As we consider a shift “from reaching Christians to making disciples,” church leaders and followers of Jesus can miss a vital step: knowing how the Gospel sounds like truly good news to people! Do we live as if the Gospel is truly good news to us? Do we talk about Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and reign as if He makes an actual difference – not just in our theology but in our lives, and in the lives of those around us?
At the end of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he asks his friends in Colossae to pray for him—specifically, and this is informative for us as we pursue God’s mission—“that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.” Leading by example, Paul, arguably the most “successful” missionary in history, reminds us that God’s mission was completely dependent on God. Then he exhorts his friends, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Colossians 4:2–6).
SPEAK WITH GRACE AND SALT
Salt makes things tasteful. Peter gives a similar warning as he exhorts followers of Jesus to share the Gospel. After encouraging readers to “always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” he encourages this posture: “yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). Grace, gentleness, well-seasoned and respectful. If we asked many of our not-yet-believing neighbors and friends, I’d imagine those are not the words they’d typically use to describe their experience with Christians’ presentation of the Gospel.
In my work with The Equipping Group, we often help pastors see that Christians are more typically viewed as arrogant, uncaring, heady, and presumptuous. These postures miss God’s heart, and miss opportunities to walk in wisdom, even as we speak the good news! There’s a way to display the heart of the Gospel, even as we proclaim the content of the Gospel.
Our posture as we share the Gospel—from our stages and classrooms, and even more so in our streets and living rooms—is to consider how our audience (whether one or 1000) is hearing it, and to ask ourselves if it’s palatable to them. How can we fulfill this first principle of Gospel proclamation? The second principle is the key.
SPEAK TO EACH SOUL
Paul’s second exhortation to his readers is to “know how you ought to answer each person.” Paul doesn’t encourage a one-size-fits-all approach to sharing the Gospel. Instead, there are literally dozens of ways to share the Gospel, and that “each person” might need to hear it in a unique way, to sound real to them. For me, the Gospel was “good” in that it displayed Jesus as satisfying, in my dissatisfied life. But if I now only know how to proclaim the Gospel through the lens of satisfaction, it might be wasted on you if dissatisfaction isn’t your struggle. Instead, as I often tell our church family, we must learn to speak the one objective Gospel, into hundreds of subjective situations around us.
For example, I used to think God redeemed me at age eight. Now I think I was actually 20—and ashamedly, two years into student ministry!—when the good news of Jesus became real to me. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks: “If Jesus is real, He should matter to everything!” It sounds embarrassingly simple now, but seemed revolutionary at the time. What truth made the Gospel become real to me? For years I had sought satisfaction in leadership roles, music, “success”, women, and ironically, doing the right thing in the eyes of others. All that had left me empty and dissatisfied. When I was 20, the truth I’d even taught others finally sunk into my own thick, self-gratifying skull: “God. Alone. Satisfies.” That truth changed everything.
Every time we see a diamond commercial, the stone sits on a black background, rotating. Every slight turn picks up the light in a unique way, reflecting it in more beauty. It’s one diamond, but each angle shows its sparkle differently. In this way, Jesus is like a diamond. There is one Gospel, but there are many angles from which people through history find the Gospel to be truly good news.
WHAT’S THE GOOD NEWS, TO EACH PERSON?
I explore some ways the Gospel is good news in Reading the Bible, Missing the Gospel. But there are many, many more! Even in Paul’s elder qualifications, he says leaders must be well-thought-of enough to earn an audience; we must have strong relationships and have “respectable” lives. Based on Colossians 4, we must learn peoples’ stories, enter into their brokenness, and know their values, needs, and idols. In this way, we can speak the good news in a way that “answers each person.” But isn’t that difficult? Yes. Doesn’t it take time, effort, and sacrifice? You bet. Is there a high potential I might fail, misrepresent God, or speak foolishly at times? Absolutely.
But on one hand, grace exists to us, because “salvation is [only!] of the Lord”—it’s the Father who opens doors; it’s the Spirit who gives us words. On the other hand, it’s worth it. Because everyone on earth—both inside and outside our ministries—proclaims the glory of something. And there is only One Thing worth proclaiming, that won’t let them down. Jesus alone is, among a hundred thousand other things, Satisfaction to the dissatisfied, Joy to the joyless, Hope to the hopeless, Forgiveness to the indebted, Freedom to the enslaved, Salvation to those facing judgment, and the Answer to every problem. And hear me, minister: that same Gospel that can sound like good news to every facet of peoples’ lives, is also truly good news to every facet of your life too!
There is one objective Gospel, and it applies to every subjective situation. As we consider our disciple-making processes and strategies, let’s also prioritize living lives that reflect that truth. And let’s slow down enough to know how to best proclaim it in a way that speaks to individual souls, answers unique questions, and “answers each person.” Let’s accept God’s invitation to do this, from our pulpits and on our couches. Let’s share the good news with those in our ministries, those who would never come near them, and in our own hearts as well!
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