“There are eternal consequences resulting from all our thoughts, words, and actions, of which we take far too little account” (J. C. Ryle).
I have read Tim Keller’s 2001 article Evangelistic Worship a number of times, and what I get out of it is a deep concern for where his philosophy of worship and evangelism will take him and those he influences.
There is a growing trend in the evangelical Christian community to reshape the true Gospel, to make it more palatable to the unbelieving. More and more we preach Grace, Love, Tolerance, Freedom, and Acceptance and minimize simple preaching of the only God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Here is Tim Keller’s gospel, in his own words:
“The Bible’s purpose is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The Bible’s purpose is to show you how God’s grace breaks into your life against your will and saves you from the sin and brokenness otherwise you would never be able to overcome… religion is ‘if you obey, then you will be accepted’. But the Gospel is, ‘if you are absolutely accepted, and sure you’re accepted, only then will you ever begin to obey’. Those are two utterly different things. Every page of the Bible shows the difference.” (source)
Where is Jesus in this gospel?
The true purpose of the Bible is to reveal Jesus Christ as God. The gospel is not what God did or does to jumpstart our broken lives. It’s not about us. The gospel is Jesus Christ glorifying God in human form, which mankind was incapable of doing before Jesus came to earth and is still incapable of doing apart from Him. The gospel, according to the apostles and first disciples, claims Jesus as the only God, Creator, Law-Giver, Covenant-Maker, Redeemer, and King of the universe. The gospel (“good news”) is Who Jesus Christ Is. That is what makes the things He has done and the things that He gives us so incredibly amazing.
Our understanding of the gospel will directly influence our worship practices.
Shifting the gospel message a fraction of an inch away from Jesus Christ is a huge step in the wrong direction. Even Christian things, such as loving our neighbor, extending grace, or preaching the Bible, are iniquity (self-will) if they displace Jesus Christ as our chief message, model, motivation, and means of glorifying God. If we are not laser focused on exalting Christ, our greatest “Christian” ideas and beliefs will fail in the end to give glory to God.
“If Christ is not first with you, Christ is nothing to you” (C. H. Spurgeon).
Keller’s Evangelistic Worship model, using a combination of the Bible, the cultural context of our communities, and the historical tradition of the church, is not actually Christ-centered or spiritually safe way to determine our worship practices.
The Bible is infallible, but we are not. It is easy to read into the Scriptures what we want it to say and mean. We routinely “quote mine” the Bible for verses that seem to support a particular point of view or doctrine, sometimes blatantly overlooking the original context and application intended by God. If we read the Bible with our own agenda up front and center, we will inevitably stray from The Truth (Jesus Christ).
Cultural context is unstable ground on which to build any sort of Christian worldview. If you hold the Bible up to the mirror of culture, you will read the Gospel backwards every time. The Bible is meant to be the mirror, allowing us to see ourselves and our culture as God sees us, from His point of view.
Historical tradition may be useful, but it can also be greatly misleading if viewed through the wrong filters. Tradition has a way of feeding upon itself and becoming more important to us than God and His Word. So much depends on:
- what parts of history we look at,
- whose tradition we are inclined to believe,
- how far back we look,
- what worldview we use to interpret the facts, and
- what filters we use to apply what we learn in a different context (such as today’s culture).
But the Bible and history are useful, because they reveal God’s holiness, His unchanging nature (immutability), and how He has worked in generations past. The Bible helps us to understand man’s natural depravity and shows us how to know and love God through Jesus Christ. History help us to identify and avoid the sins of previous generations and to continue doing the good works of the righteous.
Does the church need to adopt a post-modern culture to preach the Gospel in a post-modern society? Biblically, historically, the answer is No. The first-century Jewish Christians did not become Gentiles in order to tell the Gentiles about Jesus. They did, however, break with Jewish tradition (not Biblical law) to eat with Gentiles who received the gospel.
We have not been called to pander to the people we want to evangelize and bring into the church. We, God’s people, are called to be witnesses of Who Jesus Is, and what He has done, and what we have seen Him do.
Authentic Christianity—the Spirit of God at work in the lives of His people and their shared joy in Him—transcends cultural and even language barriers. The most “with-it” preacher won’t change worldly-minded people without the truth of God’s Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. But the inspired Word of God, living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, spoken in love by the hokiest of preachers (“the foolishness of preaching”), has transformed the most unlikely people.
In Tim Keller’s practical “evangelistic” worship model, the Lord God—His Spirit, His truth, His will, His pleasure, His character—is hardly given lip service, let alone shown to be the central focus, the main criteria and object of our worship. The One Who created both worship and worshipers. Perhaps it was too obvious for him to mention, but for me it is too important to overlook.
The more we focus our worship to model, exalt, and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, the more truly evangelistic we will become. Jesus promised to draw all people to Himself (John 12:32). Therefore, as our worship exalts Him (“lifts Him up”), we may trust Him to have a positive evangelical effect on His own lost people.
“But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. …But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (II Corinthians 11:17, 12:3).
