Why Am I A Southern Baptist?

By / Sep 5

Editor’s note: Recently, Midwestern Seminary & Spurgeon College hosted a chapel panel discussion on the topic, “Why We are Southern Baptist.” This article by Jason Duesing expands upon his comments during the chapel session and is based on his course lectures and essays written over the last two decades. Watch the full panel here.

__________
By: Jason G. Duesing

Why am I a Southern Baptist?

This is one question I ask students taking the required Baptist history class I teach. I ask it because every generation of Baptist seminary students asks it, or will ask it, or needs to ask it, and I want them to know how I answer it and have arrived at my answer with cheerful conviction.

While it is true that there are many Protestant and Evangelical churches who are like-minded and share the same core convictions about doctrine and missions as the Baptists, for those preparing to serve and lead Baptist churches, my course is designed to help them understand, develop, and defend their convictions about the ecclesial tradition to which their church is connected.1

A High View of a Low and Free Church

Like a coin with two sides, the Baptist tradition is a story that must be told in both history and theology. To look only at the historical development minimizes the theological foundation of important pre-Baptist influences. To look only at theological connections minimizes the actual events and people in history who referred to themselves as Baptist by name. As such, it is right to see the theological start of Baptist churches as rooted in the Protestant Reformation, even while the chronicling of churches named Baptist does not appear in history until a century later in England.2

Keeping both history and theology in view is what I call a “symphonious approach” to assessing movements in history.3 Just like with a symphony of music, history and theology represent diverse and complementary components; each play an overlapping part that, when examined together, produces a comprehensive piece. For example, while it is helpful to determine who were the first people in history to name something or start something, it is also necessary to understand what thoughts influenced their actions and how those thoughts fit into the development of those people and those around them.

In the same way, where it is helpful to examine why churches first adopted the practice of believer’s baptism—what they were thinking and how they made their theological argument—it is needed to understand who these people were, how they arrived at their conclusions, and the cultural circumstances that influenced their thinking and actions. A symphonious approach allows the movements of both history and theology to play together and presents both well-ordered history and well-reasoned theology without the distractions of prioritized chronology or doctrine separated from people and churches.

As my class tracks the symphony of both Baptist theology and history, I summarize the theological distinctives that grew throughout the history of the Baptist tradition this way:

(1) A people of the Bible who preach the gospel and have found it helpful to summarize what the Bible says about the Christian life in confessions of faith. (2) The practice of believer’s baptism by immersion as the entrance to a (3) believer’s church that is (4) free and separate from the state and thus advocates religious freedom for all in society while (5) seeking to share the gospel with all in society and to the ends of the earth in an intentional and organized Great Commission focus on evangelism and missions, all done through (6) biblical cooperation among churches.4

I like to condense all these distinctives into the two categories of church health and religious liberty, advocated by and from the Gospel. Or to put it another way, Baptists have a high view of a low and free church.

Why Baptists first became Baptist

Next in my class, I pair this understanding of what Baptists believe with how they developed those beliefs in history. The Baptist Tradition’s connection to the Reformation is like that of a tree to its roots. What connects later Baptist churches in England to 16th century doctrinal renewal in Europe is rooted in the Reformation’s recovery of the Gospel as expressed in the five solas: Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Later Baptists demonstrate this connection through their confessions of faith, which sought to maintain connectivity both to the core doctrines of the Christian tradition, as well as those renewed during the Reformation. The doctrine of the church is where they branched from those roots, following the path started by the Anabaptists—a pre-Baptist wing of the Reformation who championed the separation of church and state as marked by the practice of believer’s baptism.5

The story of Baptist cooperation in England in the 17th century is one of survival. Rooted in the English Reformation, these early Baptists were the heirs of a renewal movement that was fueled by access to the Bible in English. This led them to pursue their convictions to form separate self-governed churches. Yet, this early movement was illegal, and their existence was threatened by the state Church of England that forbade participation in other worship services.

At this point in my class, I tell my students that I love evangelical Anglicans and the wider evangelical tradition. I’ve been helped theologically and in my own spiritual formation by the Puritans, C. S. Lewis, and J. I. Packer. In fact, as all believers who read the Bible in English are, in some sense, heirs of the English Reformation, it is my favorite era in church history to teach.6

Yet, though a friend of evangelical Anglicans, like the earliest Baptists, I do not hold to their doctrine of the church. As I grew up in the Episcopalian-Anglican church, I was asked years ago to write an essay in which I aimed to evaluate Anglican ecclesiology historically and theologically.7 Here are my conclusions:

First, even though Anglicanism is officially separate from Roman Catholicism politically and otherwise, there remains an inherent connection through their polity and specifically through their continued use of the hierarchical system of church leadership. As Anglican historian Diarmaid MacCulloch states, “[T]he story of Anglicanism, and the story of the discomfiture of Elizabeth’s first bishops, is the result of the fact that this tension between Catholic structure and Protestant theology was never resolved.”8 Without this connection there would not be the reoccurring talks of the Church of England returning to the “Mother Church.”9 A cousin once removed from Roman Catholicism, the Church of England still bears a family resemblance.

Second, in the history of the Church of England there are very few who attempt to make a biblical case for their offices of church leadership. Even if one appeals to the secondary nature of these doctrines, the New Testament is not silent about the matter and the biblical evidence leans strongly in favor of the argument that the terms for bishop and elder are used interchangeably.10

Third, while an appeal to Scripture is lacking, the overwhelming reliance upon tradition is the very thing that causes the complexity and confusion within the Anglican Communion when seeking to understand church leadership. The use of tradition is a helpful tool but in the end, remains a record of the activities and constructions of failed men and women. Tradition is needed and helpful, but it is not Scripture.11

To tie everything together in my class, I underscore that the Baptist movement began in England as small groups of men and women met to establish themselves in churches, separated from the state Church of England, and then sought fellowship with other churches around common beliefs and practice. This early confessional cooperation grew out of, and centered around, the Reformation program of doctrinal renewal which led to the recovery of the biblical Gospel message. Baptists, then, first became Baptist following this pattern and emerged from the study of what they understood the Bible to say about the local church.

A Fleet Sailing Together

As these Baptist churches gained strength, they crossed to the New World and grew into a fleet of churches sailing together, united in doctrine and headed in Great Commission direction. By the start of the 19th century, Baptist churches determined that the primary reason for cooperating as a national denomination of churches was simple: global missions.

The picture of churches as ships sailing is fitting for understanding where one fits in relationship to Southern Baptist churches as it conveys, first, that they are not the only ships at sea. There are many churches, of course, but not all have set sail, and not all are headed in the direction of global evangelism. Thus, it is helpful for believers, and believers together in churches, to find partners who not only agree with their design and beliefs, but also with their shared trajectory. Not all churches aiming to fulfill the Great Commission are Baptist churches, and wherever possible Baptist churches can and should sail with those with whom they can unite in evangelism and missions. Likewise, as Baptist churches seek to start new churches to add to their fleet, they will find safe harbor and maximized mission when they work with other Baptist churches who not only are sailing in the same direction, but also are united on what kinds of churches they are seeking to fund and start together at the ends of the earth.

