One of the big “buzz” phrases we hear throughout the young, hip, and cool (holes in your jeans are a must to qualify) church culture these days is “gospel centered”. First of all, what does gospel centered mean? I’m not going to act like I know the answer in it’s entirety but, what I do know is how that plays itself out in our church, Woodlands Point, on a weekly basis.

There are things that stick out in your mind when you’re involved in planting a church. Things that you can still recall with vivid memory, things you learn along the way that not only shapes the vision of the church and its people, but also shape and mold you as a person in the process. I remember moments in the beginning stages of The Point that rocked my world. I can remember weeks where it felt like we were walking up stream just to get through a service, weeks when the text messages with my pastor went on for hours afterward filled with “we’ll never do that again” and “are we getting through to anyone?” I also remember the week Jason (pastor) and I met, as we do every Thursday morning, to discuss service the upcoming Sunday. For some reason in our planning for this particular week we were discussing the difference between “teaching” a gospel and being “gospel centered”. We talked for quite a while that morning about the effects of the gospel on us as humans and that although we were taking our people on a journey through the gospel, we were not teaching them to live life centered completely on the gospel of Christ, nor was our worship service a reflection of that life. Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t teaching any kind of heresy or misleading people in any way. In fact, we were walking them through a book of the bible verse by verse, which we figured was the best way to be correctly sitting under the authority and supremacy of God. BUT, we quickly discovered that a new conviction was arising in us as a church staff. And that was to see our own lives completely ravaged by the gospel of Christ to the point of forsaking ourselves to its cause, and we wanted our people to understand that when brought face to face with the glory of Christ and the horrifying truth of our own sin we are driven to live differently. We also wanted people to understand that the entire Bible from cover to cover is about God’s redemptive plan for man through Jesus Christ.

So how does that look in the context of our services?

Each message taught now at The Point is taught through the lenses of God’s amazing, undeserved grace on us His people. And no matter what particular text we may be tackling that weekend you can be sure that when all is said and done, we teach our people that we are sinners saved by the grace of Christ, and His word forces us to come face to face with the ugliness of our sin, repent, and be more like Him.

How does that play out in Worship?

Just like in the messages taught from the stage we strive for each song that we lift in worship to God in our gatherings to remind us of the story of Christ’s redemptive actions on our behalf. Don’t get me wrong, there are many, many, great worship songs out there that connect people to God and speak of His love and faithfulness to us. But, for me when planning songs for a particular week I try to be intentional about selecting songs that tell the gospel story of Christ. I love to begin with a song describing the greatness of God and how massive He is, then use songs that specifically tell the crucifixion, resurrection, and second coming of Christ. I believe that my job as their worship pastor is to bring them face-to-face first with a loving and amazing God, and that through a revelation of who He is that we will be forever changed. I believe there is a power and passion unlike any other to sing together as a group the gospel story of Christ, and celebrate who He is and what He has done for us. Gospel centered worship is the proclamation, through song, of the revelation of our own depravity, reaching out to a God who saves, and He answers with His Son.

Tags: buzz word, centered, christ, church, gospel, mean, music, plant, point, redemption, selection, song, woodlands, worship

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Worship Christ.