Compartmentalizing the Gospel

Back in the day when I beginning to take to heart my faith tradition's mandate to establish churches on, in its historic language, "the New Testament plan," and to submit to the teachings of the Bible as my "only rule of faith and practice," I studied the way so-called preaching was done when the earliest disciples came together.

For a brief time, I engaged in what I called "interactive sermons," in which I encouraged people of the congregation to participate in my message.

In one of those interactive sermons, I mentioned that there is a place in the letters of Paul that Paul states the content of the gospel he preached.

I asked the people to call out beliefs that Paul said he proclaimed as the gospel. I gave the hint that, in my way of counting, there are five items of belief.

As I recall, there were more than 20 Christian beliefs called out, all, in my opinion, genuine biblical teachings.

No one knew the exact content of Paul's gospel. Do you know where the passage is and what is the content of Paul's gospel?

Paul says that he beat the gospel drum over and over and over. His ministry was built on pressing those core teachings into the minds of disciples and potential disciples...

...and, today, the declining and stagnating church doesn't do that.

What we do is to compartmentalize the gospel. We also ritualize it. And, rather than actually proclaim it, we make an idol of it by designing special Holy Days to commemorate it...and to commemorate other teachings that are important but not included in the gospel Paul preached.

The compartmentalizing and ritualizing and idolizing and commemoration--rather than the preaching--of the raw and simple gospel is an ancient practice of the High, Institutionized Church...

...and it has never, ever produced spiritual vitality and growth.

In the past week, I cringed every time I saw, on social media and in other venues, praise of a church's Holy Week and Easter extravaganzas...

...and, as I noted in my DEBRIEFING EASTER post, my coworkers were not moved toward faithful discipleship by all of the institutionized church gospel compartmentalization.

They remembered which grandchild found which Easter egg and who brought what for dessert at the family Easter meal.

But, the gospel didn't touch one of their hearts.

High church Churchianity has disfigured the Gospel, which Paul says is the power of God to salvation, and that church is dying. And, it should die.

We must repent.

Please!  Repent.