Parks Society Special Event – Tim Keller
This morning, Tim Keller spoke at Orangewood Presbyterian Church at a Parks Society Special Event. He outlined what a gospel DNA is within a ministry, and why it must exist in order to reach the culture.

Gospel DNA is essentially just ministry emphases that rely on the saving work of Christ on the cross. The heart of every ministry, church, cause, mission, etc. should be the gospel. The gospel itself is “the power of God unto salvation.” It alone is enough to reach the hearts of men. Though God provides different avenues to bring this message to his people, the power lies in the gospel.

So what does a gospel DNA look like? Keller explains that there are 4 key factors involved. 

Grace-Motivated People
The first factor is that people are motivated by grace. Repetitively pounding your will upon people will not motivate them to do or believe anything. Telling them over and over again that they should do something just because they should doesn’t win their hearts. People are motivated by the grace that has been poured out for them and freely offered. People are motivated by grace that pours from Christ’s never-exhausted reservoir of love and patience.

City-minded & Kindgom-minded
The second key factor in a gospel DNA is that the ministry/church/people must be city-minded and kingdom-minded. This factor poses the challenging question: ‘Is this city here for the growth and success of your church, or is your church here for the redemption of the city?’ Pour your life out for the city. Do not let your vision become skewed and make your existence upon power. Be city-minded.

Keller also urges that we recognize that we are part of a bigger thing than denominations. Our aim is bigger than being Baptist, Presbyterian, or Pentecostal. We are part of God’s redemptive cause in bringing many sons to glory. We are part of Christ making all things new (not that we have the power to do so in ourselves, but through his gospel). We are part of the growth of His Kingdom. Be kingdom-minded.

Integrative-Balanced Ministry
In order to be effective as a ministry, we must have an integrative balance. There are three focuses here: Connect people to God, connect people to each other, and connect people to their culture. 

Connecting people to God is important because if we aren’t doing that, why do we exist? We are created to know God. If we know already Him, our purpose is to know Him deeper, and point people to the Treasure we have found. Simple as that. Outreach is essential. Keyword: Outreach. Reach out to people. Last time I checked, people aren’t running in droves through church doors on Sunday mornings on their own to hear about God.

Secondly, we must connect people to each other. Change happens in community. You become like the people you spend time with. Connecting people with each other is essential for a Christian’s growth.

Connect people to the culture. We need to be teaching Christians to be salt and light to the world. Part of that is being able to disciple people outside the 4-walls of church. One thing we are really good at (that maybe we shouldn’t be) is taking a Christian out of the culture, bringing him inside church, and making him really useful inside the church. We need to be better at teaching people how to be useful as engineers, architects, salesman, artists, real estate specialists, receptionists, CEO’s, labor workers. The best evangelism is laying yourself out for the city.

Contextualization 
Ministries and churches need to contextualize themselves. We cannot be so one-dimensional in our outreach to the city. Just because we are moved by something in a particular way doesn’t mean others are moved by the same thing. To think so is prideful. We should aim to place the gospel in a understandable context. You wouldn’t tell a four year-old about God’s love by explaining the imputation and impartation of Christ’s righteousness to us. You sing “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” An understandable context for a four year old. Keller said that the very incarnation of Christ was contextualization. The incarnation was “Diety for Dummies.” 

Reformed rap is a huge new context for outreaching to urban communities. Guys like Lecrae, Tedashii, and Trip Lee are placing gospel truth in an understandable context for urban communities. And it’s working. 

A vital focus is to maintain truth though. It’s useless to be relevant if we are delivering a different message, or a watered-down one. Be in the world, not of the world.