Second, the picture conveys that these ships do need to tend to their own vessels to maximize speed and stay on course. To stay afloat in the world for Gospel proclamation, Baptist churches have found the need to prioritize their own doctrinal and congregational health. These ships will, no doubt, encounter storms without and conflict within. A church who has lost its first love may also lose the Spirit’s enabling wind-power behind it. Baptist churches at sea need to minimize any hindrance that would pull them off course.

Third, this picture conveys that individuals can serve and live on one ship at a time. While circumstance may dictate the need for believers to change churches, for most the norm is continuing to serve on the ship where one is placed. When a sailor is counting on the buoyancy of his ship for his life and safe travel, he is far more likely to look after the health and heading of the ship. It is a picture of foolishness to see sailors lounging on the top deck complaining about their ship, or envying another ship nearby, when their own is languishing due to their lack of effort. Thus, Baptist churches are more likely to be strengthened, revitalized, and steered back on course when their members are focused on thankfulness for the ship on which they have been placed, the fleet in which they are a part, and using their gifts to help keep that ship, and fleet, on course.

Why I am a Southern Baptist

When I complete my lectures on Baptist church history in seminary classes, I end by reminding them that the Baptist cooperative fleet of ships is not alone. There are many other ships from other corners of the Christian tradition committed to the Gospel and sailing in a Great Commission direction. What I mean to acknowledge is that no one is required to be a Southern Baptist to be a faithful Christian.

So, then, why am I committed to the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention?

I remind the students that for me, as much as it is a matter of joyful conviction about what I understand as biblical ecclesiology, it is also a matter of personal stewardship and testimony. I share with them how God, in his kindness during my college years, called out and saved a spiritually lost, Christian-in-name-only-Episcopalian and placed me in a Baptist church sailing with other churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. On that ship, I was discipled, baptized, and loved by a genuine New Testament community of believers.

Over time, that church recognized God’s work in my life and sent me to seminary. They, along with thousands of other churches, gave sacrificially in cooperative effort to fund my theological education and, more than that, ensured that the seminary they funded maintained doctrinal integrity. Through that same inter-congregational cooperative work, I have visited the mission fields of the world and have seen and contributed to the work of these churches at the ends of the earth. Seeing the end goal of the Great Commission bearing fruit as the result of churches working together has long been what has made me thankful for the Southern Baptist ship on which I first set sail.

To be consistent with my students, I am honest about the sins, faults, and distractions that have beset this Convention of churches and hindered their progress at various points in history. However, I gladly tell them that the end goal is still worthy of pursuit and worth the effort to help all the ships of churches sail in that Great Commission direction. From small groups in 17th century England, Baptist churches have persevered to hold inter-congregational cooperation in doctrinal confession and missionary endeavor as a key distinctive. As I love to tell my students, this story is worthy of retelling to inspire ongoing renewal of Baptist churches of the present and future as they carry out the same mission.

In every sense, I hope my students see that I am like the earliest Baptists: thankful for where I have been placed and what I have received, now serving with joy in confessional cooperation, joining with others in Southern Baptist churches to reach the nations for Christ and for the glory of God.

Footnotes:
1 For more on how these theological distinctives formed in history and an expanded version of this article see my chapter “Cooperation in Baptist Beginnings, 1609-1845” in A Unity of Purpose, Tony Wolfe and W. Madison Grace II, eds. (B&H, 2025).
2 Baptist historians have long debated Baptist beginnings. For a survey of views see James M. Stayer, Werner Packull, and Klaus Deppermann, “From Monogenesis to Polygenesis: The Historical Discussion of Anabaptist Origins,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 49:2 (Apr 1975): 83-121; William H. Brackney, A Genetic History of Baptist Thought (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2004); Timothy George, “Dogma Beyond Anathema: Historical Theology in Service of the Church,” in Review and Expositor 84:4 (Fall 1987): 691-713.
3 Jason G. Duesing, “Pre-beginnings,” in John D. Massey, Mike Morris, and W. Madison Grace II, Make Disciples of All Nations: A History of Southern Baptist International Missions (Kregel Academic, 2021),37.
4 Jason G. Duesing, “Baptist Contributions to the Christian Tradition,” in Christopher W. Morgan, Matthew Y. Emerson, R. Lucas Stamps, eds., Baptists and the Christian Tradition (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2020), 339.
5 For more see my article, “Preaching Against the State: The Persecution of the Anabaptists as an Example for 21st Century Evangelicals,” 14:2 (2015):54-82.
6 A portion of this appreciation can be seen in this essay I wrote for Themelios that surveys 500 years of evangelical preaching in Oxford. “Beacons from the Spire: Evangelical Theology and History in Oxford’s University Church,” (2024).
7 See my chapter “A Wrinkle on Catholicism: The Anglican Understanding of Church Government,” in Thomas R. Schreiner and Benjamin L. Merkle, eds. Shepherding God’s Flock: Church Leadership in the New Testament and Beyond (Kregel, 2014).
8 Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Later Reformation in England, 1547-1603 (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 29.
9 Madeleine Teagan, “Historic Mass celebrated by papal nuncio at Anglican cathedral in rare event,” Catholic News Agency, July 9, 2025.
10 See Gregg R. Allison, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 260, and Benjamin L. Merkle, The Elder and Overseer: One Office in the Early Church (New York: Peter Lang, 2003).
11 For more on the role of tradition see my chapter “Baptist Contributions to the Christian Tradition,” in Christopher W. Morgan, Matthew Y. Emerson, R. Lucas Stamps, eds., Baptist and the Christian Tradition (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2020).



What Does It Mean to Be Iconic?

By / Aug 28

What do you want your life to represent? This is an important question to ask on multiple levels. We all want to leave a legacy—to contribute something meaningful and enduring with our lives—and this existential desire prompts us toward clarity about what we hope that legacy will become. A more basic level of this question has to do with the way we want others to think about us.

It seems like everyone today is talking about “identity” and discovering Who am I? Discovering your identity helps you know what you want your life to represent. It gives you direction for decision-making and helps you find a like-minded community of people who share your values and purpose. But most of these conversations about identity overlook the foundation of who we are: our humanity. How in the world can we answer Who am I? if we never answer What am I? Understanding our identity as human beings is foundational for understanding our identity as individuals. That’s why I’ve written this book: I want to help you discover what it means that you are created in the image of God so you can live an iconic life that represents him faithfully in your world.

It’s easy to curate your social media profile to make yourself look however you want, even if it’s not an honest representation of who you really are. A selfie here, a collaboration there, and carefully selecting your likes can portray you to be whomever you want to be. You get to craft your own image. But that only changes people’s perception of you, not your actual identity. This is why so many of your peers look like they’re living their best lives even though they’re struggling with insecurity or loneliness or fear. They are so focused on how they appear that they don’t really know who they are.

