A Gospel-Centered Church

Posted on July 9, 2014.

Here at Valley our desire is to be a gospel-centered church.  Our mission/vision statement reads as follows: Valley Community Bible Church exists to glorify GOD by making more & better disciples of Jesus Christ through developing & spreading a culture of gospel-centered worship, gospel-centered community, gospel-centered discipleship and gospel-centered mission.  One of the 7 Core Values of Valley is being gospel-focused.  This means we want to live as Jesus' gospel people in this world seeking to spread His gospel glory in a relational and relevant way.  We are convinced that the gospel is the power of God for all who believe (Rom. 1:16).  We believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ bears fruit and grows bringing people to faith in Jesus Christ and conforming them to His image (Col. 1:6).  No matter how far away from God people may seem or how entangled in man-made religion they may be, we desire to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ (Luke 15; 2 Cor. 5:14-21).  We believe that Jesus came to seek and save the lost and that His mission continues today through His gospel-centered churches.

So that begs the question: What does a gospel-centered church look like?  This is the title of chapter 14 of J.D. Greear's book Gospel.  [Commericial break: At Valley we just started a 8 week video study with J.D. Greear on his book Gospel on Wednesday nights starting July 9th 7 -8:30.  Join us if you can!] 

For the next month of blogs we will consider what the Bible says about being a gospel-centered church.  Let me just get the topic on the table today by using J.D. Greear's 3 qualities of a gospel centered church:

  1. In a gospel-centered church preaching the message of the gospel is the priority.  He says: "The gospel is an announcement not about what we are to do for God, but about what He ahs done for us ... The gospel is the announcement that Jesus is Lord and that He has won teh battle for our salvation.  We are to respond in repentance and faith (Mark 1:15)...We are to always, everywhere preach the word.  That's what the early church did.  Everywhere, from house to house, they were always telling the story of Jesus. [More on this next week.]
  2. In a gospel-centered church the message is more on what Christ has done than what we are to do.  He says: "As you have seen by now the only thing that brings true spiritual growth is abiding in - dwelling in, thinking about, standing in awe of - what Christ has done for us." [More on this in two weeks.]
  3. In a gospel-centered church the members demonstrate the beauty of the gospel in community.  [More on this in three weeks.]