a church where anyone can grow

gospel + safety + time = a church where anyone can grow

I can remember the first time I heard Ray Ortlund share this gospel culture equation. Susan and I were with our dear friends Jon and Lacey at a national conference, where Ray was giving a breakout session. During the session, he explained how this equation worked itself out in the life of his church, and its culture, and I was blown away. I immediately started working it into staff meetings, conversations, sermons, and anywhere and everywhere else.

Since then he’s repeated it in writing and teaching in quite a few places. But I’m posting it here again, in the hopes that if you are part of a church anywhere, you’ll use it as a guide to help make that church a place “where anyone can grow”

Gospel + safety + time. It’s what everyone needs. A lot of gospel + a lot of safety + a lot of time.

Gospel: good news for bad people through the finished work of Christ on the cross and the endless power of the Holy Spirit. Multiple exposures. Constant immersion. Wave upon wave of grace and truth, according to the Bible.

Safety: a non-accusing environment. No embarrassing anyone. No cornering anyone. No shaming. But respect and sympathy and listening and understanding, so that people can exhale and open up and unburden their souls. A church environment where no one seeking the Lord has anything to fear.

Time: no pressure. Not even self-imposed pressure. No deadlines on growth. Urgency, but not hurry, because no one changes quickly. A lot of “space” for complicated people to rethink their lives at a deep level. God is patient.

This is what our churches must be: gentle environments of gospel + safety + time. It’s where we’re finally free to grow.