The Bible tells us that God created people in his image. The Greek word that’s used for image in the New Testament is the word eikon, which is where we get the English word icon. People are living “icons” of God in this world. That leads us to a helpful and understandable way to think about what it means to be created in the image of God: We are iconic of God. We are living icons, pointing to the greater reality of who God is and what he’s like. This book will lead you through Scripture to explore and apply what that means for you and me.

In short, the question this book seeks to address is this: What does it mean to live as icons of Christ in this world?

What Is the Image of God Anyway?
The Bible teaches that God created people “in the image of God.” Genesis 1:26–27 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.’ . . . So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

One of the most foundational ways we bear God’s image is through the attributes we share with him. We are like God in many ways. God is the Creator, and so we create. God exists in eternal community within himself, and we crave community with one another. Chapter 8 will explore the “communicable attributes” in further detail. They are traits that every person shares, to some degree, with God: love, knowledge, wisdom, goodness, etc. In this way, we bear God’s image within our humanity, even though many take these traits for granted as evolutionary survival skills. In this regard, bearing God’s image means that every person is actually like God because he created us with some of his own attributes embedded into our human nature. This God-given dignity has led some to believe people are divine themselves, with no need for God at all. As ironic as that is, even this false view of humanity displays that the innate glory and honor God has given to his image-bearers is obvious to all, even those who may deny his existence. In this sense, we don’t simply bear God’s image—we are his image in this world.1 This is an irremovable characteristic of what it means to be human.

The book of Genesis was originally written in Hebrew. Two Hebrew words in Genesis 1:26–27 point to two sides of the same truth about how and why God created humanity: tzelem, meaning “image” and demuth, meaning “likeness.” A tzelem was a physical representation that a king would set up to remind people about his power and authority (see Daniel 3:1). Being made in God’s image and likeness means men and women were created as God’s representatives to uniquely carry out his ongoing work in creation. Our very existence is a living reminder of God’s reign and glory and provision.

Every person bears the image of God. The “image of God” is both what we are and what we do. It’s embedded within what it means to be a human being. God created us to be and to bear his image in a way that lifts others’ eyes to behold his character and goodness in us. Sin has affected our ability to do this, but it hasn’t removed the God-given dignity he wove into our humanity. The worst sinner remains God’s tzelem in this world, in the sense that what they are is a living reminder of his divine nature and goodness in this world. Everyone bears God’s image, but sin has corrupted the way we bear it, so we seek our own glory and build our own kingdoms. Through the gospel, God’s image-bearers are forgiven of their sin and conformed into the image of God through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christians bear God’s glory according to God’s good design in order that all creation would see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

Why the Image of God Matters for You
Nearly every controversial issue in our culture today finds its resolution in the image of God. If the Bible’s message is true and God created humans in his image, then it radically transforms the way Christians approach issues like racism, gender and sexuality, abortion, mental health, injustice, disability, and euthanasia, among others. This biblical foundation shifts the conversation away from a matter of opinion and toward what human flourishing (for individuals and cultures to be healthy and full of joy) looks like according to our Creator’s good design. For example, racism is sinful and wrong because of the way it fundamentally undermines what it means to be a human being, not merely because of the harm it causes to individuals. The same principle applies to gender identity and abortion and a host of other issues. This isn’t an attempt to provide a simplistic answer to complicated issues. But without understanding the biblical message about men and women as image-bearers, we’re left without a firm foundation for these important issues.

Understanding the image of God is the missing link in the many conversations about identity. It’s like we’re trying to figure out our individual stories without realizing that we’re characters in a bigger story that’s being told. God’s story for humanity begins in creation, has important chapters throughout that helps us understand what’s gone wrong, and it gives us hope to endure because the story ends in glory. God created people to enjoy perfect intimacy with him and with one another as his image-bearers in this world.

Sin has twisted us so we’re divided—against God and one another—and tempts us to take the glory of God’s image and claim it as our own, trying to exert our power to establish our own kingdoms. But instead of giving up on us or abandoning us, God promised a Savior who came to restore the intimacy between God and people so that we would bear God’s image well and be restored into relationship with each other too. One day, sin and the corruption it has introduced into the world will be wiped away, and we will live for all eternity in God’s presence with perfect intimacy as his image-bearers. This is the bigger story that your identity fits into. Without it, you’re left on your own to define your own reality and to choose your own adventure. Although this might sound like freedom, this mindset confines you to a life that’s limited by your own wisdom, whereas embracing your God-given calling leads you into a life that is filled with God’s steadfast love.

It’s common to hear people talk about how iconic superstars like LeBron James or Taylor Swift represent the best in their respective fields. We, as God’s image-bearers, are living icons of God in this world. People are God’s living tzelem in his kingdom. We are living displays of God’s glory and reign in his creation. This is why God commanded Israel, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them” (Exodus 20:4–5).2 Israel didn’t need to create an image for God to remind them of his glory and presence because God had already placed his image among them!

It’s so common to talk about identity in terms of Who am I?, but I want to encourage you to consider the question of identity through the question What am I? Until we ask that question, we’ll continue to struggle to understand our identity. So many of the challenges we face today, as individuals and as a broader culture, flow from the reality that we’ve forgotten what it means to be a human being. The image of God doesn’t merely inform how we are to act and treat others; it’s an aspect of what we are as humans. As men and women who were created in God’s image, you and I have God-given dignity and value that has nothing to do with what we do. Our dignity and value isn’t determined by our GPA or resume; it’s built into us as icons of the living God who is King over creation. The way God created us as his image-bearers has a direct impact on our relationships.

 

Questions for Reflection

  1. Have you ever thought about what it means for humans to be created in God’s image? What does that phrase mean to you?
  2. What do we lose when we forget that we are cre­ated in God’s image? Why is this biblical message so important?
  3. What does the author mean by “living an iconic life”? How does this flow from being created in God’s image?

 

Footnotes

1For more on this emphasis, see Carmen Joy Imes, Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters (InterVarsity, 2023).

2A different Hebrew word is used in this passage for image because it’s a specific word for an idol (an image that you worship).

 

 

Excerpted from Iconic: Being God’s Image in Your World © 2025 by Mike McGarry. Used with permission of New Growth Press. May not be reproduced without prior written permission.



Banished from Paradise

By / Aug 25

If Genesis 1 begins with a triumphant trumpet blast, then Genesis 3 begins with a more ominous overture. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”’?”
(Genesis 3:1).

Hang on, who is this fast-talking, lie-spitting snake?! Aren’t Adam and Eve supposed to have dominion of the beasts of the field? Aren’t they supposed to “work and keep” this garden by protecting it from harmful enemies like this?

We trust God’s wisdom in revealing precisely what he reveals and withholding precisely what he withholds. There’s so much we don’t know about the “how” and the “why” of Genesis 3. But there’s absolutely zero ambiguity about the “what.” The seed of doubt that the serpent plants in Eve’s mind blooms into a blasphemous weed that chokes out the bliss of human experience. In short, Adam and Eve sinned.

