We believe in the gospel. It is not just “good news”—it is the best news a human being can ever hear. It tells us about the greatest act of redemption that ever happened. The gospel addresses our biggest problem as human beings and our most tragic reality: we need the hope of the Messiah, we are separated from God because of our sin and, without rescue, we will face God’s judgment at the end of our lives. Through the good news of Jesus, God blesses us with forgiveness and present and future life in his kingdom. The gospel invites us to live as his kingdom citizens today, as we pass along the mercy and redemption and truth he gives us. And we will live in his consummated kingdom forever, fulfilling our ultimate purpose as human beings in the renewal of all things. What a privilege it is to share the gospel with others!
Yet we have noticed a trend when it comes to the gospel. It concerns us.
In many churches, we see leaders preferring acts of compassion and social service as a replacement for inviting people to embrace Jesus’ gospel. These acts are not merely a part of a holistic response to human need which includes sharing the gospel. Instead, these leaders are guiding their churches to serve the homeless, help the refugee, and meet the needs of the hurting…as the whole package. They intend to do nothing further. Caught up in an over-emphasis on social justice, they are not seeking a tasteful way or strategy to show the full love and salvation of God. The gospel story, which compels us to meet human needs, becomes eclipsed by its afterglow.
“In many churches, we see leaders preferring acts of compassion and social service as a replacement for inviting people to embrace Jesus’ gospel.”
We think, if they would be honest with themselves, many of these leaders do not like evangelism. Truth be told, at some level, it seems they are ashamed of the gospel (Romans 1:16-17).
The contrast is very stark for us right now. In my (Bobby’s) leadership role at Discipleship.org, I am in the midst of interviewing a list of the top 10 disciple making churches in North America, as identified through two national studies. These churches are known for how they are changing countless lives…and they are also known for their clarity on this point. Both the leaders and members of these churches are sold out to the conviction that people are lost and only the gospel can save them. The gospel motivates and empowers their disciple making ministries.
They serve as a stark contrast with the other churches we see which prioritize social justice over, and often to the exclusion of, evangelism. These churches witness very few adult baptisms over years, even as they focus instead on promoting serving the hurting, needy, and marginalized. As much as they tend to congratulate themselves for their focus, something is deeply wrong, and they seem to be blind to it.
Our experiences with church leaders caught up in this approach has led us to do some homework. We reached out to Thom Rainer, the widely respected expert on the North American church (many have read his book Simple Church or visited churchanswers.com). Thom is also concerned about this problem. He pointed us back to a major study/resource which examines this kind of approach. But it is over forty years old.
“We reached out to Thom Rainer, the widely respected expert on the North American church.”
The book is Church Growth and the Whole Gospel, by C. Peter Wagner. It is a popularized version of Wagner’s Ph.D. Dissertation. Many people would probably pass on reading the book strictly because it was written forty-five years ago. But Rainer pointed us to it as the best examination of the “social service” or “social justice”-prioritized approach. We found many of the observations and thoughts presented by Wagner to be timeless and perhaps even more applicable today than when he wrote them.
Wagner argues that a truly biblical approach to serving people outside the local church must incorporate both personal salvation (individual transformation) and social service/social justice (communal transformation)—thus presenting what he calls the “whole gospel.” Wagner addresses two biblical mandates, calling one the “cultural mandate” and the other the “evangelistic mandate.”
Wagner makes a good case, based on Scripture, for disciples of Jesus to be actively engaged in fulfilling the cultural mandate. This mandate has been in force since the creation of human beings, when God gave humans the “delegated sovereignty” over his creation and commanded us to treat the creation and other human beings as God himself would. Wagner points out that the cultural mandate (what many refer to as the social justice mandate) has existed since the beginning of time and will be in effect until Jesus returns. Wagner goes on to say, “Distribution of wealth, the balance of nature, marriage and the family, human government, keeping the peace, cultural integrity, and liberation of the oppressed—these and other global responsibilities fall within the cultural mandate.” Every Christian and every church must in some way contribute to the effective fulfillment of this social, cultural mandate.
“Wagner argues that a truly biblical approach to serving people outside the local church must incorporate both personal salvation (individual transformation) and social service/social justice (communal transformation)—thus presenting what he calls the ‘whole gospel.'”
