What I mean by ‘Gospel culture’

I first came across the term ‘Gospel culture’ in a paper by Ray Ortlund – ‘How to build a gospel culture in your church.’ I have since discovered that Ray Ortlund has lots to say about gospel culture in his blog, and best of all he and Sam Allberry are currently producing a podcast on the theme, entitled ‘You’re not crazy.’

Ray summarises gospel culture like this:

The shared experience of grace for the undeserving: the corporate incarnation of the biblical message in the relationships, vibe, feel, tone, values, priorities, aroma, honesty, freedom, gentleness, humility, cheerfulness – indeed, the total human reality of a church defined and sweetened by the gospel.
‘HOW TO BUILD A GOSPEL CULTURE IN YOUR CHURCH.’

He observes that sometimes churches can be strong on teaching gospel doctrine, the doctrines of grace; but weaker on living out those doctrines in our community life. As he puts it in episode 1 of the podcast:

The Gospel says the truths of Christ crucified, buried, risen again, and returning. What the gospel does through what it says is create beauty in human relationships. The vertical glories of the gospel come down upon us in a church and spread out horizontally. And when a church is only sensitive to what it should be saying, and not equally alert, and sensitive to what it should be, and, and the vibe, the tone, the intangibles of that church, then the church can actually counteract what it intends to do.
YOU’RE NOT CRAZY PODCAST: WHAT IS GOSPEL CULTURE? (THEGOSPELCOALITION.ORG)

Biblically, we might say that sometimes churches are better at emphasising the first half of Paul’s letters (the doctrine part) than the second half of Paul’s letters (the ‘so-what’ part). Of course, there’s also the danger of churches having an (in some ways) beautiful culture without accompanying faithful gospel doctrine, and from a gospel and eternal perspective this is even worse.

We’ll explore more of what gospel culture looks like in future posts. But for now, why not listen to some of the podcasts? I have found them extremely helpful.

How gospel culture connects with the other themes of this blog

This blog is called ‘Imperfect pastor.’ So why an emphasis on gospel culture? Because the two are intimately related. We all know that the leadership of a church has a huge impact on the culture of a church – for better or worse. It follows that if the leadership of the church projects itself as perfect, sorted, without sin – then the church community may well follow suit. Church members will treat one another as though they ought to be perfect, and there will be little forgiveness, little bearing with one another, little speaking the truth in love, along with all the other essential aspects of gospel community life.

If, on the other hand, the leadership of the church are able to communicate weakness and imperfection, and to extend grace to others – and to point people to Christ who alone is perfect and in whom we are loved and accepted in spite of our weakness and failing – then again, the church community will follow suit.

I have to put my hand up at this point and say that I am imperfect at communicating imperfection! I have spent enough hours, sermons, conversations over the years implying that I’m sorted. But I have resolved, as much as possible, to communicate to the leadership and the church family that I am not sorted (which won’t be news to them!), and my hope is in Christ alone.

Why does it matter?

Hopefully by now I don’t need to address this question. But to summarise and conclude, let me quote Ray Ortlund again:

Churches that do not exude humility, inclusion, peace, life, hope, and honesty—even if they have gospel doctrine on paper, they undercut their own doctrine at a functional level, where it should count in the lives of actual people. Churches that are haughty, exclusivistic, contentious, exhausted, past-oriented, and in denial are revealing not just a lack of niceness; they are revealing a gospel deficit, a doctrinal betrayal.
The current rediscovery of the gospel as doctrine is good, very good. But a further discovery of the gospel as culture—the gospel embodied in community—will be immeasurably better, filled with a divine power such as we have not yet seen.
It’s what revival will look like next.
GOSPEL DOCTRINE, GOSPEL CULTURE (THEGOSPELCOALITION.ORG)