Sin. That’s one of those words that different people use in wildly different ways. When Person A talks about “sin,” they’re talking about a bug in the system, a snag in the fabric, something regrettable and unavoidable in an otherwise worthy whole. When Person B talks about sin, they’re talking about a terminal diagnosis, a bone-deep rebellion, a carried-on constitution that forever pits humanity against themselves and their Creator. Sin isn’t merely a defect that makes us imperfect; it’s a rebellion that dooms us—that breaks the fabric of who we are.

When the serpent urges Eve (and Adam) to sin, he’s not merely urging them to break their divinely mandated diet. He’s urging them to turn on their Lord, to try to take authority into their own hands and be gods. He’s urging them to upend God’s design for creation. Instead of having dominion over the animals, instead of working and keep the garden, Adam and Eve buy into the lie that they know better than God and that God doesn’t have their best interests at heart. This is cosmic rebellion.

Curses for Rebels

Once we understand what sin really is, the way God responds begins to make a bit more sense. He curses all the guilty parties. Let’s look at what he says, first to the serpent:

The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”

(Genesis 3:14–15)

That last verse reverberates throughout the entire Bible. Basically, it says, “One day your head’s gonna get crushed by a son of Eve.” But for now, let’s move on to God’s curses to Adam and Eve:

To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”

And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

(Genesis 3:16–19)

The Crime, the Verdict, and the Sentencing

There’s a lot we could say here, but for now let’s observe three things: first the crime, then verdict, and then the sentencing. The crime is disobeying God’s Word (Genesis 3:17).

The verdict, of course, is guilty.

But what about the sentencing? Hopefully you noticed that God’s curses aren’t random or haphazard. God’s initial blessings now have an element of curse attached to them. Called to be fruitful and multiply, the woman is now sentenced to have her pain multiplied alongside her fruitfulness (3:16). Called to subdue the earth, the man is now sentenced to subdue an earth that fights back with thorns and thistles (3:18).

Is that it? No. Moses keeps going, and ends Genesis 3 with key information. The Lord’s sentencing concludes, “Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life” (3:23–24).

Once blessed, now banished. That’s the conflict at the center of this book—and it will take the rest of the Bible to fully and finally resolve it. We once dwelled in God’s presence naked and without shame. (Notice that in Genesis 3:21, God covers their shame with clothing. He didn’t have to do that. What mercy. He blesses the blasphemers.) We were safe at home with the Creator of the universe, so long as we continued to trust him and listen to his word.

And then our rebellion wrecked the world. It ruined our relationship with the Lord. It cut us off and he drove us out—rightly so! More than that, he placed a sword-wielding sentinel to guard the entrance to his presence. We cannot get back through our own efforts, and if we try—we’ll die. The wages of sin has always been death.

We were made to live alongside our Creator, to hear his footsteps as he walked beside us in the cool of the day, recognize his voice as he spoke to us. But Adam and Eve’s rebellion has changed everything. Their sin paved the way for our own. No matter how big or small they feel, our sins are the same crime as Adam and Eve’s in the garden. They are rebellion.

As a result, whatever sinlessness Adam and Eve enjoyed has never been ours. They once lived at home with God. Not us. We were born “alienated” from God (Colossians 1:21).

In other words, since Genesis 3, we’re all nomads—uprooted, trying to recapture the sense of home, seeking the fellowship and belonging we lost. Everything has changed.

Questions for Reflection

  1. How do you see your sin in light of God’s holiness?
  2. At what points of your life have you felt most separated from God? How was close fellowship with him restored?

 

Excerpted from Nomad: A Short Story of Our Long Journey Home © 2025 by Alex Duke. Used with permission of New Growth Press. May not be reproduced without prior written permission.



What Does it Mean to be For the Church?

By / Aug 15

Editor’s note: This summer, we’re sharing articles aimed at encouraging pastors, ministry leaders, and church members in living and serving in light of Christ’s coming Kingdom. To hear more on this topic from Jared C. Wilson and other key leaders, register to join us for the 2025 For the Church National Conference, “Kingdom Come: Ministry in Light of Glory.”

*This article was featured in the issue 44 of Midwestern Magazine.

__________
By: Jared C. Wilson

It’s my great privilege to serve as the General Editor of For The Church, which is the result of years of praying, planning, and faithful contributions from some great writers. The opportunity to serve the Church through the gospel-centered resources you find at ftc.co was a huge part of the draw for me to relocate to Kansas City and join the team at Midwestern Seminary. Our hope has always been that what we provide through the site will benefit the institution, sure, but more than that, we honestly and humbly hope to simply nourish those who visit these pages—whether as part of their regular web surfing or through individual clicks on articles that intrigue them via social media—with the incomparable encouragement of the finished work of Christ.

At the FTC site, one can find fresh content daily from some very talented writers from all over the world, all aimed at helping pastors and lay leaders press the gospel into every corner of the room, so to speak. While we hope to explore how the good news of Jesus applies to all of life—because it does!—we are more primarily aiming at ministry leaders and influencers, whether you’re a senior pastor or a youth pastor, a Sunday School teacher or a stay-at-home mom. For The Church is for you.

There are lots of Christian websites out there vying for your valuable attention, including a growing number of gospel-centered resource sites (thank God!). You will notice that there is a lot about our site that is similar to others you already enjoy, and we look forward to joining them in your daily work of edification online. But we hope you will also notice a few things that make For The Church unique. We have put a lot of thought into how we might complement what is already valuable in the evangelical blogosphere. And while the following four aims are not exclusive to our site, we nevertheless make these commitments to you. Please know that, for us, being for the Church means being:

For the Truth

We affirm the sufficiency and the authority of the Bible. We certainly do affirm the oft-repeated dictum that “all truth is God’s truth,” but we more strongly affirm Paul’s word that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Since you cannot improve upon “complete,” we will stick with the only truth that is power to change and sustain hearts in Christ Jesus—the inerrant, infallible Word of God.

In these days of increasingly murky cultural waters, we know there can be a greater temptation for the Church to argue on the world’s terms, to debate according to the logic of the spirit of the age, and to fall into so-called culture wars and the like. We believe the gospel has implications and applications for every calling and vocation, so of course Christ the King is King over things like politics and culture. But when For The Church speaks into those arenas, it will do so with the unchanging Scriptures. By holding firmly to the biblical truth, we maintain the great strength and advantage of clarity in dark days.

And ultimately, to be for the truth is to be for the glory of Christ, who is the Truth.

For the Sheep

You may notice that we spend quite a bit of time on the devotional side of things. This is an intentional effort on our part to speak as much to the hearts of our readers as to their minds and hands. We are making a significant commitment to exulting in the grace of God in our daily offerings. We believe that by focusing on devotional pieces, we can daily nourish our readers with the truths of God’s Word and help them exult in Christ. But we also want to feature practical articles as well. Even these, however, will not be purely “how to” exercises, but “why to” pieces—meaning, we will do our best to root our exhortations and instructions in the finished work of Christ and the good news of His perfect obedience imputed to us by faith. For this reason, we work to be practical, not pragmatic. To be practical is to help you flesh the faith out. To be pragmatic is to make the faith formulaic. We do not believe the latter serves Christ’s sheep well. We want them to be well-fed with the grace of God.

