversions of Acts 16 are amazing.
Racially: Lydia Asian, Slave-girl probably native Greek, Jailer Roman.
Economically: Lydia well off at least, business woman; Slave-girl poor, economically exploited and powerless; Roman jailer blue-collar, working class.

Spiritually: Lydia was a God-fearer, believed Bible and Biblical God. She was a moral, religious, good person who believed in the God of the Bible in a general way. She shows spiritual interest immediately. Slave-girl spiritually devastated, and literally runs after Paul, and in spiritual turmoil. She is the only one of the three we could call in any sense a real 'seeker'! The Roman jailer neither spiritually interested and satisfied nor spiritually empty and tormented, but evidences no spiritual interest at all. Practically indifferent.

Ministry Approach:
Lydia largely through words. Though we are not told here, almost surely Paul would have approached God-fearers and Jews (not enough for a synagogue which required 10 men) through teaching and expounding the Bible in a new way for them--Christocentric exegesis. Showing--as Jesus did with his disciples in Luke 24--that the whole OT is really about him. This released Lydia from mere religion into gospel Christianity.

Slave-girl largely through deeds. It is interesting, that psychologically, she was oppressed by demonic false masters, but economically she was oppressed and exploited by human false masters. When Paul frees her from one, frees her from the other. What Paul does here, regardless of your views of miracles and exorcisms--is not just word but a deed. She is freed from demons, and freed from economic exploitation as well.

Jailer, largely through embodied example. Just as Lydia was probably an educated woman, needed an argument to be persuaded, and the troubled slave-girl needed deeds of service and liberation, so the jailer needed practical example of godly character. He was shocked by transformed lives. a) Heard them singing God's praise in face of suffering. Job 35:10-so men cry out under a load of oppression but no one says 'where is God my maker, who gives songs in the night?" Struck by worship and songs in trouble. b) Saw, in response to his cruelty, kindness. When had a chance to escape, which would have ruined him, literally, they acted in integrity and stayed in the prison. Summary: Saw Christ-like character in community.

This is a church plant. What do we learn? That every church needs to engage its community in three basic strategies.

1. Acts 16:13-15 - WORD Ministry and The Gospel for the Religious

Paul finds a group of 'God-fearers', Gentiles who had embraced the Biblical faith (v.13) Lydia is an upstanding religious person who does not understand the gospel.

The Religious. Religion is 'outside in'--if I work hard according to Biblical principles, then God will accept/bless me. The gospel is 'inside out'--because God has accepted/blessed me, I work hard to live according to Biblical principles. Religion (explicitly in other faiths and implicitly in legalistic Christianity) makes moral/religious observance a means of salvation. Even people who believe in the Christian God can functionally 'base their sanctification on their justification' (Lovelace). Thus a prime need is to distinguish between general 'religion' and gospel Christianity as well as overt irreligion. Why? 1) Many professed Christians aren't believers--they are pure 'elder brothers' (Luke 15:11ff.) and only making this distinction can convert them. 2) Many, many real Christians are elder-brotherish--angry, mechanical, superior, insecure--and only making this distinction can renew them. 3) Modern and post-modern people have rejected religion for good reasons and will only listen to Christianity if they see it is different. The main way to reach religious people is through preaching. It must be 1) Christo-centric, 2) aimed at self-justifying roots of sinful behavior, 3) leading to worship rather than mere information transfer.

Word ministry issues.
Content-Linking the text into the 'Big Story'. What does it mean to 'proclaim the gospel'? How can you do so in a way that both wakes up/converts the religious and yet also engages more secular people? Answer: Christ-centered interpretation and preaching. You must always preach every text in such a way that it reveals Jesus and his saving work. Ed Clowney points out that if we ever tell a particular Bible story without putting it into the overall main Bible story (about Christ), we actually change the meaning of the particular event for us. It becomes a moralistic exhortation to 'try harder' rather than a call to live by faith in the work of Christ. There is, in the end, only two ways to read the Bible: is it basically about me or basically about Jesus? In other words, is it basically about what I must do, or basically about what he has done? Example: If I read David and Goliath as basically giving me an example, then the story is really about me. I must summons up the faith and courage to fight the giants in my life. But if I read David and Goliath as basically showing me salvation through Jesus, then the story is really about him. Until I see that Jesus fought the real giants (sin, law, death) for me, I will never have the courage to be able to fight ordinary giants in life (suffering, disappointment, failure, criticism, hardship). The Bible is not a collection of "Aesop's Fables", it is not a book of virtues. It is a story about how God saves us. Any exposition of a text that does not 'get to Christ' but just 'explains Biblical principles' will be a 'synagogue sermon' that merely exhorts people to exert their wills to live according to a particular pattern. Instead of the life-giving gospel, the sermon offers just one more ethical paradigm to crush the listeners.

