Go to Church for the Gospel?

Eric Costa of Reformation Theology blog points out that since the Gospel is not only what saves us but what sustains us, we should go to church every week in order that we might hear the gospel preached to us. I agree wholeheartedly with those sentiments. I want to take it one step further though. I find very little mention of motives for church "attendance" in the Bible. I do find that the Gospel must be preached. I think we need to go one step further in our understanding and motive for church "attendance" or "going to church". We when go to church, not only must the words be Gospel-centered, but our lives must demonstrate the Gospel.

If we truly believed the words that the Cross-centered preacher is preaching, then we would not be content to come, come, sit, listen, and leave. We would not be content to come, sit with our group of friends, go out to eat with our group of friends, and go on with our week, having our souls filled with the Gospel message. As a church, we must live in community and within the greater community where we are located as those who feel the weight of grace, as those who know that we have been forgiven the largest debt imaginable and given an even greater gift. If we are truly going to church to hear the gospel AND live the gospel, we won't make distinctions among ourselves, creating strata based on socioeconomic status, intelligence, or position on the ecclesiastical hierarchy. We won't squabble over worship styles or hold grudges. We will be quick to cover over sin and to gently restore those who are in sin. We will look for the poor, the outcasts of society and invite them, treat them like kings, and introduce them to the King of kings.

Gospel preaching is necessary, but it is not sufficient without every member of the church living it out among each other and out in the world. O God, I pray that you give me the faith to believe the content of the Gospel in such a way that every single action I do is done in light of that faith.

(See my message, The Gospel in Radical Hospitality, on this point)

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