For the Shepherds

We make no apology about emphasizing resources aimed at those in ministry or aspiring to ministry. You will see that most of the posts appearing here are written with pastors, pastors-in-training, and mature lay leaders in mind. We do this because we believe that whatever a church’s leaders are, the church becomes. So we will help shape churches by shaping their leaders. To be for shepherds is to be for the sheep, actually. And by speaking to pastoral hearts with the gospel and strengthening their minds and hands with helpful content aimed at fulfilling their calling to equip the saints for ministry, we will honor the Good Shepherd by honoring His undershepherds.

For the Gospel

In all that we do, we seek the magnification of Christ in the Church and in the world through the Church. This means we must lash ourselves to the mast of the ship of the gospel. Where it goes, we will go. We will not depart from Christ’s good news, because the Spirit working in and through the gospel is what has made the Church in the first place. To be for the Church means being intently, persistently, stubbornly, and eternally for the gospel, because the Spirit working in and through the gospel is what sustains and sanctifies the Church.

The gospel is the only power stewarded to the Church and it is the only hope for a lost and dying world. So that’s For The Church. We’re unapologetically for the gospel, because we will be celebrating the gospel well into eternity’s endless days, for the expansion of the glory of the Lamb who was slain.



The Gifts of This Age Point Us to the Age Still to Come

By / Aug 8

Editor’s note: This summer, we’re sharing articles aimed at encouraging pastors, ministry leaders, and church members in living and serving in light of Christ’s coming Kingdom. To hear more on this topic from Jared C. Wilson and other key leaders, register to join us for the 2025 For the Church National Conference, “Kingdom Come: Ministry in Light of Glory.”

The following article was originally published at ftc.co on August 23, 2021.

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And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.” —Luke 20:34-36

Jesus knows that the Sadducees he’s speaking to do not believe in a resurrection, and in a way, their very misunderstanding of what Jesus believes about marriage betrays their disbelief. The Sadducees, like so many others then and today who don’t believe in Jesus, think this is all there is. Nothing comes after death. You die and that’s it. They do not think on the scale of eternity, that God is endless and therefore life is endless. That when God created the world, not even the fall of mankind, and the sin unleashed into the world through it, and the brokenness of the earth contracted by it, can thwart God’s purposes. Sin will not have the last word when it comes even to creation. What God made good and man trashed, God is going to remake.

This means that everything created good is only a pale glimmer of what it will be in the time when heaven crashes into earth fully and God restores it all.

So Jesus sets up the contrast between the here and now with the sweet bye and bye.

Now, when he says resurrected believers are “equal to angels” he doesn’t mean that when good people die they become angels. That’s been a very popular misunderstanding throughout the church age. I mean, I don’t know if you get your theology of the afterlife from Tom and Jerry cartoons, but when we die we don’t spend the rest of eternity up in the clouds playing harps and wearing diapers.

Jesus simply means that we will be glorified in such a way that we will be along the order of angels—enjoying the paradise of God under a new order.

The thrust of this is in the contrast. Notice the difference he presents between “this age” (v. 34) and “that age” (v. 35).

What Jesus is telling them—and us—is that the gifts we enjoy in this age are meant to be signposts to the Giver himself and the everlasting enjoyment in the age to come. He uses the example they’ve brought him: They’ve brought up the topic of marriage, so that’s how he answers them. In this age, men and women are gifted the covenant of marriage. But in that age, like the angels, we won’t need the covenant of marriage.

What Jesus is saying is that marriage is meant for this age to point us to the reality of that age. How does it do that? There are so many broken marriages and always have been since the fall, but it wasn’t originally like that. And even the best marriages, even the ones that last “until death do them part,” are often fraught with conflict or hurts or just disappointments. But that wasn’t the original design. The original design—that man would leave his parents and cleave to his wife and become “one flesh” with her—was meant to be a reflection of God’s loving commitment to mankind.

Even after sin entered the world through the acts of that first married couple, marriage points to the gospel, because a husband and wife are meant to live in a gracious covenant with each other—forgiving each other, nurturing each other, caring for each other—as a picture of what Christ has done out of sheer grace to show his love for his Church. In Ephesians 5, Paul calls marriage “a profound mystery,” and he says it refers to Christ and his Church.

This is why marriage is both beautiful and temporary. It’s beautiful because it is a signpost pointing to Christ and his Bride, the Church. And it’s temporary, because when Christ returns to consummate his Kingdom, the thing to which the sign points will finally have arrived. We won’t need the signs any more—because we will have the reality forever.

Sons of the resurrection we will be. And so Jesus is showing how the reality of the resurrection to come provides a new perspective on how we think about things like marriage today. Looking to the day of the new heavens and new earth gives clarity to our vision for the things around us.

What would it look like to treat each other, married or not, not as objects for our own use and pleasure today, but as opportunities to affirm the image of God and show that we believe there is a new day coming?



Why For the Church Still Matters

By / Aug 6

Editor’s note: This summer, we’re sharing articles aimed at encouraging pastors, ministry leaders, and church members in living and serving in light of Christ’s coming Kingdom. To hear more on this topic from Jason K. Allen and other key leaders, register to join us for the 2025 For the Church National Conference, “Kingdom Come: Ministry in Light of Glory.”

*This article was featured in the issue 44 of Midwestern Magazine.

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By Jason K. Allen

We believe that Midwestern Seminary’s right to exist is directly tethered to our faithfulness to the local church. I believe that any parachurch organization or ministry should be evaluated primarily based upon its faithfulness to serve, support, and strengthen the local church. Christ has promised to build His church, not His seminary. But as we are faithful to His Church, doubtlessly He will build this seminary.

Over the past decade, we’ve trumpeted our for the Church mission as loudly as we can. It’s been implemented across every square inch of the campus, embedded into every aspect of our institutional programming and curriculum, and embraced by every member of the team.

Moreover, for the church has given us institutional momentum.

It’s been an igniter, a propellant moving us forward, and it’s galvanized our constituency to support us. It’s been a cohesive, binding us together. We are for the church.

Articulating the Mission

Ordinarily a mission statement should not change with a new leader. Perhaps it’s tweaked or reapplied, but it ought not be reinvented with each leadership change. In a sense, I was blessed because Midwestern Seminary had already been serving the church, but it had not expressed that mission in a clear, cogent way. I had the opportunity to clarify, to convey, and every day since, to champion that mission.
When Winston Churchill was heralded as the lionhearted leader of wartime Great Britain, he famously said, “It was a nation and a race dwelling all around the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.” [1]

I feel the same way toward Midwestern Seminary’s for the Church mission. Before me were faithful men and women already serving for the church. Yet, like Churchill, I’ve had the pleasure of articulating that mission and leveraging all the seminary’s resources for the church in a way that hadn’t been done before.

