Evangelism, salvation culture, and the Gospel

I am familiar with Scot McKnight's work through his blog. He recently gave an interview with the Christian Post that was filled with many insightful and important points.

Professor McKnight highlights how much of what is called evangelism boils down to a "culture of salvation."

"The Gospel of salvation has produced what I call a 'salvation culture' – a culture marked by who's in and who's out. So a very strong sense of 'we are the in group and others are the out group.' ... A 'Gospel culture' is a culture shaped by following Jesus, by living under Jesus as King. A 'Gospel culture' includes personal salvation, but it includes so much more."

Preach it, brother. It is very much a "me" thing rather than a Jesus thing. Salvation culture can devolve into 'God loves me but you suck.' The whole Left Behind nonsense is a particularly malignant expression of salvation culture in which the "saved" are whisked off to heaven while the "lost" are left behind to experience hell on earth. It bears no resemblance to the teachings of Jesus.

He goes to explain that too many evangelical pastors are more concerned with encouraging people to make a decision to accept Jesus rather than to become disciples. A disciple is motivated to follow the teachings of Jesus which requires mature faith.

"The fundamental job of the evangelist is not to get people to feel guilty about sins, or to feel terrorized by an angry God. The central question of evangelism is, 'who do you think Jesus is?'"

Digesting the teachings and example of Jesus is what it means to be disciple of Christ. Interestingly, Jesus taught that he wants his disciples to focus on their own sins with the understanding that forgiveness is granted as long as you forgive others. Judgment and punishment were described but hardly the focus of what Jesus taught. The obsession with sin, particularly the sin of others, by some folks that label themselves as evangelical Christians has more in common with the Pharisees than Jesus.

Revivalism is part of the salvation culture. It is very me oriented.

"Pastors ... preach revivalistic sermons that precipitate decisions, that precipitate experience, and the result is, if I've had the experience, I'm in; if I haven't had the experience, I'm not in. But more importantly, if I've had the experience, I'm in and I know who else is in -- those who've had my experience. So all other people are basically off the map unless they've had the same experience. That's revivalism and that has created what I call a salvation culture."

Reform and spiritual renewal will be required to move away from a shallow salvation culture to a richer and more demanding discipleship for Christ.

If more evangelicals would embrace a Gospel culture, McKnight said, "we would become people who are for other people, not just conscious that we are unique saved ones. We would become people who are here to serve others, to show them the love of God. We would be concerned about fellowship with one another and a life of community that embodied the kingdom of Jesus."

Amen!

One of the people that commented on the article provides the perfect example of the spiritual immaturity of the salvation culture. This person mocked the criticisms made by McKnight, questioning what a "gospel culture" looks like.

Be nice, love one another, etc? Is that why He died, so we can make each other comfortable and happy?

Jesus taught that the two central commandments are love God and love others. Everything follows from these two ideas. So here is someone that is mocking the commandment to love others as little more than making others "comfortable and happy."

Scot McKnight is someone worth paying attention to.