Gospel Culture and CRC
Transcript:
Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.
The church is an adaptable institution because the gospel can work its redemptive magic in any and every situation. It’s a culture not merely a strategy. By culture we mean a shared way of thinking, feeling, and living that is driven by the very life of Jesus. At the heart of the church is a culture, shaped by the model, mandate, and magnetism of the Jesus Christ. Through our union with Him, we share in His Spirit—the Holy Spirit, which is the very love of God dwelling eternally in the unity of the Trinity. It’s supernatural! It’s not something we create, but something that creates us. It is an organism and not merely an organization.
From its inception, Christ Redeemer Church and its culture has been driven by three governing and interconnected principles that flow from this supernatural reality: 1) Gospel-centeredness—the Gospel of God’s sovereign grace 2) Gospel Relationships & Community, and 3) Gospel Mission/Vision/Vocation. There is a flow to these principles: 1) the Gospel-centeredness nourishes 2) Gospel Community, which in turn sends us out on 3) Gospel Mission. In everything we do, we seek to embody and be driven by these three cultural values.
CRC is most basically not a strategy or structure (methodology) but a culture—a way/mindset of being and doing (deep meaning). And our culture as a church is thick, deep, and adaptable—it can flourish in whatever circumstance.
Culture eats strategy lunch.
And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.
“(In saying, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
~Ephesians 4:9-16 (ESV)