Christians need to embrace transformational gospel

WACO—God calls his people not only to seek the salvation of individuals for eternity, but also to bring about societal transformation in the present world, Bob Roberts told a Christian community development conference.

Bob Roberts

“God expects his kingdom to come here and now,” Roberts, founding senior pastor of NorthWood Church in Keller, told the No Need Among You Conference in Waco.

The New Testament book of Colossians teaches God intended Christ’s sacrificial death “to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven,” Roberts emphasized. The gospel of the kingdom involves obedient Christ-followers engaging in all the domains of society with a goal of reconciling them to God.

For missional transformation to occur, Christians must:

• Move from a gospel of salvation to a gospel of the kingdom. Individual salvation marks the starting point, not the end goal. Christians want other people to come to faith in Christ, but a focus only on individual salvation can lead to tribal and consumeristic attitudes toward faith, he asserted. In contrast, he said, “The gospel of the kingdom is very fluid and about transformation.”

• Move from the grid of the church to the grid of society. Rather than focusing on performance at the Sunday event, the church should emphasize equipping disciples for service the other six days each week, he stressed.

“It’s a focus on the disciple and the society, not the preacher and the church,” he said. “It’s the church scattered, not just the church gathered.”

• Move from the concept of vocational ministry to the released church. A missional church helps members view their workplace as their place of ministry.

“We must loose them and let them go—release the whole body of Christ,” Roberts said. The challenge to “learn, grow and go” proves inadequate because Christians may never feel they have learned enough and grown enough to go out and serve. Instead, the command should be “hear and obey,” he said.

• Move from isolated tribal faith to integrated city engagement. This represents a continuing challenge because it pushes churches outside what is comfortable and familiar.

“We know how to make the gospel relevant to suburban America, but we do not have a clue how to do it in a multiethnic, multifaith global world.”

No Need Among You conference sponsors included Mission Waco, the Baylor University School of Social Work’s Center for Family and Community Ministries, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Buckner International, Baptist University of the Américas and Waco Regional Baptist Association.