Communicating the unchanging gospel in an ever-changing world
At some point in your Christian life, you necessarily came to the conclusion that the very nature of the gospel is unchanging.
The gospel is not dependent on you or me or anything outside of God’s salvation plan in Jesus — if it were, it would not be the gospel.
Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever and in John 14:6 Jesus tells us that he is the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him.
This doesn’t change.
But I don’t know if you have noticed… the world has changed a fair bit in the years since Bible times. Especially in the way that we communicate.
We’re not sending messages via a person who needs to walk the distance to the person you want to send the message to. We’re not even sending a whole lot of written letters these days and then waiting for them to arrive at the person we want to receive them.
What we are doing in this time is constantly communicating. Constantly sending and receiving various messages. Whether it’s actual text messages, social media posts, emails, ads in various forms, E V E R Y T H I N G is constantly communicating.
There are approximately 10,000 messages, pieces of communication, voices entering our minds every day, whether consciously or subconsciously.
If we’re receiving that many new, flashy and fresh messages a day, where does the unchanging gospel fit in?
Well, it’s on us.
Psalm 78 implores us to tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.
And, Colossians 4:3-6 says this…
And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
The Bible charges us with a responsibility: to do all we can to cut through the messages of our ever-changing world with the unchanging gospel.
So, how do we do it? Well, Paul lists a few things in the above passage from Colossians:
Making the most of every opportunity.
Proclaiming it clearly.
Acting wisely toward outsiders.
Conversations full of grace.
Note the responsiveness inherent in Paul’s recommendations. He’s not telling the Colossians to shout the gospel message at unbelievers, but to listen, speak with grace, respond to opportunities, and approach outsiders with wisdom.
In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul further tells us that he seeks to cut through with the gospel by becoming all things to all people so that he might have the privilege of seeing some saved.
Paul knows that the world, the ever-changing world is really good at communicating. And he knows he needs to be better in order to win some. But note: Paul says that “I” have become all things, not the message, not the gospel. Paul used “all possible means” but still preached the same gospel.
In order to communicate an unchanging gospel, we must not be afraid to embrace changing how we communicate.
What does best practice communication look like these days? Well, I could give you the nitty gritty of… Plan this event for this time of year for this group of people, or post this on social media, don’t post this, send emails at this time for this reason, and so on — Crossbeam certainly can and would love to tell you this!
But what I do want to do right now is convict and charge you with the responsibility that you have, for the sake of the gospel, to…
Be willing to change the way you do things and learn from others.
Know your limits and be willing to seek advice and help from others.
Our ever-changing world presents us with a great challenge, but also many opportunities… And we need to jump in and keep up, as we have been called to do by our God. At Crossbeam we love helping our clients better communicate to their people and the people they’d like to reach. We’d love to help you too.