One element of growing up a church kid in the late 90s that he left out however was the obligatory altar call at the end of every retreat, music festival, mission trip, camp, and Superbowl party. If you were like me, when you were in high school, the church calendar looked something like this:
At the end of August there would be a Back to School Youth Kickoff party where the plan of salvation was presented. Then in the middle of October, at the Fall Retreat, the plan of salvation was presented again and I would be saved for the first time that year by raising my hand when everyone else had their eyes shut. By the end of November, I had back-slidden to the point where at the FCA Retreat I would once again raise my hand while everyone kept their eyes shut for my salvation. On New Years Eve, we would have our lock-in where once again I would hear the plan of salvation. The first week of February I would hear the plan of salvation again, this time shown on the bigscreen by a pre-recorded NFL player during half-time (which of course is why no church kid saw the 'wardrobe malfunction' live). By the end of March, I had been to the purity retreat, repented of youtubing the wardrobe malfunction, and once more asked Jesus to be my personal savior (we are up to 3 for those of you scoring at home). In April we would go to Ichthus, where once again the plan of salvation was presented, and this time I, along with 10,000 of my closest friends raised my hand to be saved. The summer brought a week at camp that culminated by praying at the altar and a mission trip where once again I could raise my hand while everyone else kept their eyes shut.
Looking back, I must have been saved and resaved at least 27 times before getting my driver's license. None of which resulted in transformation of my heart and mind.
In, The King Jesus Gospel, Scot McKnight talks about the way that 'salvation culture' has overcome 'gospel culture' in much of evangelicalism. He argues that most evangelicals (and many mainliners as well) when questioned about the content of the Gospel jump straight to a plan of salvation (whether that be the 4 spiritual laws, the romans road, the bead bracelet, or some other tract). For McKnight, the plan of salvation is a meager gospel, in large part because it fails to connect the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus to the larger trajectory of the story of God. For McKnight, a rendering of the Gospel that casts Jesus as savior without also casting him as Lord is no Gospel at all.
Tom Wright has claimed that when we distill the Gospel down to the plan of salvation, that we cease to be a Gospel community, we cease to be Evangelical, but instead we should be called soterians, the saved ones. The difference being that as soterians we are justified, but there is little impetus for sanctification--there is little impetus for being transformed into the image of God.
And there in lies the rub. God calls us to make disciples, who immersed in a Gospel culture, are transformed into the image of God, and while the plan of salvation (how we become justified) is part of this Gospel culture, it has no power when separated from the discipleship pathway (how we can become sanctified). So, no matter how much I want to, I can't bring myself to offer an empty gospel that justifies without the probability of sanctification. And neither could Wesley.
As United Methodists, sometimes we imagine John Wesley as a larger than life, Superman-like character in the English religious landscape. But the reality is that Wesley's work as a field preacher was dwarfed by that of George Whitfield. Whitfield was the master evangelist, whose preaching brought at least 10 times as many Englishmen to saving faith than did Wesley's. However, every person who came to faith under Wesley was immediately put in a [discipleship] class. In other words, Wesley refused to offer justification without the expectation of sanctification, and now, almost 250 years later, the movement with the method is in mission in nearly every community around the globe, while Whitfield, even before his death, lamented that he had not been as committed to getting converts into classes.
Here is where I want some feedback. I believe that the acknowledgement of justifying grace in one's life is important, but I don't believe that our usual ways of acknowledging justifying grace are working for making disciples. How have you seen the moment of decision turned into the first step of the discipleship pathway? How does the plan of salvation function in a Gospel culture?
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