Weekly Plowing

Gospel Intentionality

By Steve Timmis

At The Crowded House, we are big on gospel intentionality. What I mean by this is probably best illustrated by our practice of using the word ‘gospel’ as a verb. We ‘gospel one another’ in the sense that we bring gospel truth to bear on the details of one another’s lives so that we might grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus. Because of the conviction that the gospel is about all that God has done in Christ, every aspect of our lives is not only informed or shaped by this news, but is actually defined by it!

Take the illustration of grumbling — a national pastime and personal hobby. What are we doing when we complain about our lives, jobs, relationships or even the weather?  In effect, we are criticising God and his management of the world or our lives — and of course this is a sin (Phil 2:14–15). Because it’s sin, it needs to be exposed as such. Letting my brothers or sisters continue in sin is neither loving nor compassionate. If we are committed to gospelling one another, we will have to confront this kind of sin. This is best done ‘on the hoof’, or ‘on the go’ — in the daily routines of life.

Picture this scenario: You’re sitting watching a DVD, and someone starts to complain about their job: “You’ll never guess what my boss asked me to do today! We were in a meeting and he asked me to go and make the coffee! What a cheek. Who does he think I am? You know, I have a real sense that I’m not appreciated in that place.”

There are a number of options open to us to respond:

1) “What a cheek! I hope you put him straight! Not being appreciated makes work difficult, doesn’t it?”

2)  “Oh no! That’s terrible. Let me turn the TV off; we’ll get a drink and sit down and talk it through and pray about it.”

3) “For goodness’ sake, give it a rest. Stop whingeing.”

4) “It’s at times like this that it’s good to remember Jesus, and what Paul says about him in Philippians 2. It’s humbling being sent out on an errand like that, but if the king of the universe could humble himself and become a servant, then I guess we have to be willing to. Dying on a cross — or making the coffee! Hmmm. Now shut up and let me watch the film! Mine’s white with no sugar, by the way!”

Let me nail my colours to the mast. I’m in favour of Option 4. It’s taking the issue seriously, but it’s not making a big thing out of it. It’s dealing with it as it crops up, stating it clearly and yet compassionately. Unfortunately, Option 2 is the response of choice for many Christians. What makes it worse is that they think Option 2 is what gospel intentionality demands! But in fact, Option 2 exemplifies what I would call intensity. This is the tendency to make a crisis out of every event and to turn every circumstantial molehill into a mountain of existential and spiritual angst.

I’ll write another post soon outlining some of the dangers of intensity, and how we can prevent our gospel intentionality being twisted in this direction.

Meanwhile, let’s get on with the business of gospel intentionality.  Let’s be loving enough to speak truth to one another where we are tempted to believe lies. Let’s allow the gospel to offer us sanity when we’re in danger of being seduced by the madness of our own self-importance.

(This is from the Crowded House blog which you can find here: http://www.thecrowdedhouse.org)