At the personal level, for the Church had been building in my life for years. I had twin loves, the local church and theological education. In fact, that’s why I’d been dually engaged in institutional and local-church ministry settings for almost my entire adult life.

But the for the church mission is so much bigger and better than I am. It’s not just autobiographical; it’s biblical.

The Unchanging Mission

Over the past ten years, I’ve watched with pleasure as for the church has gone from being my mission statement for Midwestern Seminary, to our mission statement for Midwestern Seminary, to the mission statement of Midwestern Seminary.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the church and the seminary; they are to serve, strengthen, and support one another. With the previous generation of pastors retiring, churches are asking, “From whence will a new generation come?” Midwestern Seminary must be ready to respond to that question every year going forward by supplying a new generation of pastors, missionaries, and ministers to serve our churches.

This is precisely why for the Church still matters. Our mission has not changed. Our constituency has not changed. Our directive from the Lord has not changed. Therefore, we will continue to be for the church because our calling is clear, and the need is great.

For the Church animates our team, represents our institution, and inspires our constituency. Together, we are for the church, and we always will be.

*This article is an excerpt from Turnaround: The Remarkable Story of an Institutional Transformation and the 10 Essential Principles and Practices that Made It Happen. To purchase the book, please visit: jasonkallen.com.

[1] This line was said in a speech of thanks given at the House of Commons on Churchill’s eightieth birthday on November 30, 1954. See Geoffrey Best, Churchill: A Study in Greatness (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 183.



There Is Something Better Than Never Suffering

By / Jul 25

Editor’s note: This summer, we’re sharing articles aimed at encouraging pastors, ministry leaders, and church members in living and serving in light of Christ’s coming Kingdom. To hear more on this topic from Jared C. Wilson and other key leaders, register to join us for the 2025 For the Church National Conference, “Kingdom Come: Ministry in Light of Glory.”

The following article was originally published at ftc.co on March 20, 2023.

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“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself . . . strengthen [you].” —1 Peter 5:10

To suffer with Christ is vastly superior to a life of comfort without him.

And if he has saved you through his death, manifesting all his divine power in his own human weakness unto death, do you not think he can be your power in your suffering?

He will be your strength in the eternal life he gives you. Eternal life means just that—“eternal.” This means however much you suffer, even if it be all of your life, and even if your life is long, it will still be nothing but a blip on the radar of eternity. “After you have suffered a little while,” says Peter. It is the context of eternity, which is the length of our union with Christ and therefore the un-expiring duration of our security, which colors our suffering. Paul could refer to his missional life of suffering as “a light momentary affliction” (2 Cor. 4:17). It’s not even worth comparing to the eternal weight of glory.

It is the sustaining vision of eternal life in Christ that fixes even a lifetime of suffering to a fine point—a fine point that in the last day will be eclipsed by the glory of the radiant Christ, perhaps even distilled down to a jewel placed amidst your treasures, or placed in the crown of Christ himself as we offer our suffering up to him, finally in our fully sanctified state, truly not loving our own lives even unto death.

But the apostle here is not simply promising the escape of suffering—he is promising the sustenance through it.

Christ will be your strength in the midst of your suffering, with sustaining grace to persevere. He is there, with you and around you and beneath you and over you and in you and beside you, and you are in him, and there is no furnace so hot that Christ will not walk into it with you.

I’m reminded of the passage in The Hiding Place, as Corrie ten Boom, with her father, contemplates the prospect of torture and death ahead of her:

I burst into tears, “I need you!” I sobbed. “You can’t die! You can’t!”
“Corrie,” he began gently. “When you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?”
“Why, just before we get on the train.”
“Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things, too. Don’t run out ahead of him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need—just in time.”

When you must go through the furnace, you will not be alone.

In the weakness of suffering, Christ will be your strength.



A Winning Vision

By / Jul 11

Editor’s note: This summer, we’re sharing articles aimed at encouraging pastors, ministry leaders, and church members in living and serving in light of Christ’s coming Kingdom. To hear more on this topic from Dean Inserra and other key leaders, register to join us for the 2025 For the Church National Conference, “Kingdom Come: Ministry in Light of Glory.”

The following article was originally published at FTC.co on June 21, 2017.

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Reflections on 10 Years of Church Planting

“I’m just not very good at this whole ‘vision’ thing,” a discouraged pastor shared with me over lunch at Chick-fil-A. He asked, “How do I even cast vision?”

As a church planter getting ready to celebrate my church’s 10-year anniversary, I must have been associated with “vision casting” in this pastor’s mind. But, as I took a breath and prepared to impart all of my apparent wisdom, I froze. What is our vision? I thought immediately. Do we even have one?

I fumbled over my words as my mind went back to a weekend “boot camp” for aspiring church planters. Those of us in attendance spent the majority of our time there talking about vision. We had to craft a vision for our future churches that would correspond with our “mission statement,” by writing clever and catchy sentiments with purple markers on the large tear-off sheets hanging on the wall. I’d had a hard time coming up with something then, and here now at Chick-fil-A, sitting across from a pastor who sought me out to discuss this very topic, I had nothing.

People in our city speak of the “vision” of our church often, and I claim to be the unofficial guardian of that vision as the lead pastor. Yet there I was, unable to cast vision about casting vision. I couldn’t even articulate the vision of our church when asked directly.

So I circled back to the reason I knew I wanted to start a church in the first place.

When I was a twenty-something trying to become an actual church planter, all I knew was that I had a passion for a place and for people. I wasn’t sure how one went about starting a church, but I knew my hometown of Tallahassee needed more gospel-preaching churches, and I wanted to reach my friends for Christ. I wasn’t sure if that counted as a vision, and I had no idea how to make that into a catchy statement. But I had a mission; I knew that for sure.

I remember holding that purple marker in my hand with the “Church Planting Catalyst” looking over my shoulder as he asked, “So, what’s your vision?” and “Do you have a mission statement?” I glanced at the words being written by the guys on my right and left and started to wonder if I was cut out for this. These guys had each written statements that I would need a hired creative wordsmith to craft. I was just standing there with a purple marker, trying to come up with something that would sound okay and not be lame.

. . .

Coming back to the table at Chick-fil-A, I finally formed my thoughts and knew how to encourage this pastor. “What is the Bible’s job description for us as the Church?” I asked. He immediately answered as I’d hoped, and pointed to the Great Commission. In that moment, I began to realize that I actually was cut out to coach someone on vision, and that every Christian is equally qualified to do the same thing. We remind and point people back to the vision Jesus gave His Church. “Don’t worry about vision,” I said. “Your church doesn’t need to be preoccupied with vision; it needs to be serious about the Bible.”

Years ago, with that purple marker in my hand, I wound up with the least cool statement on the big white sheet of paper: “I want to reach Tallahassee and all my friends for Jesus through the local church, and I hope anyone who will ever call our church their home will want to do the same.” The instructor thought I was being sarcastic with such a non-vision-statement-esque vision statement, but I looked at him and simply said, “This is what I’m trying to do, man.” Since then, we’ve summarized this mission as being “for the gospel, for the city.” But the goal hasn’t changed.

