When it comes to our local church becoming a gospel-forward church, it isn’t going to happen unless we pray, individually and collectively, that God will open our eyes, and free up our time. It means we will start planning gospel encounters with the unconverted. What does that look like? You tell me. I think it can begin with asking leading questions of those God puts in front of you daily, the plumber, the hairdresser, the co-worker. Make a list, and then resolve to find out if those people are Christians. (Don’t wait until you get to heaven to find that out. You need to know now.)
A friend once told me about the time he visited his old seminary in Philadelphia. One professor, long retired, had helped to shape his ministry, and he enquired where he might find him. He was given directions to his nearby home, but as he turned onto the street, he stopped short. There, sitting on the sidewalk, surrounded by neighborhood children, sat the venerable Cornelius Van Til, telling Bible stories about Jesus.
What has that got to do with Reformed missions? Everything.
I say that because missions are about the gospel, and if they are not, they will fail. Indeed, the sooner they fail, the better. When the Philippian jailor asked Paul “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30), Paul did not explain the doctrine of election, or enter into a discussion about how his ideas about church were superior to those of some of those folks back in Jerusalem. Paul wasn’t there to make sectarian proselytes, he was there to bring the good news. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31).
I think the picture of the esteemed professor of Apologetics, down on the sidewalk telling children about Jesus is an excellent reminder about staying on mission. I can’t count the times I have failed miserably to present the gospel, and instead got sidetracked into presenting the superiority of Reformed theology and practice.
Don’t get me wrong. Reformed theology and practice is superior. It can, and should guide our discipleship of new converts, but first there must be new converts. Too often, what we call missions is simply an attempt to attract people who are already converted and, preferably, already Reformed. We are gleaners in the field, not sowers and reapers. So, how do we change that? How do we bring people, not merely to an institution with rules and traditions, but to Christ? Can we really plant Reformed churches this way?
We can, and we must. It starts by being gospel-forward. That means, we stop trying to convert people to the church, and focus, instead, on the conversion of the lost to Christ. There will be a lifetime of discipleship to deal with everything else. Also, unlike the disgruntled visitors from the church down the street, they will have the new convert’s eagerness to submit to Word and Sacraments.
If we would be gospel-forward, that means bringing the good news to the unconverted. How will this change what our mission works look like? Obviously, we will spend less time trying to find that new Reformed family that just moved to town, and a lot more time talking to everyone else. But how, exactly, do we do that? It is obvious that we cannot teach ourselves what we do not know, but we do have sister denominations that are having success planting new churches. We need to study what they are doing, attend their missions conferences, and ask the Lord to open our eyes. I spoke to one missions director who told me they look for church plant opportunities where they can build a congregation of “three to five hundred.” What’s more, “we want that new church to have church-planting DNA,” meaning that church would plant others. It’s obvious that there is more at work here than just gathering in the already-converted.
But wait, should not our existing churches also be gospel-forward? Are we also just waiting for that new Reformed family in town to find us?