How to Gospelize

I'm a pastor, in particular a church planter.  And given the three perspectives of pastoring (as seen in Jesus - prophet, priest, and king), I'm foremost a prophet - but not in a Nostradamus-end-of-the-world type of way.  It's more like a "I love you, so I'm going to yell at you from the bible for 45 minutes every week."  Things like truth, confronting sin, and right doctrine are important to me.  But, if that's all I did all the time, I would be a terrible pastor, because people also need priests (who love and care for people) and kings (who organize, administrate, and strategize for ministry).  This is why it's so important to have a plurality of eldership in the local church to the lead the church, and why the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is important as well.  The bottom line is that although God does specifically call some into vocational ministry (or lay ministry, like elders who don't get paid), the truth is that we all are called to minister to each other, which is what Ephesians 4:11-16 is all about.

But back the pastoring thing.  You just can't yell at people all the time.  Yes, truth must be stood up for and sin confronted (in a spirit of sincere love), but you have to put your arm around somebody's shoulders and gently communicate your heart for them.  This is what Paul does in Galatians 4:8-20.  He's been hammering them for three chapters, calling them "foolish" and "bewitched."  But now in this section his tone is completely different and uses terms like "brothers and sisters" and "little children."  Paul really loved them like family and that's why he had been so firm with them up to this point.  He now talks to them like a priestly-pastor.

It's important to note that as you seek to minister to people (or as I'm beginning to like to say "gospelize" people), two elements are pretty important.  First, is having a sincere emotional investment with others.  We see this in 4:12-16.  Paul recalls their time together, how they cared for him, and experiences they shared.  Relationships take time to develop.  There has to be significant time invested in others so they deeply know you desire nothing but Jesus' best for them.  The second element is the goal of ministry, which is Christ.  This is what Paul brings out in 4:17-20.  He didn't want to reproduce clones of himself; he wanted the Galatians to be formed into the image of Jesus.  Because now, Jesus is the only one who really has disciples.  If any church or church leader calls you to anything or anyone other than Jesus as the goal for the Christian life, knock the dust off your boots and get out of there!

So what does "gospelizing" really involve?  On it's most basic level, it is helping people to move from being an idolater to a worshipper.  Every person on the planet will "proclaim worth" to something - a tree, the ocean, a relationship, a bank account, a pro sports team.  But if the object is anything other than Jesus, that is by definition idolatry.  And idolatry is something that Christ-followers can be guilty of as well.  Remember, in Galatians Paul has not questioned their salvation.  In 3:27, he affirmed them being baptized into and clothed with Christ; but they've gotten distracted.  They have begun to seek to "please man" rather than pleasing God (Galatians 1:10).  What Paul has really been doing the whole letter is not just confront their legalism, he has been confronting their idolatry (see how he tied idolatry to legalism in 4:8-10).

This post is getting a tad long, so I'm going to hit the "pause" button and finish it up tomorrow.  The next post will be on how to diagnose, identify, and heal from our idols.  Peace out.