The visions of all local churches should sound pretty similar if we are going to be faithful to the mission mandate given to us by our Lord. I am all for creative expressions, ideas, approaches, and manifestations of the mission, but that should spring from a gospel-centrality in our congregations (led by the pastor) more than a super hip marketing campaign (led by a creative team). Branding is great, but the vision should be simple. And the vision-caster is Jesus Himself speaking to us through Scripture.

In my opinion, the aspects of application to get hung up on are ones of strategy, not vision. The vision is laid out already, but how you’re going to carry it out is the conversation you should be having. Every biblical local church has the same message, but working out the calling to make disciples in your specific environment might include:

  • Regular reminders of who you are as a church and also who you are not.
  • Saying no to certain things so the church can be available to live out the Great Commission in your community and beyond.
  • Identifying how you can utilize your assets, human resources, exposure, platforms, etc. to reach your given audience, city, and congregation.
  • Equipping your church members to carry out the Great Commission in their personal lives, not only relying on the church as an entity to reach the city.

 

Pastor, you can rest knowing that the creative vision for your church is laid out. Our job is to lead churches, by the Lord’s help, who are faithful to what Jesus has called us to do for His glory, Kingdom, and Church.

“So, I can be a vision guy simply by keeping the church focused on the Great Commission,” the pastor said back to me at Chick-fil-A. The light bulb went off for my pastor friend. He already had all he needed for vision since Jesus provided it in Scripture. My friend merely needed the courage and resolve to keep his church focused on reaching people and making disciples.



Recovering the Exclusivity of the Gospel

By / Jun 27

Editor’s note: This summer, we’re sharing articles aimed at encouraging pastors, ministry leaders, and church members in living and serving in light of Christ’s coming Kingdom. To hear more on this topic from Jason K. Allen and other key leaders, register to join us for the 2025 For the Church National Conference, “Kingdom Come: Ministry in Light of Glory.”

The following article was originally published at JasonKAllen.com and was republished at FTC.co on April 28, 2022.

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Known as the silent killer, each year colon cancer claims close to 50,000 American lives.[1] Though treatable if detected early, colon cancer is known as the silent killer because, if not screened for, it will grow unnoticed, undetected. By the time it is discovered symptomatically, it is often too late to be cured.

Like colon cancer, I’m convinced there is another slow, silent, growing malignancy within the church. The malignancy is particularly catastrophic, bringing with it ruinous consequences.

It hollows out the gospel message, undercuts the Great Commission, and undermines the entire logic of collaborative missions and ministry. The malignancy to which I am referring is the slow, subtle rejection of the exclusivity of the gospel.

By the Numbers

Recent research conducted jointly by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research makes clear this challenge. For example, 45% of Americans think that “there are many ways to get to heaven” and 71% agree that “an individual must contribute his/her own effort for personal salvation.”[2]

Defining Exclusivity

Historic Christianity, throughout its creedal formulations, has affirmed the exclusivity of the gospel. In fact, this was Jesus’s self-assessment when he unequivocally asserted, “’I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the father but through me.’”[3]

By exclusivity of the gospel, we mean that only those who personally, consciously, explicitly, and singularly confess Jesus Christ as Lord can possess eternal life. Let’s consider these qualifiers more closely.

Personally: Salvation comes to us individually, when one follows Christ. No one gains eternal life because of someone else’s faith, or by his or her affiliation with a family, church, or ethnic or national group. Each sinner must come to repent of his or her sins and believe the gospel personally.

Consciously: To inherit the Kingdom one must do more than reflect the ethic of Christ; one must consciously embrace him, knowingly and intentionally following Jesus. There are no anonymous Christians, regardless of Karl Rahner’s assertion otherwise. Authentic believers know whom they are following.

Explicitly: One’s faith must be placed in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, not just generically in God. As Peter declared in Acts 4:12, “’There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.’”

Singularly: Faith in Jesus alone saves, and saving faith must be placed in him alone. The singularity of Christ as one’s faith object is especially important on the mission field, where missionaries encounter religions, such as Hinduism, where they are happy to add Jesus to their pantheon of gods. We do not add Jesus to our portfolio of faith objects. Christianity is not a both-and proposition; it is either-or.

Of course, when converted, one is not necessarily thinking through these categories, like boxes to check. Rather, the point is that one cannot reject or negate these gospel distinctives.

Challenges to Exclusivity

Why is the exclusivity of the gospel losing popularity? There seems to be a number of reasons. First, globalization has brought the nations near to us. This nearness should have increased our burden for the lost, but it seems to have done the opposite.

Second, the forward march of postmodernity continues to undermine absolute truth claims, especially one so audacious as the exclusivity of the gospel—that of the 7,000,000,000 inhabitants of Earth, only those that hear and believe the message of Christ can be saved.

Third, political correctness limits our willingness to offend, and asserting the full gospel message is the most offensive of truth claims. Political correctness finds the notion of a literal hell as insufferably backwards, and has re-envisioned it as a mythological—or nearly unoccupied—place.

Alternatives to Exclusivity

While universalism is often contrasted with exclusivity, it is actually not commonly accepted. There is just something disconcerting, even to thoroughgoing secularists, about the possibility of Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden spending eternity with Billy Graham. Even our most naturalistic instincts desire some sort of eternal reckoning.

More common alternatives are pluralism and inclusivism. Pluralism argues there are many ways to God, and one should earnestly follow the religious path revealed to you. Inclusivism maintains that Christ is the only Savior, but his provision can be accessed through other religions.

Ron Nash, in his Is Jesus the Only Savior?, helpfully summarizes pluralism, inclusivism, and exclusivity in two questions: Is Jesus the only savior? Must people believe in Jesus Christ to saved? Pluralism answers both questions “no”; inclusivism answers the first “yes” and the second “no.” Historic Christianity answers both “yes.”[4]

For the many who attend evangelical churches yet deny the exclusivity of the gospel, pluralism or inclusivism—though they may not know these terms—is probably their ideological home. While they may not intend to reject historic Christianity, operationally, many of our church members—and our churches—are there.

Conclusion

To be a preacher is to be a decision maker. Each week preachers determine what to include in a sermon and what to leave out. Time simply does not allow one to say everything that could be said about every passage. Preachers intuitively triage their text, their sermon, and their congregation, asking themselves, “What can I assume they know and affirm, and what must I assert and advocate?”

Perhaps this triage has led too many pastors to assume their church members understand and embrace the exclusivity of the gospel. We can no longer assume this. We must assert and advocate the exclusivity of the gospel.

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[1] https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colonandrectumcancer/detailedguide/colorectal-cancer-key-statistics.

[2] Ligonier Ministries, in partnership with LifeWay Research, “The State of Theology: Theological Awareness Benchmark Study,” 4. Available online at https://gpts.edu/resources/documents/TheStateOfTheology-Whitepaper.pdf.

