What Is the Greatest Need in the American Church?

Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

J.D. Greear

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 630 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2019

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pastor J.D. explains that the gospel must be of first importance, both empowering and informing the church.

A glimpse inside this episode:

I actually wrote a book about this, called Above All.

The greatest need now is the same as the greatest need 100 years ago. It’s the same as the greatest need 2,000 years ago. It’s to keep the gospel above all.
- Above all preferences, preferences, priorities, politics, etc.

In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that the gospel is of “first importance.” First importance means other things are important, too. But this is of first importance. This means the gospel is what should characterize us

1 Corinthians 2:2: some scholars say an exaggeration?

Is that really new, though? Aren’t churches already doing this?

Churches haven’t stopped saying they believe the gospel. But many churches are looking elsewhere for the source of their renewal.

The gospel, you see, should both empower and inform everything we do.
Empowers
- - Spurgeon’s trough back to the gospel.
  - The gospel is the power in all that we do: It’s not just the diving board, it’s the pool
Informs
- The gospel shapes our mission.
- Jesus described his mission as: To seek and save the lost.
It should be our identity: We are a gospel people. When people think about and talk about us, they should think about and talk about the gospel
- Why we don’t talk about politics: We don’t want to get distracted by secondary agendas that get in the way of gospel proclamation and disciple-making.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network.
0:05.7	When we jump into today's podcast, I want to tell you something that I think you'll find interesting.
0:09.6	As a church leader, and I know we have a lot of church leaders listening to this, you know how tough marriage ministry can be sometimes.
0:15.6	There's never enough time to help every couple.
0:17.7	You feel like that's one of the most pressing needs in your church.
0:20.5	And I'm no marriage expert, and maybe you feel the same way. Well, that's why we want to tell
0:24.3	you about Wu Marriage. That's a brand new tool from Lifeway that provides Christ-centered
0:28.6	marriage coaching for every couple in your church. Back by research and designed with local
0:33.7	churches in mind, Wu Marriage provides a plan for your marriage ministry with video courses
0:38.8	for all seasons of marriage, whether you're just getting started or about to get married
0:43.2	or the golden years of your relationship. This is going to give you an affordable, flexible plan
0:47.8	right at your fingertips that will really serve the people in your church. There are courses for
0:50.8	communication, managing finances, handling conflict, you name it. You can try it free for one month with the offer code leadership when you go to WooMarrage, W-O-O-O-O-Murage.com slash free trial.
1:03.0	That's Offer Code Leadership at checkout on WooMurridge.com slash free trial.
1:08.9	And now I hope you enjoy.
1:10.2	Ask me Anything.
1:11.1	Welcome everybody. I'm here. I'm Matt Love. I'm here with Pastor J.D. Greer. This has asked me anything. And J.D., I'm really excited. We got the SBC coming up in a week. This is actually my first time ever going to the SBC. So I feel like this is big for me. It's going to be a life-defining moment. I know. My goodness. I'm from
1:45.0	Alabama. My parents are from Birmingham. This is like birthright. I mean, this is amazing. Multiple wins.
1:49.9	So going into the SVC, these kind of big events, I feel like they're really good times to just take a
1:55.2	step back, think big picture, what's happening in the church, what's happening with us? And so the question we have today,
2:00.9	I think, is kind of in that vein. So as you look at the church in America right now, what do you
2:06.3	think is the greatest kind of need of the hour as we kind of move into SBC? Yeah, it is a great question,
	...

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