Becoming Fluent in the Gospel

Three months…

It was going to be three months of doing my own laundry. Three months of cooking my own meals. Three months of working a real job. And three months in French…

It was the summer before my senior year in university, and I had signed up for a three-month mission trip with Campus Crusade for Christ. It was called Montreal Project.

The idea is that we would learn how to see life as mission and mission as life.

During the day, we would work a real job. During the evenings, we would be discipled, disciple others, and evangelize. On the weekends, we would do outreach and bless the community.

It was a missional missions trip before missional was cool.

Instead of just seeing the mission field as “over there,” we learnt how to see it as also “being here.” After all, the nations had come to us, and I was living in one of the most unreached cities in the Western world.

However, it wasn’t until the end of the third month that I began to understand the importance of fluency.

No I’m not talking about French—as important as that was for the mission’s trip. I’m talking about fluency as my friend, Jeff Vanderstelt, defines it in his latest book, Gospel Fluency.

I believe such fluency is what God wants his people to experience with the gospel. He wants them to be able to translate the world around them and the world inside of them through the lens of the gospel—the truths of God revealed in the person and work of Jesus. Gospel-fluent people think, feel, and perceive everything in light of what has been accomplished in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

They see the world differently. They think differently. They feel differently.

When they are listening to people, they are thinking, “How is this in line with the truths of the gospel? What about Jesus and his work might be good news to this person today? How can I bring the hope of the gospel to bear on this life or situation so this person might experience salvation and Jesus will be glorified?” (41-42)

From the moment I woke up to the time I hit the sack, I was on mission. I was on mission to share the gospel with my coworkers. I was on mission to be salt and light in Montreal. I was on mission to see the name and fame of Jesus Christ be declared in a city where churches were being converted into condos, and basilicas were tourist attractions rather than places of worship. And I realized that the only way this was going to happen is if I learnt how to become fluent in the gospel in the everyday stuff of life.

The gospel will never become your “native tongue,” without immersion in a “gospel-speaking culture.”

Here’s how Jeff puts it,

You do need to receive some formal training in the basics of the gospel, just as learning a language requires knowing the basics of grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure…However, formal training alone does not make one fluent. You become fluent through immersion in a gospel-speaking community and through ongoing practice. You have to know it, regularly hear it, and practice proclaiming it…Gospel fluency begins in you, gets worked out within community, and is expressed to a world that needs to hear about Jesus. (43)

While you may not be able to quit your job and move to a different city for three months, you can take your first steps towards gospel fluency right where you are.

Start by reading Gospel Fluency with a group of friends. Learn the language and create a community where you are speaking the gospel into one another’s lives on a regular basis.

This isn’t a silver bullet. You have to do this over the long haul, but stick to it because it’ll be worth it. You’ll see kingdom transformation in your own life and in the lives of those around you.

Next Steps:

1. Read the interview I did with Jeff Vanderstelt on Missional Practices
2. Read the book review I did on Jeff Vanderstelt’s first book, Saturate