The Gospel-Driven Organization

James Tonkowich, Ph.D.
This article provided by the Engstrom Institute

The "sweet, sweet song of salvation" is the Gospel, the message of "Jesus Christ and him crucified." It is the message Christian nonprofit organizations—their staff, board, and constituents—affirm. In many organizations propagating the Gospel is the entire mission. In others, whether the focus is relief, development, health, or public policy, witnessing to faith in Christ is nonetheless a priority.

Through the Gospel, God saved us when we first believed and began walking with Christ. Through the Gospel, God saves us today. It is not through great works of personal spiritual discipline that we turn from our sin and disordered love to grow in holiness; the Gospel is the power of God for change. And finally on the last day when all things are made new, our salvation from this world of sin, death, and decay will be the Gospel.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Col 1:19-20).

Thus it is no wonder that Paul went to Corinth with nothing else to talk about but "Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1Cor. 2:2). The Gospel is the center of Christian proclamation and of Christian living.

In light of that, during my career as a pastor and at several Christian nonprofits, I have asked myself: What does it mean for a Christian organization to be driven by the Gospel?

By that question, I do not mean a Gospel paragraph in the strategic plan. I mean something prior to plans, projects, and programs. Nor do I mean a naïve approach that says that all our problems in the world will be solved if only everyone comes to Jesus. After all, the salvation of members has not solved all the problems in our churches. Rather it is a question of where our hearts are; a question of how we do business, not of what business we do.

The Gospel should pervade Christian organizations in at least three ways.

1. Truth and Truth Telling

First, Gospel-driven organizations affirm that the Christian message is true — eternally and absolutely true. Nothing else can save us though there are plenty of ideas and ideologies lined up and claiming that they possess power to save us:

• Radical Islam
• Feminism
• Environmentalism
• Rewarmed, One-World Marxism
• Sexual "freedom"
• Materialism
• Politics
• Entertainment
• Moralism
• Any religious message that places an exclusive emphasis on the love of God while excluding or concealing any reference to the holiness of God and his judgment.

Rather than being truth that sets men and women free, these false gospels enslave minds and hearts with false ideas and false hopes. They confirm people in error. Gospel-driven organizations hold out an alternative: the Truth.

As theologian David Wells has written:

In order to think biblically about our world, we have to put ourselves in the minds of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Paul, and Peter and accept for ourselves the norms and habits by which they functioned. And their starting place was the category of truth. Truth to them was not privatized. It was not synonymous with personal insight, with private intuition. It was not sought in the self at all, as a matter of fact, but in history — the history that God wrote and interpreted — and it was therefore objective, public, and authoritative.

To be Gospel-driven, a Christian organization must declare and defend "objective, public, and authoritative" truth against error. This comes before planning, marketing, public relations, and development. The truth that Jesus Christ came to die for helpless sinners who were otherwise doomed to Hell does not play well culturally. But in order to be Gospel-driven, we are bound to tell the truth in all we do.

At the same time, I know that the declaration and defense of truth can be cone in a way that is heartless and brutal. That is why in addition to telling the truth unless we have to be convinced about brokenness.

2. Brokenness

We ourselves are broken. When God called Isaiah, he responded, "Woe is me! I'm ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips … " (Is 6:5). Peter's initial response to Jesus was, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man" (Lk 5:8b). St. Paul counted himself "the worst of sinners" (1T 1:16). The Gospel frees us to know the truth about who we are: broken, sinful creatures. As former Westminster Seminary professor Jack Miller used to quip, "Cheer up, my friend! You're far worse than you think. And God is far more loving and kind than you ever dreamed or imagined." If we do not have an understanding of our brokenness, it is an indication that we do not understand the Gospel and we and our organizations will probably do more damage than good.

Not only are we broken, we work in a broken world filled with broken people — many of whom are Christians. Years ago, Richard Lovelace, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary professor and long time church renewal figure, taught me what I consider the most valuable lesson I have ever learned for ministry. "It is very difficult," he said, "to tell the difference between wolves in sheep's clothing and very confused, very broken, very angry sheep."

Christian work requires a Gospel-driven humility to speak the truth to brokenness out of brokenness. That does not mean we can never be tough in our approach. It does mean that we speak and act to heal not harm our enemies, friends, constituents, staffs, and boards.

3. The Sufficiency of Christ

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ep 5:25-27)

There is no question that we all have plenty of work to do. Yet in our work, our planning, our governance, our giving, and our prayers, the hope we cling to is not our ability to achieve great things. Our only hope is the sure fact that Jesus has already accomplished the Great Thing. The text says that Christ, out of love for the Church and by His sacrifice:

• Makes her holy
• Cleanses her
• Makes her radiant
• Bleaches the stains
• Smoothes out the wrinkles
• Heals every blemishes
• Makes her holy and blameless

Given the discouraging things most of us know about the Church and about Christian organizations this is an astounding list! And yet, it is a list that reflects the power of the Gospel and the sufficiency of Christ. Gospel-driven organizations understand that our primary mission is to join Christ in His work. He is bringing about all His death on the cross has already accomplished. That He chooses to use our organizations and us is both ennobling and, once again, humbling.

Conclusion

At the Denver airport, waiting to board a flight, I bumped into someone who for twenty-five years has been Executive Vice President of a large, influential secular nonprofit. "What did you do," I asked, "to take that organization from a line in the White Pages to what it is today?"

"It's a long story," he replied, "but the short answer is, we ran it like a business."

Christian nonprofits should be run using all the best business practices we can muster. All truth is God's truth including wise management.

And yet anyone can plan, raise money, and develop programs. As Christian organizations, unless we are driven by the Gospel, the timeless message of Jesus Christ and him crucified, we may find that except for a statement of faith, we are indistinguishable from our secular counterparts.

Driven by the Gospel, however, we can expect truth to prevail, brokenness to be healed, and the sufficiency of Christ to be made known in and through us. That is, we can expect to be distinctly Christian organizations and, after all, isn't that the point?

Author Information: Jim Tonkowich is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America who has served in leadership roles at Prison Fellowship, Fellowship of Christians in Universities and Schools, and the Institute on Religion & Democracy.