Method--Linking the text to the people's story: How will you verbally proclaim the gospel to people? We said above you must incorporate every text into Christ's story or else you are just being moralistic and you won't reach the religious and the secular. But secondly, you must connect your preaching of the gospel with the stories of the people of your place. How do gospel themes address your culture's hopes, fears, tensions? (1) Begin with familiar and show how the gospel confirms what is strong and good in the culture. Know the people's story extremely well. Show your sympathy with it. (2) But use the gospel to challenge and de-stabilize common cultural assumptions at points that they are weak or inadequate. (3) Finally, comfort and galvanize with the promises of the gospel. Show them that they can't finish their own story without God in Christ.

Example: Traditional ways to 'argue' for the infallibility of the Bible are 1) evidentialist way of fulfilled prophecies, archaeological findings, historicity arguments of eyewitness accounts, etc. 2) pre-suppositional way of Van Till--assuming it as the only way to explain life 3) moderate method of historicity-then faith in Christ-then belief in Christ's testimony to the Bible. But each of these methods tends to assume the listener is a modern, Enlightenment person whose 'story' is to live a life based on reason and science. Alternative approach: Most contemporary people are allergic to the idea of absolute truth or an infallible Bible. Enter the Story: Desire for a personal relationship with God. Wouldn't you want to have a God with whom you can have an intimate, living, personal relationship? Challenge: But if you want a personal relationship, the other person will have to be able to contradict you. If a wife can never contradict her husband, you don't have a real personal relationship (e.g. "The Stepford Wives") Now, if you pick and choose what you can believe in the Bible and what you can't believe (on the basis of modern thinking or personal feelings), then how will you ever have a God who can contradict you? Only if God can be or say things that outrage you will you know you have a real God and not a figment of your imagination. So an authoritative Bible is not the enemy of a personal, mystical relationship with God. It is the pre-condition. Jesus related to God on the basis of the Bible. You won't be able to finish your own story without the Bible Jesus believed in.

Speak to your whole community, not just the ones in the seats. If your church is to be a church for the whole neighborhood, you must preach and minister as if the people nearby who don't believe are there. You must conduct church as if the whole community was listening in. If you preach as if non-Christians from the community were there (even if they weren't!), it was not long before they were there. Why? Even in thriving churches, the whole service usually assumes: 1) a lot of Biblical knowledge, 2) a 'we-them' mentality (we Christians vs. the big, bad world), 3) much evangelical terminology. Thus most Christians, even when they are very edified in church, know intuitively that their non-Christian friends would not appreciate the service. What you want is for a Christian to come to your church and say, "oh! I wish my non-Christian friend could see (or hear) this!" If this is forgotten, soon even a growing church will be filled with Christians who commute in from various towns and communities far and wide rather than filling up with Christians and seekers from your church's immediate neighborhoods.

2. Acts 16:16-19 - HOLISTIC Ministry and The Gospel for the Post-modern
The slave-girl (v.16) (lit. "the Pythoness") was poor, and she cannot be liberated simply through preaching, but by a direct encounter with the powers that bind her, spiritually, socially, and economically. There is deed ministry here, as well as a word.

Deed Ministry issues: Jesus considered a concern for the poor to be a mark of his presence (Matt 11:5). Increasingly, in a globalized world, we will win neither the elites nor the masses unless we embody the gospel in strong ministry to people with economic and material needs as well as spiritual.

The renewal of Christ's salvation ultimately includes a renewed universe...there is no part of our existence that is untouched by His blessing. Christ's miracles were miracles of the kingdom, performed as signs of what the kingdom means....His blessing was pronounced upon the poor, the afflicted, the burdened and heavy-laden who came to Him and believed in Him....The miraculous signs that attested Jesus' deity and authenticated the witness of those who transmitted the gospel to the church is not continued, for their purpose was fulfilled. But the pattern of the kingdom that was revealed through those signs must continue in the church....Kingdom evangelism is therefore holistic as it transmits by word and deed the promise of Christ for body and soul as well as the demand of Christ for body and soul.
Edmund P. Clowney, in The Pastor Evangelist)

Evaluation questions:
How will you serve the people around you? How will you show that Christ is come to bring peace/shalom to the world?

