The Scope of the Gospel – The Church (Part 1)

Ever since I became a “serious” Christian in 1997, my journey into Christianity began with a fascination in Word of Faith, through Kenneth E. Hagin’s books. I’ll admit that my motives for becoming a Christian were born out of a desire to seek a better life: security, prosperity, success and happiness – the usual things.

But now as I look back on those years I’ll have to be honest and say that the Gospel does not seem to have been conducive to improving my life in any of the ways that I would have hoped. I’m not sure what my life would have been like had I not become a Christian, I suppose I’ll never really know; there must have been some benefits to becoming a Christian, but it just becomes hard to tell. It is certainly too early to tell what benefits my belief in Christ will yield in the afterlife.

One thing I can certain vouch for is the confusion and frustration that seems to have been perpetuated in my life through what seemed to be my pursuit of the Gospel and intimacy with God. I think many Christians tread a similar path in their quest to know God, many ending up confused and frustrated as I have become. Some Christians end-up leaving church, but still believing in Jesus, whilst others give up on believing in Him altogether.

My Christian life has led me to ponder the scope of the Gospel: what was it intended for? Who was it addressed to? How are we to respond to it and incorporate it into our lives? These might sound like fairly obvious questions, but many Christians don’t stop to ask themselves these questions.

I think the reason why we don’t stop to ask ourselves the scope of the Gospel, is because we have been spoon-fed other people’s Christian beliefs, rather than being permitted to formulate our own. We have become accustomed to sitting in church and shifting the responsibility to the pastor and ministry staff for our spiritual development and welfare.

Sure, the Bible talks about the “five-fold ministry”, consisting of pastors, teachers, evangelists and so on – but I’m certain that we have lost sight of what these roles entail. For instance, we have become acquainted with the role of Evangelist as a very charismatic, and typically well-renowned, Christian speaker who travels to churches to motivate people who are already Christian, whereas an Evangelist in the Bible would be someone who brings the Good News to the unsaved. I think an example of the latter would be someone like Reinhard Bonnke, who would preach the Gospel in crusades across Africa.

I would recommend the book, Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola, which dares to question the way we do things in church and explores the often Pagan roots of the institutional church as we know it today.

Photo Church courtesy of Bruce Fingerhood.