Reaching the Reached

Have you ever felt as though the leadership in your congregation is more concerned about “outreach” and being “missional” than proclaiming the comfort of the Gospel to those that gather week after week in your local congregation?  Is the church failing to minister to you or your family effectively?  The Gospel should be proclaimed every Lord’s Day to comfort weary saints on this journey.  As Rod Rosenbladt often says, “Even Christians need the Gospel”.  In a section titled, Reaching the Reached from A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship, Michael Horton writes:

In many churches, believers have brought their children to the Lord and are raising them in the fear and knowledge of God. But instead of feeding them in fulfilling its covenantal obligations, the church too often redirects the supply to the unchurched. And the sad reality is that the unchurched are often professing Christians who are in many cases returning to church only if there are no obligations placed upon them. It is church members who first need to be regularly evangelized, regularly brought low and raised up, regularly fed on God’s great work in Christ throughout redemptive history. Well-taught, well-connected, and well-cared for congregations will be outward-looking, eager to reach others with the gospel, and dedicated to acts of service towards neighbors. They will not need canned evangelistic speeches. They will be able (with their newfound time as a result of fewer church programs) to express their faith confidently and with a genuineness that comes from having been liberated by learning more about God and his word.

Michael Horton pp. 233-234 A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship

The Gospel For Those Broken By The Church by Dr. Rod Rosenbladt

For those that have suffered in the church and at the hands of the church, this sermon/lecture is a must to listen to or view.

Download the MP3 file.

Download the PDF formatted for a regular sheet of paper.

Download the PDF formatted for a booklet.

Source: The Gospel For Those Broken By The Church and a sequel Christianity in Five Verses

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt

A review by John Fonville of David Platt’s book “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream” is available here.

“Whenever the law is confused with the gospel, the remedy is always wrong (e.g., “unconditional surrender” and “willing to sell all”). The problem is so serious that the book must be assessed as pastorally crippling to readers who most likely already have weak souls and afflicted consciences. How does one know if he has surrendered enough? What about Paul’s confession in Romans 7:15-19? Even if one “sells all,” he has not even come close to fulfilling the radical demands of the law (Luke 17:10). The problem with approaching God on these terms is that a person never has the sense that he or she has done enough. There remains a nagging reality of God’s disfavor, which is the enduring point of the law. After the law has humbled a person, he must then be comforted with the gospel without any mention of the law.”

John J. Murray on Catechism

What was looked on as a necessary and beneficial practice by the early church and by the Reformers has now fallen into such disuse among Christian people that very few seem to have any understanding or appreciation of the subject.  We believe it is to the discontinuance of this practice [of catechizing] that we can trace much of the doctrinal ignorance, confusion and instability so characteristic of modern Christianity.

As quoted in Donald Van Dyken, Rediscovering Catechism: The Art of Equipping Covenant Children P & R Publishing, Phillipsburg, NJ, 2000), 8

The article quoted from, John J. Murray, “Catechizing – A Forgotten Practice,” Banner of Truth 27 (October 1962) is available here:
http://www.lineofpromise.com/articles.php#murrayCat