Wagner goes on to describe this mandate in the first thirteen pages of his book. He is a major proponent of the church working to correct social injustices that exist. Near the conclusion of the book (page 201), however, Wagner pens what are likely the most important three sentences in the book:
“It may become the ‘in’ thing for evangelical preachers to make socio-political pronouncements from their pulpits in the 1980s as it was for the liberals in the 1960s. Getting involved in the cultural mandate might become so heady that the evangelistic mandate is neglected. If so, evangelicals can expect a decline both in membership and in social strength.”
We find these words quite prophetic based on what we have observed from many church pulpits as well as theological departments of many Christian universities in the 21st century. We’ve also witnessed the numerical declines that Wagner said could be expected in the churches who are adopting these approaches.
It makes sense. Even in terms of basic math, if you do not prioritize the gospel mandate, you will have fewer and fewer adult converts and, over time, fewer and fewer people in the church.
The last line of the book reads, “If the proper structures are employed, however, both the evangelistic mandate and the cultural mandate can be effectively implemented by the people of God who are serving Him in the community of the King.” However is a key word in the last sentence. It conveys that there is a hopeful option, that decline doesn’t have to be our future.
“If the proper structures are employed, however, both the evangelistic mandate and the cultural mandate can be effectively implemented by the people of God who are serving Him in the community of the King.”
We commend this 45-year-old book. It is our shared opinion that much of what lies between pages 13 and 201 map out a better, more complete, and a more biblically sound way than the either-or path many churches take, whether neglecting the gospel mandate or its social-cultural implications. These pages map the way, observed through many periods in Scripture and history, that the Kingdom of God grows through the gospel mandate and an increasing number of Kingdom citizens effecting change in the world and overcoming social injustices.
When it comes to everyday life, effective life skills involve making priorities and structuring your life around these priorities. Likewise, when it comes to church life, prioritizing is necessary, especially for church leaders, so that they can be the most effective in leading the local church to holistically serve God and people.
Hopefully we can all agree that biblical Christians shouldn’t have to choose the evangelistic mandate or the cultural mandate. But which one deserves priority?
Good physicians practice “triage.” As they evaluate symptoms of patients, they must prioritize certain conditions to restore health. If a patient has a life-threatening condition along with a separate, merely uncomfortable condition, the life-threatening condition must take priority. This doesn’t mean the patient is necessarily destined to be uncomfortable the rest of their life. It’s just that for the patient to have hope of a more comfortable life, the life-threatening condition must take priority. One is not necessarily exclusive of the other, but one is given priority.
“One is not necessarily exclusive of the other, but one is given priority.”
Wagner makes the case for giving the gospel mandate priority over solely seeking to effect social change where cultural ills exist. He clearly makes this case in this statement: “Of all the tragic needs of human beings, none is greater than their alienation from the Creator and the reality of eternal death for those who reuse to repent and believe.”
Wagner also warns of the dangers of polarization along the lines of the two mandates. He makes it clear that neither distinction nor dichotomization nor granting priority is equivalent to polarization. The problem isn’t making a distinction or prioritization between the two; rather, it’s when we set these mandates in opposition to each other. “The most powerful and effective way to promote fulfillment of the cultural mandate is to keep it in proper relationship to the evangelistic mandate.” He continues, “Suppose the cultural mandate is highly successful and a poor family or a poor community ‘gains the whole world and loses his own soul’ (Mark 8:36).”
It’s hard to overstate just how central to early church preaching and teaching was the cross of Christ for our forgiveness. “His death was different from Martin Luther King’s, Polycarp’s, David Livingstone’s, Che Guevera’s, or Patrick Henry’s. They all died for a specific cause, but none of them died for his own sins, much less the sins of the world.” Wagner goes on to accurately point out,
“Being saved, in the biblical sense, is not a slave being freed or a beggar getting a meal or a despot being overthrown by revolutionaries or a law being passed opening job opportunities for minorities. The cultural mandate doesn’t save people eternally. That is why, in the total sweep of Christian mission and kingdom of God, the evangelistic mandate is primary.”
“In the total sweep of Christian mission and kingdom of God, the evangelistic mandate is primary.”
Similarly, he goes on to state,
“Fulfilling the cultural mandate is not optional for Christians. It is God’s command and a part of Christian mission. But it is true that, when a choice must be made based on availability of resources or of value judgements, the biblical indication is that the evangelistic mandate must take priority. Nothing is or can be as important as saving souls from eternal damnation.”
If we are honest, there are two major factors at play when churches turn to focus on the social-cultural mandate to the exclusion of the evangelistic mandate today.
