Translating the Gospel

It's always good for some healthy reflection of what works and what doesn't. I can personally attest to why many of the churches in NC are doing so well as my dad served on the staff of many of them as the worship pastor. Those churches are people oriented, and they have a commitment to sound biblical preaching and making clear the whole gospel of Christ.

As for the churches in other states, I have some insight into them, as do you, due to my previous workings with contacting them, and they primarily fit the same billing.

The good thing about this list you've put up, is that it just goes to show that it doesn't matter if you're a "mega-church" or very traditional church (as some of them are), if you make the church about reaching people, and preach God's word accurately, and faithfully, GOD GROWS THE CHURCH!, ....but then again, it seems to me that He promised He'd do just that didn't He? :-) Good stuff man.

You've made some excellent points that I would like to elaborate upon if I may.

Yes, the Gospel of Christ is exactly it, but both in word and deed as Christ himself taught.

Yes, contemporary and traditional is all relative and can only be verified by the culture, personality and needs of a local church and the community it’s supposed to be serving. If the church is overwhelmingly traditional and only a few people want a contemporary-type church, then a contemporary church would be a horrible idea. Furthermore, if the community a church is supposed to be serving is contemporary and the church is traditional, generally speaking, such a church cannot expect to have much of an affect. But such would only be the “horrible” for the church, if that church is attempting to have an affect. If the church doesn’t want to serve, then witness and evangelize their community, there is no real need to explain the gospel to their community.

I noticed that Saddleback was not one of the churches listed

The form and method of communicating the Word of God is also important if not vital to the message itself.

Generally, a sermon screamed in anger is not as affective as a sermon spoken in love (again, generally speaking).

Preaching God’s Word accurately is also about expressing it clearly; hence, it’s all about translation.

The Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek and it was extremely effective in spreading the Word of God even among Gentiles.

The Bible as a whole was translated into Latin in order to communicate the Gospel in Europe.

The Roman Church held so much power over so many of the churches in Northern Africa, that they were able to prevent them from translating the Latin Bible into languages familiar to those people. Overtime, the gospel became foreign to the people of Northern Africa, and Islam became dominate.

The Roman Church continued to place the Latin Bible in prominence while the peoples of Europe began to speak non-Latin languages. Overtime, the gospel became almost as foreign to the people of Europe as those of Northern Africa. The people were ignorant and heresy spread thru the Roman Church unchecked.

However, the Renaissance brought a renewed interest in Hellenism and the Greek language. Wyclif was persecuted by the church for his English Bible translation as was Luther. But with Bibles being translated into common tongues and spread across Europe by Gutenberg’s printing press, the meaning of the Scriptures and the Word of God reached the common man.

Revival and reform followed.

In an increasingly un-churched and post-Christian world, we need to effectively communicate the Word of God both in word and action in a manner which the society can understand. We cannot afford to teach an unwilling and unsaved populace traditional Southern American Baptist culture as a means to communicate the Gospel. The Gospel is superior to Southern American Baptist culture and must come first.

Thus, if the community culture surrounding a church is traditional or the church has no interest in communicating the Gospel beyond their doors, tradition is the way to go. However, if we really want to see the Gospel transform people’s lives, if we really want to see Revival and Reform, if we really do not want to see America becoming another Palestine, Northern Africa, or Western Europe, people are going to have to abandon their selfish whims and comfort zones and sacrifice their cherished familiar for the salvation of the next generation.