Church as Country Club<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This was originally posted at Huffington Post, and the theme below taps into my new book, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/09\/church-as-country-club\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church as Country Club\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This was originally posted at Huffington Post, and the theme below taps into my new book, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/09\/church-as-country-club\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-09T15:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-09T02:17:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/09\/church-as-country-club\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/09\/church-as-country-club\/\",\"name\":\"Church as Country Club\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-09T15:10:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-09-09T02:17:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"This was originally posted at Huffington Post, and the theme below taps into my new book, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/09\/church-as-country-club\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/09\/church-as-country-club\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/09\/church-as-country-club\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Church as Country Club\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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{"id":20183,"date":"2011-09-09T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=20183"},"modified":"2011-09-08T21:17:02","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T02:17:02","slug":"church-as-country-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/09\/church-as-country-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Church as Country Club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This was originally posted at Huffington Post<\/strong><\/a>, and the theme below taps into my new book, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Christianity sometimes presents itself as a country club. It presents itself this way even when it doesn\u2019t want to, and sometimes it doesn\u2019t even know it. I grew up loving to play golf but I played on the public course. I had friends who played at the local country club. When I visited the country club I felt like a visitor even though the members were wonderfully hospitable. Members felt like members and visitors felt like visitors, and knowing that you could \u201cvisit\u201d only by invitation made the difference clear.<\/p>\n

Many experience the church this way. Members know they belong, and visitors know they don\u2019t. Well, after all, we might reason, the Christian faith is a religion of salvation, and Stephen Prothero\u2019s recent book, God is Not One<\/em>, depicted Christianity as a faith concerned with the \u201cway of salvation.\u201d And if you are saved, you are a member; if you are not saved, you are not. You might visit, but until you get saved you will know you are not in the club.<\/p>\n

Christianity has been powerfully effective at creating what might be called a \u201csalvation culture.\u201d Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, Protestant mainliners, Protestant evangelicals and other families in the church like Pentecostals only offer slight variations on this salvation culture. This message of salvation is that God loves us but God is holy so sin must be dealt with; Jesus Christ died for us and through his death salvation can be found, but to find that salvation one must trust in Jesus Christ and his death. Those who do are both \u201cin the club\u201d and will spend eternity with the club members with God in heaven. In essence, this is Christianity\u2019s salvation culture. It is a good message, but it is not the whole message.<\/p>\n

I want to suggest that the country club image for the Christian faith, its salvation culture, no matter how historic and vital to the Christian church\u2019s identity, inadequately frames what might be called its true \u201cgospel culture.\u201d If a salvation culture builds a country club, a gospel culture creates a story \u2013 \u00a0one with a beginning in God\u2019s shalom and one that aims at God\u2019s shalom. And a gospel culture is not identical to a salvation culture.<\/p>\n

What is a gospel culture? The gospel of Jesus and of the apostles cannot be reduced to the plan of salvation or to its effect: a salvation culture. The gospel, instead, is more robust and it is to tell the Story of Jesus as the fulfillment of Israel\u2019s Story, of God\u2019s design to build an Eden shaped by shalom. Notice how the apostle Paul defined gospel because he told a story and did not simply tell the facts of salvation: in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul tells us that the gospel is four events in the life of Jesus (not four spiritual laws) \u2013 the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That Story, which only makes sense if we tie it to Israel\u2019s Story, is the gospel that united the earliest Christians. It was the same gospel we find in the gospel sermons in the Book of Acts. And, now we get to Jesus. It is popular today to say Jesus\u2019 gospel was \u201ckingdom,\u201d and by kingdom many people think \u201cjustice.\u201d So, in essence, many today think the gospel of Jesus was justice and the church messed it up with its salvation culture. But this flattens the Story in a way not unlike the way a salvation culture flattens that same Story.<\/p>\n

To be sure, Jesus preached the ideal society in the word \u201ckingdom\u201d but the biggest claim Jesus made was that the kingdom \u201cwas here\u201d or \u201cwas arriving.\u201d In other words, Jesus was telling us that the Story had moved to a new chapter \u2013 and he thought it was occurring in his day and through his vision. Here\u2019s my claim: the gospel Jesus preached was that the Story of Israel had come to a new chapter in himself, in his day, and that it was a liberating, redeeming, and transforming Story.<\/p>\n

A gospel culture focuses on the Jesus Story, the Story that God is at work among us \u2013 the incarnation. In other words, the essence of a gospel culture is a Jesus-shaped and Jesus-centered Story of God at work among us. It is not just a country club, but the Story of life-giving, self-sacrifice and hope that God can take ruins and create monuments of love, peace, justice and joy \u2013 and Jesus told us that Story is now taking place among us.<\/p>\n

Christians need to recommit themselves all over again to a gospel culture. It\u2019s not as natural to us as a salvation culture.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"