Note: The text below is taken from Center Church by Tim Keller. As we engage in Practicing the Way, the “third way” below, and the questions for an “experience meeting” in the form of small groups are helpful to consider.
GOSPEL APPLICATION
How do we bring the gospel home to people so they see its power and implications? This can take place in a church in several ways.
First, a church recovers the gospel through preaching. Preaching is the single venue of information and teaching to which the greatest number of church people are exposed. Are some parts of the Bible “better” for gospel preaching than others? No, not at all. Any time you preach Christ and his salvation as the meaning of the text rather than simply expounding biblical principles for life, you are preaching toward renewal. . .
The second way for a pastor or leader to recover the gospel in the church is through the training of lay leaders who minister the gospel to others. . .
A third way for a church to foster gospel renewal dynamics is to inject an experiential element into its small group ministry or even to form several groups dedicated to it. Many small group meetings resemble classes in which the Bible is studied or fellowship meetings in which people talk about their burdens and needs, help each other, and pray for each other. While these functions are extremely important, we can learn from leaders of the revivals of the past, such as George Whitefield and John Wesley, who encouraged people to form groups of four to eight people to share weekly the degree to which God was real in their hearts, their besetting sins, ways God was dealing with them through the Word, and how their prayer lives were faring. The Experience Meeting by William Williams is a classic guide to how a Welsh seait or “experience meeting” ran (see below).
A fourth way the gospel becomes applied to people’s hearts in a church is through the most basic and informal means possible — what the older writers simply called “conversation.” Gospel renewal in the church spreads through renewed individuals talking informally to others. It is in personal conversations that the gospel can be applied most specifically and pointedly. When one Christian shares how the gospel has “come home” to him or her and is bringing about major life changes, listeners can ask concrete questions and receive great encouragement to move forward spiritually themselves.
A fifth way to do gospel application is to make sure that pastors, elders, and other church leaders know how to use the gospel on people’s hearts in pastoral counseling — especially people who are coming under a deep conviction of sin and are seeking counsel about how to move forward.
Keller, Timothy. Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City (pp. 74-76). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
QUESTIONS TO GUIDE AN “EXPERIENCE MEETING”
To be admitted to an experience meeting, a prospective member had to answer the following questions in the affirmative:
1. Are you seeking God with all your heart?
2. Are you willing to take rebukes, chastening, and instruction from others?
3. Will you refrain from repeating the confidential things we discuss?
4. Are you willing to use your spiritual gifts to edify others in the group?
5. Are you resolved to forsake your idols and inordinate loves?
To spark discussion in the group, these questions were typically asked:
1. Do you have spiritual assurance of your standing in Christ? How clear and vivid is it?
2. How does the Holy Spirit bear witness with your spirit that you are his child? Are you conscious of a growing spiritual light within, revealing more of the purity of the law, the holiness of God, the evil of sin, and the preciousness of the imputed righteousness of Christ?
3. Is your love for Christians growing? Do you find yourself having a less censorious, judgmental spirit toward weak Christians, those who fall, or those who are self-deceived? Have you been cold to anyone?
4. Is your conscience growing tenderer to convict you of the very first motions of sin in the mind, such as the onset of resentment; worry, pride, or jealousy; an inordinate desire for power, approval, and material comfort; and an over-concern for your reputation? Are you becoming more aware of and convicted about sins of the tongue, such as cutting remarks, rambling without listening, deception and semi-lying, gossip and slander, inappropriate humor, or thoughtless statements?
5. Do you see signs of growth in the fruit of the Spirit? Can you give examples in which you responded in a new way — with love, joy, patience, honesty, humility, or self-control — in a situation that a year or two ago you would not have?
6. Are you coming to discern false, idolatrous motives for some of the good service you do? Are you seeing that many things you thought you did for God you are actually doing for other reasons? Are you coming to see areas of your life in which you have resisted the Lord’s will?
7. Are you seeing new ways to be better stewards of the talents, gifts, relationships, wealth, and other assets that God has given you? 8. Are you having any seasons of the sweet delight that the Spirit brings? Are you finding certain promises extremely precious? Are you getting answers to prayers? Are you getting times of refreshing from reading or listening to the Word?