The first is that we have all been discipled by our secular culture. We have all been trained by the institutions of our society to prioritize the needs of the hurting, the struggling, and the underprivileged. We have been discipled to focus on the hurting, the sexually marginalized, the oppressed, etc. That is what a good person is all about in Western civilization. As Carl Trueman explains in his book Strange New World, a truly good human being prioritizes the needs and feelings of others. Churches who let a social justice mandate override the gospel mandate may be simply expressing, more than they realize, how they have been discipled by a secular culture.
The second factor is an over-influence of certain theologians who rightfully emphasize the kingdom of God but who seem to shift the focus away from our need for forgiveness of sins and a repentant relationship with God. One well-known theologian is known for describing the kingdom as being expressed when Christians “put to right” the injustices in our world. As such, we should ask, “What would it be like in our world, if God were in charge? We should then work for that end.” So far, so good.
“Churches who let a social justice mandate override the gospel mandate may be simply expressing, more than they realize, how they have been discipled by a secular culture.”
But we’ve noticed among such theologians, especially New Perspective theologians, a reticence regarding the doctrine of hell and even the need for personal salvation, while they are really strong on social justice. They tend not to emphasize God’s concern for human lostness because of sin in the ways it is expressed throughout the sermons in the book of Acts (and other places). The Book of Acts contains numerous stories that emphasize how outsiders need to hear the message, in the gospel, that God saves us from our sins. This concern is central to the apostolic proclamation (kerygma) throughout Acts. While not every narrative includes the exact phrase “God saves us from our sin,” the theme of salvation through Jesus Christ—especially forgiveness of sins—is woven throughout the speeches, conversions, and miracles. We encourage you to read it again for yourself. The Book of Acts is fundamentally about the spread of the gospel—emphasizing how God saves us from our sins through Jesus. Around fifteen major stories in Acts feature this message explicitly, and the entire book is shaped around this redemptive theme.
We are simply not replicating biblical Christianity if such messaging is not even a part of how we reach out to our community. The theological emphases of theologians, like some who emphasize the New Perspective, can be instructive, but too often they can serve as an easy transition into the way the surrounding culture is already discipling us—toward an almost exclusive prioritization of social justice concerns. In our estimation, many of these theologians are not concerned enough with human lostness when compared Acts and other parts of Scripture. We say this carefully, as we realize they have many otherwise good teachings.
“The theological emphases of theologians, like some who emphasize the New Perspective, can be instructive, but too often they can serve as an easy transition into the way the surrounding culture is already discipling us.”
Though dated, Wagner’s study on the “whole gospel” is practical and can help the everyday disciple and church leader. He wrote, for example, before N.T. Wright’s time, but his insights help us to evaluate Wright and others as we consider the book’s implications over time.
Wagner’s book documents the stories of multiple Christian organizations which began with their focus being the evangelistic mandate only to switch their priority to the cultural mandate. Organizations grew and flourished only to decline and disappear after reprioritization toward the cultural or social justice mandate. Our fear is that in many churches today and in many Christian college theology departments this reprioritization is occurring.
The social injustices that exist today rightly trouble many North Americans. But we view these injustices from a 21st century, North American perspective influenced greatly by our experiences and what we witness, either in person or what we see through various forms of social media, and it’s a struggle not to absorb the way our secular culture frames these issues. When the pulpits of our churches prioritize these issues above all else and lead congregates in believing that the church’s primary focus should be the social-cultural mandate, these churches risk the same fate of the Christian organizations Wagner describes. This is the well-worn path of the rapidly declining mainline churches in North America. We are concerned about this same trajectory in many Evangelical churches.
Yet, we are hopeful.
If we, as Christ followers, aim to see things from the fulness of Christ’s perspective instead of limiting ourselves to whatever earthly, cultural and/or generational perspective we find ourselves in, our path will be illuminated and our priorities set.
“If we, as Christ followers, aim to see things from the fulness of Christ’s perspective, our path will be illuminated and our priorities set.”
The gospel makes us into disciples, and true disciples of Jesus both share the gospel and address issues of social injustice. But one is the root of the other. The more people transformed by the gospel will mean that there are more people who advocate for social justice and the kingdom of God expands to do good for even more people.
But not embracing this priority leads to fewer change agents and greater injustice over time. May we take up our cross daily and set our priority as his followers to share the gospel priority. It truly addresses the greatest need of human beings.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17, NIV)
