Yet another Willow Creek Leadership Summit has ended.  Each time I go, I go with fear about continued corporate approaches to church.  But I always come away feeling blessed by the hearts of Bill Hybels and the various other speakers that share their hearts there.  And I learn a ton. 

At Hybels’ wrapup today, he reinforced the main thing of the Church, which is distringuished by the message we have to communicate to the world.  What is the message?  What is the main thing we must communicate with the clarity of a trumpet? 

 Substitutionary atonement.   Eeekk…

 Now I am not some lofty theologian.  Nor do I expect that any of you are.  But this concept must be understood by any of us that claim to be followers of Christ.

 Simply, it means that we are lost in our depravity, and that God says that someone’s got to  pay.  He could’ve easily relegated us all to an easy path to hell, for that’s what we surely deserve when confronted with His holiness.  He could’ve made us pay the price.  We can do NOTHING to merit His favor and grace.  He had to create a solution to keep us out of eternal torment with our sins as our companions.

 Someone had to take our place, and the place of our rotten hearts — subsituted as it were.  And that person was Jesus.  He atoned, made amends for, our sinful hearts.  He redeemed, or paid the price for us.  And thus we are set free from the horrible, horrible fate that could well have awaited us.  Only through Jesus have we become deserving of anything that is good or holy in life, or in the afterlife.

 Our message is clear: Christ became the substitute for us.  And thus, he aims to profoundly transform the world, redeeming all of creation and someday making it utterly whole. 

 Has our message been clear?  Have we been shouting it from the mountain tops?  Has it called out across the brokeness of our neighbors?  Has it pierced the hearing of those that are seeking?  Has it relieved the ears of those that wanted their ears tickled?  Have we plainly communicated this earth-shattering truth to everyone we possibly can in any setting?

 I fear that we, even I, have muddled God’s plain message to us.  And we may have even forgotten it as our reason for being and doing church.  I know that I have. 

The message is clear.  And I for one want to stop obscuring it with my own over-analysis, or over-complexification.  It’s our reason for being.  And if we really grasp this simple truth –one that no other world religion can claim — then our hearts will leap from the motivation of God’s grace.  And we will seek to graciously give this message, in love, to anyone that will listen, regardless of the place or the cost.  

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 13th, 2006 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Evangelism/Outreach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.