Seven Years of a Weekly Gospel Review

“Did you have the same evangelism professor when you were in seminary?”

“No, why?”

“Brother, he used the four words! And he explained them just like we do every week in our service!”

Because of his stellar English, *Alan is our first local believer to take online classes at Southern Seminary. As we talked about how his Intro to Evangelism class went, he was beaming. He couldn’t wait to tell me how so much of what he had learned in the class fit with what he had seen modeled by the missionaries and older believers in his little Central Asian church. I laughed as Alan said things like, “Now I understand what you guys were trying to do!”

Though tempted, I did not say, “It’s about time, brother!”

Every week for the last seven years or so, our team has included a five minute portion for gospel review in our church services. To do this, we’ve leaned on the four word summary of the gospel common in reformed circles: God, Man, Christ, Response. We’d either have the person leading the service or one of the members lead this time.

After seven years, here are a few of the effects of this weekly practice:

1. Local believers in our church are over time able to faithfully and easily articulate the gospel, and understand how it is different from mere theological statements like “God is love,” as well as how it is different from works-based false gospels. When transferring membership to a church in another city, the pastor told us that *Frank and Patty had shared one of the clearer gospel presentations they’d ever heard in a membership interview.
2. The stable framework of the four words review allows the church leaders to weave in the breadth and depth of the gospel and its many facets in a slightly different way each week, while never departing from the simplicity of the message. At times when I’ve led this time in the past I’ve shared with the congregation the quote that the gospel is “shallow enough for a child to wade in and deep enough to drown a theologian.” This can equip the body with a flexible framework for evangelism rather than a rigid formula.
3. Unbelievers attending the service are sure to hear the gospel presented clearly by the congregation in the service, and not just by the preacher in the sermon. Unbelievers who are regular attenders can even end up sharing the gospel four words with others!
4. Every member of the missionary team gets weekly review and practice in presenting the gospel in the local language. This is a great step toward equipping newer teammates in local-language evangelism – and in sharpening even advanced speakers as they hear new phrases and forms.

Back-translated from the local language, this weekly gospel review sounds something like this:

[Leader] “Like every week, we want to review the message of the gospel together. This is the message that is the heart of everything we believe and teach. When those who don’t yet follow Jesus believe this message, they are saved. And we believers also need this message every day in order to be faithful. In this church, we use four words to summarize the gospel message of Jesus Christ. So, what are the four words that we use to do this?”

[Congregants] “God… Man… Jesus Christ… Response.”

[Leader] “That’s right, God, Man, Jesus Christ, Response. When we say ‘God,’ what do we mean by that?”

[Congregants] “God is the creator of everything.” “God is love.” “God is holy.” “God is spirit.”

[Leader] “Yes, God is the holy and loving creator. But what do we mean when we say ‘Man?’

[Congregants] “Man is a sinner and criminal.” “Man was created good, but we messed it up and rebelled.” “Man is lost and cannot save himself.”

[Leader] “So, what do we mean with the third word, ‘Jesus Christ?’ Who is he and what did he do?”

[Congregants] “He’s the final sacrifice for our sins!” “He’s the bridge between man and God.” “He died on the cross for our forgiveness and rose from the dead.” “He’s our rescuer who makes us right with God again.” “He is the son of God.”

[Leader then clarifies any important points of the gospel missed in the responses]

[Leader] “Because this message is true, what do we mean by the fourth word, ‘Response?’ It has two parts.”

[Congregants] “Repent and believe!”

[Leader] “Yes, everyone must repent of their sins and of trying to save themselves, and believe that Jesus is the only savior. If they do this, the promise of God is that they will be saved and become part of the family of God and have eternal life. All of us should memorize these four words, God, Man, Jesus Christ, Response, so that we can share this good news with our friends and family, and so that we can be encouraged ourselves everyday in the gospel. The order of the words is not as important as their meaning. There are many good ways to share the gospel, but when you use these four words you know you are sharing the heart of the good news.”

There are many ways to faithfully review the gospel in our weekly services, but this simple method has served us well in our cross-cultural, small church context. Do you have a way in which the gospel is made crystal-clear in each of your services? Are the congregants being equipped to better know and better share the gospel by that regular rhythm? Is it simple enough? Is it flexible enough?

To be honest, we originally started this weekly corporate gospel review time without much forethought. But seven years later, I’m so glad we did. We stumbled into something that has truly served the body well.

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*Names changed for security

Photos are from Unsplash.com