Think of community service content that fits the culture. How will you show the community you love them even if they don't believe? (1) What are the 'felt needs' of the individuals in your community that are largely shared alike by Christians and non-Christians. This varies greatly depending on your neighborhood. What are the emotional needs of the elderly, families, teens, singles, men, women, children? What are the social or economic or educational needs of the same? (2) What are the flaws and difficulties with the systems of the community. Again, this varies greatly depending on your neighborhood. In prosperous communities, the educational and economic systems 'work' better. In other communities, even the streets are not safe to walk in. The key is to find ways to stand with the broader community to face effects of our fallen condition and be, as a church, a 'sign of the kingdom' of God. Find ways to bring emotional, social, spiritual healing in a way that the world can see.

Think of community service connection modes that fit the culture. How will you link your church to the needs of the community culture in such a way that is 'holistic', weaving verbal witness and Christian community together with service to the world? In other words, do not simply create 'social programs' but link outreach service ministry with small group fellowship and with worship and verbal expressions of the gospel.

Counter-intuitive holistic ministry. Most people have a very powerful desire (need?) to place a church somewhere on a ideological spectrum from "Liberal/Left" wing to "Conservative/Right" wing. There is nothing more crucial than to use the gospel in the life of our church to defy such stereotypes and to (thus) become impossible to categorize. On the one hand the gospel of Christ and justification-by-faith brings deep, powerful psychological changes. Though I am sinful, I am accepted through Christ. This discovery "converts" people, so they sing, "My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed Thee". On the other hand, the gospel of the cross and the kingdom brings deep powerful social changes. It defies the values of the world--power, status, recognition, wealth. The gospel is triumph through weakness, wealth through poverty, power through service. This changes our attitude toward the poor, toward our own status and wealth and careers.

Together, these two "sides" of the gospel's influence creates a unique kind of church. So many fundamentalist churches tend to be legalistic in their approach (even if they technically believe in justification by faith!). Therefore, though they stress evangelism, they are not all that attractive or effective. Legalism does not produce 'reciprocal' love for those without faith. On the other hand, so many liberal churches, though they stress social justice, are not all that effective at it. Their people's lives are not electrified by conversion. They do not have deep experiences that humble them and change the way they look at the poor. Therefore, a gospel-centered church should have a social justice emphasis and effectiveness that greatly exceeds the liberal church's. Meanwhile, it should have an evangelistic fervor that greatly exceeds the ordinary fundamentalist church's. This gospel-driven, counter-intuitive combination of 'zeals' can only come through teaching, prayer, and repentance.

'Post-modern' ministry issues: The slave-girl also represents the haunted insight of the coming 'post-modern' culture. Lydia lives on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, and the Jailer lives in Queens, New York, but the slave-girl is an artist with a drug habit living in the East Village of Manhattan. (1) Apologetics is constantly necessary, but it should be mainly presuppositional. Show that relativism is intolerant. (2) Stress small groups over all other programs. (3) In preaching, Jesus is not teacher of principles (for traditionalists) or healer of hurts (for moderns) but the savior in history. Religion is self-salvation through principles (modern or traditional) while the gospel is salvation through entering a story--the myth that became fact--Jesus' redemptive life. The result of religion is moralism and oppression; the result of relativism is selfish individualism--both are unacceptable. (4) Evangelism: (a) 'more evangelized' searchers will come right in to all services, groups and ministries. There must be participation before transformation. (b) 'less' evangelized people are now reached through non-condescending cultural and social involvement. Do friendship (not even friendship evangelism--gospel character produces friendship about them). Evangelism is more about how we live with a new quality of life: we show how the gospel helps us embrace the excluded, be a servant of common good, live with integrity regarding sex, money and power. (c) evangelism has more to do with excellence and thoughtfulness in the way we do our work. (5) Music/worship cannot be confined to the classical or the contemporary. High quality aesthetics are critical in our technological yet anti-rational age. (6) The preferable ministry area is again the parish--the neighborhood. (7) Stress racial reconciliation and multi-cultural community. This has always been Biblical, but now it's practical. Society is becoming more multi-ethnic and concerned with building bridges. (8) Stress lay leadership--all deeply based on friendship (very organic) rather than program (inorganic). Skepticism about expertise will encourage lay leadership. (9) Communication style must have the 'irony' of gospel-humility rather than the typical pomposity of traditional Christianity or slick-cool-controlled nature of modern Christianity. But the challenge is to avoid the 'irony' of cynicism. Cynical-irony is seeing other's sin as worse than yours (a plank vs. your splinter) while humble-irony is seeing your sin as worse than others' (a splinter vs. your plank).