[3] John 14:6.

[4] See Ron Nash, Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Zondervan, 1994).



What the Early Church Knew About Prayer

By / Jun 20

Editor’s note: The following article was adapted by the author from his book Pour Out Your Heart: Discovering Joy, Strength, and Intimacy with God through Prayer (pp. 161–65, 171–73). Pour Out Your Heart is available now from B&H Publishing and wherever books are sold.

I know God doesn’t make mistakes, but I sometimes wonder if I was supposed to live in the first century, because I love everything about the early church. Apart from the lack of air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and antibiotics, living in those times would have been amazing. Jesus had just spent forty days with the disciples after his resurrection. He went up, and the Spirit came down. Thousands were added to the disciples’ number. They worshiped daily, prayed continually, and shared meals together. They cared for widows and orphans, cast out demons, and healed the sick. Even when they were persecuted, they spread out among the nations and planted churches like it was nothing.

But what was it really like? Was it all that great, or were there significant hardships? What was a typical church gathering like? How did they do church in these wild early years?

In the first thirty years after Jesus’s ascension—the period of the book of Acts—the early church was everything. It was great, and it was awful; it was evangelistic, and it was legalistic; it was hungry, and it was lukewarm. The only thing it wasn’t is nothing. Its influence swept the globe in a way no social or religious movement ever has or ever again will.

Early Christianity scholar Michael Green wrote a book with the perfect title, Thirty Years that Changed the World. Green puts this season in history like this:

Three crucial decades in world history. That is all it took. In the years between AD 33 and 64, a new movement was born. In those thirty years it got sufficient growth and credibility to become the largest religion the world has ever seen and to change the lives of hundreds of millions of people. It has spread into every corner of the globe and has more than two billion adherents. It has had an indelible impact on civilization, on culture, on education, on medicine, on freedom and of course on the lives of countless people worldwide. And the seedbed for all this, the time when it took decisive root, was in these three decades. It all began with a dozen men and a handful of women: and then the Spirit came. (7–8)

Incredible, right? Green goes on to say, “We can and should ask ourselves, ‘If those people then acted in the way they did, what are the implications for disciples today, given all the differences brought about by culture, space and time?’” (8)

Among all the unique features of life in the early church, one thing stands out—prayer. If we compare the lifestyle and activities of the early church to our contemporary churches, the single most stark difference will be in our prayer lives. Green writes, “Prayer, not activism, is what they relied on” (268).

Learning Prayer from the Early Church

In Acts, prayer is the central power and activity of the church. In chapter 1, we see the believers praying before the coming of the Spirit. In chapter two, they’re gathered together again, almost certainly in prayer, when the Spirit falls. At the end of that wild, historic day, the thousands of new converts are joined to the apostles and early believers together in prayer (2:42). As chapter three opens, we find the believers going up to the temple to pray. This pattern goes on throughout the book. As Green summarizes, the early church had “life-changing power. And it only happened because these men and women put prayer at the top of their priorities” (271).

If prayer was a defining mark of the early church—with beautiful and world-changing results—why has it fallen so down the priority list for the church of contemporary America?

I believe the answer lies in our general fear that prayer doesn’t do much at all. We subconsciously believe we can do more by our intellect, strategies, and efforts than God can do in response to our prayers. How did we get here? There are multiple answers, but I believe one key reason is our diminished emphasis and dependence on the Holy Spirit.

In Pour Out Your Heart, I suggest that prayer helps us hold together two beautiful things in tension—gospel and presence. Embracing the gospel without living for the presence of God can lead us into mere head knowledge and sacrificial living. We can believe in the message of the gospel and have impeccable theology and yet barely experience the beauty of Christ. Yet, in the same way, living for the presence of God without remaining centered on the gospel can lead us into error as well. We might become focused on spiritual experience, not on knowing God in Christ. Without a heart full of the gospel, our spiritual life can become focused on personal discipline, moral improvement, and self-fulfillment.

As one of my friends put it: If you have only the gospel, you have the key to the whole house, but you might never go inside. If you have only the presence, you might have the whole house, but no key to get in.

Reading Acts and the New Testament letters, it seems the early church didn’t have this problem. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction” (1 Thess. 1:4–5). Word and power. Truth and Spirit. Gospel and presence.

What, then, would it mean for us to be more mindful of God’s presence in our prayer lives? What would a more Spirit-filled prayer life look like?

Prayer and the Spirit of God

A life of walking by the Spirit is a life of prayer, and a life of prayer is a life of walking by the Spirit. Prayer is a refusal to do life in our own strength and ingenuity. It’s a plea for help from above (and within). Prayer demonstrates a heart that is hungry for God’s presence and intervention in our world. In the same way, walking by the Spirit is a lifestyle of depending on God, not self, for life and breath. The two things are nearly synonymous.

To the Galatians, Paul wrote:

Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh… If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 18, 22–23).

Paul compels us to become like Christ, developing the same character of Jesus and demonstrating his characteristics. The way we become like Christ is by walking in the Spirit, living by the Spirit, and keeping in step with the Spirit. These three phrases suggest a practical, ongoing, moment-by-moment relationship with the Holy Spirit. It is only through this perpetual dependence on the Spirit that we can uproot the power of sin in our lives and demonstrate Christlikeness.

Dependence is a key word there. As we’ve seen, our human tendency is to rely on ourselves, defend ourselves, and promote ourselves. The Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer famously wrote:

The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism, nor, I would add, postmodernism, consumerism, and other more contemporary isms. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.[1]

This happens both individually and together in the church. Our lives, apart from walking by the Spirit, become an anxious experiment in self-reliance. We become devoted to building and protecting our own little kingdoms. We don’t intend this, but when our old self (what Paul calls the flesh) is more active than our new self (who we are in Christ), we live no different from our non-Christian neighbors.

Our churches and ministries can operate the same way. We drift back into our old self-reliant selves collectively, and we end up busy, distracted, and focused on building a spiritual empire (however big or small) that is not the kingdom of Christ. We ought to honestly ask: If the Holy Spirit suddenly left our ministries, how long would it take us to notice? If our prayers suddenly were ineffective, would our ministries come to a grinding halt? Or would they continue undiminished—because it wasn’t dependent on the Spirit and prayer to begin with?

In Galatians, the old apostle knows this self-assured, fleshy habit within us and wants to sever it. He wants us to replace it with Spirit dependence.

What would such a walking by the Spirit look like? The most practical, moment-by-moment way to keep in step with the Spirit is through an ongoing conversation with the Father.

Through God’s Son, by the power of God’s Spirit who indwells us, we can continually praise our Father God, humble ourselves before him, seek to do his will, and ask for all that we need and want. Prayer is the heart of walking by the Spirit.

Let us follow the pattern of the early church and surrender ourselves daily, in prayer and obedience. Through the power of the Spirit, let’s enjoy the life of prayer and intimacy with God that Jesus died to welcome us into!

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[1] Francis Schaeffer, The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way (Crossway, 2022), 36.