Gospel-Centered in Person, Not Just in Paradigm
Whatever her pastors are, a church will become. If we do not much find the gospel resilient, over time our people won’t either. If we do not find it a versatile resource, neither will our congregation.
Similarly, if we talk the talk but do not walk the walk, our church will become accustomed to doing the same. Whole churches can learn to speak gospel-ese while knowing little about the claims of gospel-centrality or their theological import. “Gospel-centeredness” just becomes the community’s lingo. Worse still, when that happens, a church can operate functionally in a judgmental climate of law—overrun by gossip and suspicion, populated with people jockeying for position or lamenting their lack thereof—while gospel stuff dominates the marketing, media, and messaging of the church.
It is especially damaging, I think, when leaders known publicly for demonstrating grace are exposed as graceless behind the scenes. It doesn’t just bring the leader into dis- repute; it tarnishes the public perception of the gospel itself. When the brash public firebrand makes a mess of his life and ministry, I am saddened but not usually surprised. But when a fellow widely known for his sweetness and gentleness is revealed to be a bully, charlatan, or sexual deviant, my heart truly drops.
As I write this, another “gospel-centered” pastor has been exposed for his disqualifying double life. A pastor known for his gracious demeanor and joyful personality is revealed to be a predator.
Maybe your situation is not so dire. You are not engaged in sexual sin, financial greed, aggressive short-temperedness, or some other obviously disqualifying sin, but you’re just . . . going through the motions. You’re talking the talk, but behind the scenes you are spiritually dry. You are shepherd- ing “out of compulsion” (1 Peter 5:2 CSB). You’ve essentially become a hired hand (John 10:12–13). You’re gospel-centered in paradigm (in public) but not in private (in person).
If I speak the language of gospel-centrality but do not have love, the paradigm will sound like nothing more than a clanging cymbal (1 Cor. 13:1).
It is important that we do not conduct a relationship with Jesus as an idea rather than as an actual person. Since the fad has run its course, a commitment to gospel-centrality only on paper doesn’t make sense in these days of evangelical distaste for it. If you’re going to commit to it, commit to it through Jesus.
If I could offer one more sign of potential drift in this regard, it would be abundant “gospel talk” without much articulation of the actual gospel. I see this in a lot of preachers who use the word gospel a lot while rarely explaining the gospel’s word. Their sermons and writings are peppered with phrases like “believe in the gospel,” “center on the gospel,” and “lean into the gospel.” They also use gospel as an adjective or modifier quite a bit: “gospel-centered,” “gospel-driven,” “gospel issues,” “gospel community,” “gospel mission.”
This phenomenon is rather deceptive. It gives the appearance of substantive gospel content but actually empties the gospel of its power to transform. Remember that the word gospel isn’t magic. The word gospel doesn’t do anything. We have to actually articulate the good news—the cross and resurrection of Jesus at bare minimum—in order to experience real power.
Preacher, you may wonder why, despite all your gospely sermons, your people are not growing in holiness or missional zeal. But I challenge you to withstand the temptation to think gospel-centrality doesn’t work. The Holy Spirit working through the message of the good news operates on his own timetable, not ours. Have exceeding patience with your people, and perhaps use it as a motivator to reevaluate your assumptions about your preaching. Is it possible you’re giving people lots of good news jargon without the actual good news?
I realized once that I had fallen into a pattern of being “legalistic” about gospel-centrality! My preaching, particularly my conclusions, became routinely riddled with admonitions to my people to “be gospel-centered” and “center on the gospel.” These are indeed important imperatives, but divorced from the indicative of the gospel itself, they cannot actually be heeded. Since that realization, I remind myself not simply to tell people about the glory of Christ but to do my best to show it to them. It’s one thing to say, “Jesus is glorious; be in awe of him.” It’s another to preach Jesus in such a way that your hearers are confronted with a vision of his glory and put in a position of awe.
Who the pastor is outside the pulpit is equally important, of course. In the areas of leadership and shepherding, if we are not rehearsing the message of Christ’s cross and resurrection with our fellow pastors, staff, friends, family, and the rest of our flock, we are in real danger of drifting away from our first love. In another counterintuitive truth, the pastor who is constantly digging in his ministerial tool kit to dispense practical wisdom and personal insights will find himself often scraping up the reserves of his own heart and energy. Our internal resources are finite. But if we make it a point to direct people away from ourselves and to Jesus, we will find that his fullness is an endless fountain of grace (John 1:16).
The gospel-centered pastor in the counseling room, living room, and board room will discover again and again Christ’s miracle of provision. David Hansen says, “The gospel is the power of the love of God to give to others. If the gospel is the pastor’s bread, the pastor will always have bread to give away.”[1]
This is the right order for our interpersonal fellowship as well. Nothing is as powerful as a community of sinners brought together—because of Jesus—and actually enjoying having been brought together because of Jesus.
It is nice to have multiple things in common with our brothers and sisters in Christ. But in the church, the only thing we must have in common is an interest in the grace that redeemed us. As such, a truly gospel-centered Christian will not focus on all the ways he is different from others in the church, or all the ways others in the church are different from him.
When we are gospel-centered in person, we consider our preferences to be incidental and our biases to be hindrances to authentic gospel-centered community. With the Holy Spirit’s help, when we actually center on the gospel, we see the wisdom and wonder of a portrait of community like we see in Romans 15:1–7:
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
The Christians envisioned here are enjoying a harmony of doctrine, to be sure, but they are enjoying more than that. They are enjoying a harmony of what that doctrine, truly believed, produces. They are enjoying a harmonious culture. Ray Ortlund reminds us,
Gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. The doctrine of grace creates a culture of grace. When the doctrine is clear and the culture is beautiful, that church will be powerful. But there are no shortcuts to getting there. Without the doctrine, the culture will be weak. Without the culture, the doctrine will seem pointless.[2]
In a gospel culture, the doctrine is cherished all the more because we know it is the strength behind our bearing with each other’s failings, our pleasing each other, our enduring with each other, and even our outdoing one another in showing honor (Rom. 12:10).
A church that wants this sweetness must center on the gospel, for the gospel is the only source of this sweetness. “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony” (Rom. 15:5). Paul knows this gospel culture can only come from God. And it will not come from the theoretical God of a gospel-centrality that amounts to little more than a church’s wallpaper. It will come from the Spirit of God who brings conviction, comfort, and counsel through his Word, and who bids us in that Word to “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you” (Rom. 15:7).
[1] David Hansen, The Art of Pastoring: Ministry without All the Answers (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 38.
[2] Ray Ortlund, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ, Building Healthy Churches (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 21.
Taken from Lest We Drift by Jared Wilson. Copyright (c) 2025 by Jared Wilson. Used by permission of Zondervan Reflective. https://www.zondervan.com.