Not Just The Gospel

November 1, 2023

Fr. John Riccardo

“Brothers and sisters: We were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children. With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well, so dearly beloved had you become to us. You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery. Working night and day in order not to burden any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe”

(1 Thess 2:7-9b,13)

This text has become a favorite of ours in ACTS XXIX. Paul speaks about the kind of relationships we are supposed to have in the Church as we go about the mission of evangelization and re-creation until Jesus returns and makes all things new. But first let me offer a little background.

It’s been said often that we are rapidly leaving behind an era called Christendom for a very different one. The best work we’re aware of on this topic is entitled, From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age. This should be required reading for anyone serving in the Church, as well as anyone serious about understanding why things are so different today than they were a generation or two ago. 

“We are at the end of Christendom,” Archbishop Fulton Sheen said in 1974. “Not Christianity, not the Church.” He then went on to define what he meant by the term “Christendom”: “Economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending — we’ve seen it die. Look at the symptoms: the breakup of the family, divorce, abortion, immorality, general dishonesty.” Would anyone argue with this? These are not, though, Sheen continued, dark days. These are great days, for these are the days the Lord has chosen for us to live. Indeed, we were born for this! To do what the Lord is asking of us we must first understand the time we’re in and adopt strategies and principles that are suited for this time, rather than relying on and utilizing strategies that may have worked well in the past.

To be clear, no one has a “silver bullet” for how the Church gets well so as to better engage with the world at large. The solution isn’t to be found in programs, methods or best practices, as helpful and important as all those things can be and are. We at ACTS XXIX think renewal and transformation come in large part from learning and practicing three “essential principles.” These principles are practical without being prescriptive, for there is no “one size fits all.” They’re simple, though not necessarily easy; and they’re really about acquiring new mindsets, new ways of thinking. Perhaps more accurately, they’re about returning to ways of thinking that once predominated in the Church of old but got lost in Christendom. Wherever we go and to whomever we speak, everything we do is centered around sharing these principles as widely as we can. We are convinced they work; we’ve seen the fruit. Paul, we would argue, embodied all three of these in his life and writings, even if he didn’t name them as such. 

What are these principles? First, we need to reacquire a biblical worldview. Ours is an age riddled with fear, anxiety, and depression. As one professor astutely noted, “Depression isn’t just about feelings; it’s about cognition, it’s about thinking, it’s about how you see the world.” Simply put, our age has adopted a worldview that is leading it into despair. The evidence is overwhelming for anyone willing to dig into the statistics on mental health, especially but not only in our youth. We need to learn to see biblically again, to get clarity on the truth that there is a God, who He is, why He made the world, why everything is so messed up, what He has done to rescue it, and what our mission is. That’s why we created The Rescue Project (www.rescueproject.us). It offers people new lenses, the same lenses Paul offered to the Thessalonians, lenses that enabled them to turn from idols to the true and living God, lenses that gave them hope (cf. 1 Thess 1:9). This principle flows from Paul’s words to the Church in Rome that the gospel is power, not just news (cf. Rom 1:16). We believe that the greatest and most urgent task in the Church today is a compelling and attractive proclamation of the gospel, for the simple reason that most people haven’t heard it. “The new evangelization,” Pope John Paul II said in 1992, “begins with the clear and emphatic proclamation of the gospel, which is addressed to everyone.” 

But note what Paul tells the Christians in Thessalonica this week. “We were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well” (1 Thess 2:8). The gospel is essential, of course, but it’s not enough. This passage summarizes the second essential principle. We call this, “It’s not enough to be a staff.” Meaning, if we’re going to be serious about being the Church and getting on with the work of mission, we need to move from being a staff to a team but then so much more than a team, for teams are not biblical concepts. We have to learn how to become a family on mission. We have to learn how to see each other and relate to each other as brothers and sisters in the Lord, each with our own roles and responsibilities to be sure, but all serving the one Lord and one Father of us all (cf. Matthew 23:8-9). Paul doesn’t see the Church in Thessalonica as his possession, or “his parish,” and he certainly didn’t relate to the people he served with there as “his staff.” They were a family, each with their own unique roles. The Church is not a corporation, and so we shouldn’t speak about and refer to one another in corporate language. We are the family of God, the body of Christ, and so need to learn to live, love and speak to and about each other accordingly. This was why Paul constantly poured out his heart not only to the Thessalonians but in every place he went and ministered. Paul was anything but reserved, guarded, or invulnerable. He wore his heart on his sleeve, just as his Master and Lord did and does still with His bride. 

Bishops and pastors are not CEOS, they don’t have staffs, and we need to re-learn what it means to be a family on mission. Is it any wonder people aren’t lining up outside our parishes, when what they hear and see in us so often sounds just like the world at large, or even worse some days. There’s a third essential principle as well, and we call it “the money maker.” However, we’ll save that for another time. For those interested in more on “the three essential principles,” you can find that here.

In the meantime, may St. Paul intercede for us, that we may grow in our ability to see all of reality through biblical lenses, and how to live with, serve with, and love one another.