Yesterday I had the privlidge of attending Lifeway’s web broadcast announcing the Gospel Project. It was a great day of learning, exploring what the Gospel Project was all about and connecting with some new friends. The people at Lifeway were great hosts and I’m glad to know so many of them now.

I’m sure the webcast will be available to watch later (I’ll post a link when it is) and I encourage you to watch it. I don’t know how many people were watching the stream, but twitter was blowing up using #thegospelproject. Actually, this hashtag was trending globally, which is VERY impressive.

The webcast featured three speakers, Matt Chandler, J.D. Greear, Ed Stetzer with Trevin Wax moderating discussion. Here’s a little of the content:

Matt Chandler

  • Paul seems eager to keep the message of the Gospel in front of those who are following Christ, not just for those who weren’t following Jesus.
  • Too often, church experience seem to be more about promoting Christian Moralistic Deism as opposed to the message of the gospel.
  • Give people the ability to read the scripture correctly. The Bible is “A” story… not 66 individual stories.
  • Teach biblical morality within the context of the redemptive story, otherwise we become self-righteous or beat down.
  • When you don’t point the story back to the greater gospel message, the stories become moralistic stories that don’t alway apply to where I am in my life.

JD Greear

  • The gospel is not just the diving board into the Christian life, but it is the pool.
  • When our heart changes, or behavior changes… so go after heart issues as opposed to tweaking behavior.
  • When we grow deeper in the gospel, our desire for righteousness changes.
  • It’s the power of grace that motivates and provides an environment for change.
  • (Example) When it comes to motivating people to generosity… Some use greed, others use guilt. But we’re usually not generous naturally. God is a greater source of security. He’s a truer example of generosity.
  • We are idolaters and the only way to change our behavior is to address the heart that fuels the behaviors.
  • It’s not about looking for weird and obscure connections, but seeing the themes of God’s redemptive story in every story.
  • The characters of the Old Testaments are not just there to point us toward emulation (although many of them have moments worth emulating)
  • The hero of every story should be the hero of the Bible.
  • Gospel centered is not just how you begin, but how you grow.

Ed Stetzer

  • The Gospel Project, you are the project and the gospel is working on you.
  • Why does this matter? It leads us to being on mission.
  • We don’t wan’t religious consumers instead, we want mission co-laborers.
  • I don’t want to ever preach a message that would be true without the cross, otherwise I’m just dispensing advice.
  • We should be asking ourselves, “What is distinctively Christian about this message?”
  • Biblical illiteracy and theological confusion is prevalent today… but we don’t want to create knowledge junkies.
  • Theology, Gospel, Mission – an early name for the Gospel Project.
  • We can know a lot and do a little and we miss the whole point when we don’t become co-laborers with Christ.
  • People confuse minutia with meat.
  • The Gospel Project wants you to go deep, but also go out. These two are inseparable.
  • The majority of people in the majority of churches are unengaged. We’re speaking to rooms filled with spectators.