The Gospel Coalition

The church is on my mind. I've been reading a lot and having challenging discussions with friends regarding the church. What is the church? How does the church fulfill its role as the Body of Christ on earth? Small questions like that! While I have always wrestled with this questions, they are especially at the forefront of my mind now.

The obvious reason for that is that I am preparing to launch a new church in downtown Phoenix called St. George's Anglican Community. If the Lord allows, we will start Sunday worship in March of 2008 (Easter Sunday).

Going into downtown and seeking to minister to the city also has led me to look into what Timothy Keller has done with Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City and what Mark Driscoll has done with Mars Hill in Seattle. These men planted and are now pastoring vibrant churches in the city while remaining firmly commited to the Bible and the Gospel message. They, with others, have started a Gospel Coalition with a vision to united like-minded evangelical churches to carry out the mission of the church in our post-modern America.

This is the conclusion of their vision statement. I find myself resonating with it:

The ministry we have outlined is relatively rare. There are many seeker-driven churches that help many people find Christ. There are many churches seeking to engage the culture through political activism. There is a fast-growing charismatic movement with emphasis on glorious, passionate, corporate worship. There are many congregations with strong concern for doctrinal rigor and purity and who work very hard to keep themselves separate from the world. There are many churches with a radical commitment to the poor and marginalized.

We do not, however, see enough individual churches that embody the full, integrative gospel balance we have outlined here. And while, in God’s grace, there is an encouraging number of bright spots in the church, we see no broad movement yet of this gospel-centered ministry. We believe such a balance will produce churches with winsome and theologically substantial preaching, dynamic evangelism and apologetics, and church growth and church planting. They will emphasize repentance, personal renewal, and holiness of life. At the same time, and in the same congregations, there will be engagement with the social structures of ordinary people, and cultural engagement with art, business, scholarship, and government. There will be calls for radical Christian community in which all members share wealth and resources and make room for the poor and the marginalized. These priorities will all be combined and will mutually strengthen one another in each local church.

What could lead to a growing movement of gospel-centered churches? The ultimate answer is that God must, for his own glory, send revival in response to the fervent, extraordinary, prevailing prayer of his people. But we believe there are also penultimate steps to take. There is great hope if we can unite on the nature of truth, how best to read the Bible, on our relationship to culture, on the content of the gospel, and on the nature of gospel-centered ministry. We believe that such commitments will drive us afresh toward Scripture, toward the Christ of Scripture, toward the gospel of Christ, and we will begin to grow in our ability, by God’s grace, as churches, to “act in line with the truth of the gospel” (Gal 2:14). We are ashamed of our sins and failures, grateful beyond measure for forgiveness, and eager to see afresh the glory of God and embody conformity to his Son.
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/vision.php