top posts of 2012 - 1

The most-read post on the blog this year was a collection of quotes from the great book, Creature of the Word
 

"[there is a] difference between knowing the gospel and being consumed by the gospel, being defined by the gospel, being driven by the gospel. It’s one thing to see the gospel as an important facet of one’s ministry. It’s quite another to hold firmly to it as the centerpiece for all a church is and does, to completely orbit around it...

... just as an individual must continually return to the grace of Jesus for satisfaction and sanctification, a local church must continually return to the gospel as well. Our churches must be fully centered on Jesus and His work, or else death and emptiness is certain, regardless of the worship style or sermon series. Without the gospel, everything in a church is meaningless. And dead.

... So . . . if challenged to give an answer for why we’ve lost a great deal of our power as the Church, one of the major reasons we’d give is this: our misunderstanding about what the gospel actually does. We seem to have developed gospel amnesia, forgetting that the gospel not only creates and sustains the Church but also deeply shapes the Church."