Immerse | A Journal of Faith, Life, and Youth Ministry

I have a friend named Jim, a conservative, evangelical baby boomer, who taught me that the gospel is radically individual and spiritual. Jim often told me that most of my life decisions were between me and Jesus. And when it came to sharing the gospel with people, Jim instructed me that the most important thing was for a person to make a personal commitment to God.

When I recently talked with Jim, I was shocked to hear him say, “Our church is being Jesus to people by just caring for their basic needs.” I inquired further, and Jim said that he was learning that Jesus took care of the whole person. He was learning this through his church, which was trying to help people with job searches, computer skills and basic health needs. In Jim’s words, he was learning that the gospel was much more than a spiritual thing.

I found Tim Suttle’s article, “Evangelical Social Christianity” to be another indication that the evangelical tradition that discipled me is experiencing a transformation. Specifically, Tim, leaning on the writings of Walter Rauschenbusch, wants to emphasize that the gospel is both personal and corporate in nature. His article adds to the movement of people who have recognized the same issue with the North American Evangelical articulation of the gospel and was helpful in evaluating my local church’s expression of the gospel.

Seeking a Common Language

I recently had a conversation with Jamie Casler, who is the director for the J. V. Morsch Center for Social Justice at Trevecca Nazarene University, which is a part of the North American Evangelical tradition. Jamie was wondering two things about social justice within evangelicalism. First, he was interested to know if the conversation, interest and activity regarding social justice issues were common, and if so, then was there a common language emerging within evangelicalism?

After reading Tim’s article and reflecting on my conversation with Jim, I have become convinced that the holistic nature of the gospel is becoming commonplace within evangelicalism. Both Tim and Jim recognize that there are more dimensions to the salvation that Jesus proclaimed than just the personal spiritual dimension.

Yet I don’t see a common language emerging that helps evangelicals have a unifying conversation regarding the individual and corporate nature of the gospel. Specifically, Tim uses language from the Social Gospel era with a mixture of scriptural language. On the other hand, Jim uses language that is an adaptation of the scriptural language of shalom. Therefore, Tim is interested in the holistic reconciliation of individuals (mercy) and redemption of social structures (justice). Yet Jim is simply learning the holistic nature of individual salvation (mercy).

There isn’t much that youth workers can do about these two observations other than recognize that an emphasis on the social dimensions of the gospel is beginning to emerge. At the same time, everyone approaches the topic with different language. We need to pay attention to how our faith communities talk about this topic and make sure we speak their language. The goal is to encourage both the personal and corporate nature of the gospel within our local churches and communities.

Evaluating My Church

My local church has the following discipleship blueprint:

Our identity as an expression of church is wrapped up in the family of God metaphor. Thus, we see ourselves as “a family of Christian faith.” Our orientation in the world is to be impacted to the core by the gospel in order to be faithful witnesses of Christ. With the use of house imagery, we articulate living into this vision of our existence by worshiping God (foyer), fellowship with one another (family room), being consumed by Scripture (dining room) and serving our neighbors (garage).

These four expressions of our identity as the church continually need to be refined by our understanding of the gospel. Tim’s article is perfect for my local church to engage in order to grow deeper in love for God and neighbor.

The following is how I see Tim’s article reading my context.

I found that my local church has a strong emphasis on the personal dimension of the gospel and little emphasis on the corporate dimension. Specifically, we live in a context where people are fined for not caring for their lawns. We partner with the city to help individuals who can’t afford to keep up their yards. However, we had not asked if the law itself is unjust because it excludes low-income persons from our community. As we move forward, we must come to terms with the corporate dimensions of the gospel if we will truly be impacted to the core by the gospel.