'Freedom' vs 'Forgiveness' Gospel. The basic difference between people I meet today has to do with how and why they will see they need the gospel. People from traditional cultures and mindsets tend to a) have a belief in God, and b) have a strong sense of moral absolutes and the obligation to be "good". This may be a sense of obligation to their family, their people, a general moral ethic, a tradition, a religion (including Christianity), and so on. These folk respond well to a presentation that says, "Sin keeps you from ever being as good as you need to be, and it therefore separates you from God." People with more secular and "post-modern" mindsets tend to a) have only a vague belief in the divine if at all and, b) have little sense of moral absolutes. Therefore, they feel the obligation to be free and true to their own selves and dreams. These folk respond well to a presentation that says, "Sin keeps you from being free as you need to be, and therefore it enslaves and de-humanizes you."

"The Gospel as Forgiveness". The way to show the traditional persons their need for the gospel is by saying, "your sin makes you imperfect! You can't be righteous enough. You may think you are looking to God for salvation, but you are really trying to save yourself." (Imperfection is the biggest nightmare of the "duty-worshipper". We say "you are not living up!" so they are threatened.) This approach creates anxiety and relieves it by showing how Christ forgives us, covers our sins and gives us a righteous record. "The Gospel as Freedom". But the way to show more deeply secularized persons their need for the gospel is by saying, "your sin makes you a slave! You are actually being religious, though you don't know it--trying to be righteous in a destructive way". (Slavery is the biggest nightmare of the "choice--worshipper". We say, "you are not really in control" so they are threatened.) This approach creates anxiety and relieves it by showing how Christ redeems us (lit. "ransoms us from slavery"), liberates us.

Each approach is Biblical, of course. Romans tends to give the first approach (though see Romans 6-8). Galatians tends to give the second approach. Paul insists that his pagan converts, if they go with the "Judaizers", will only be going back into bondage. Paul equates religious moralism and pagan hedonism as being essentially the same thing. Each of the two approaches assumes a piece of common grace, a certain insight about truth. The older cultures saw duty as the key of salvation. The gospel says: "but you AREN'T living up to your duty unless you come to God through the finished work of Christ." The newer culture sees freedom as the key of salvation. The gospel says: "but your AREN'T free unless you come to God through the finished work of Christ." Now in both situations, we must be careful. The first approach to the gospel must be careful not to let the hearers think that the gospel is just a way to get a free pardon. The second approach to the gospel must be careful not to let the hearers think that the gospel is just a way to get personal fulfillment. In former times, when churches were so filled with people who were traditional, we had to avoid preaching any "salvation through duty". (We failed to avoid it, in fact.) Now churches are so filled with people who are therapized to seek fulfillment, we must avoid preaching any "salvation through discovery". (We are failing to avoid it, in fact.)

Who are the two kinds of people? Every person must be considered on a case by case basis. But here are some ideas for who these two kinds of people tend to be, at least in the U.S. The first set of people (more traditional worlds-view) tend to include: people who are older, who are from strong Catholic or religious Jewish backgrounds, who are from conservative evangelical/Pentecostal Protestant backgrounds, people from the southern U.S., and first generation immigrants from non-European countries. The second set of people tend to include: people who are younger, who are from nominal/weak Catholic or non-religious Jewish backgrounds, who are from liberal mainline Protestant backgrounds, people from the western and northeastern U.S., Europeans (here in the states), and the children of families from non-Western countries.

In most non-Western (non U.S-European), the traditional world-view is more prevalent in less urban areas and less educated classes, while the secular world-view is more prevalent in more urban areas and more educated classes. We must also notice that this division also runs along a divide between older secularists and newer secularists in the West. The older secularism has been called "modern" and the newer "post-modern". In the earlier part of the century, modern secular people still had a high belief in reason and were very moral. But as the century has waned, "post-modern" secularists are far more relativistic and are skeptical of objective reality of any kind, whether empirical or moral. Therefore, very moral yet secular parents have produced very a-moral, secular children.

Summary. In general, I want to show that it is best to communicate in the second mode, "The Gospel as Freedom" because the second mode...

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