Let us not forget that the word “gospel” means good news. The essence of the gospel is that God loved us (the world) so much that God took on the form of a hu(man) to teach us how to live in right relationship with God and with one another. I other words, God, in the person of Jesus, sacrificed his life so that we could be saved from damnation. That is good news. That is the Gospel.

Some will read this and totally get it while others got lost before the third sentence. Yes, they are lost! Many who are lost don’t get it. The lost do not understand why we need to live in right relationship with God. The lost do not see the connection between their relationship with God and other human beings. It is for this reason our society is becoming more dangerous, more insensitive, and more ruthless every passing day. In times like these, when Christianity is losing ground (in America), the gospel becomes more relevant, urgent, and potent than it has been in several decades.

The Pew Research Center reports: The decline of Christianity is continuing at a rapid pace in the U.S. Around two-thirds of U.S. adults (65%) describe themselves as Christian, according to Pew Research Center telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019. That’s down 12 percentage points since 2009. At the same time, the share of “nones” – religiously unaffiliated adults who describe their religion as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – has reached 26%, up from 17% a decade ago.

To some, this data means very little, but to those of us who know the gospel message and its impact on society, this information is alarming. We know that as the message of Jesus Christ goes also goes the message of love that brings with it compassion, forgiveness, repentance, and reconciliation.  There is evidence of moral decay in seemingly every part of society. However, we only need to look at our own families to see the deterioration. We can see how declining faith in Christ in the community has dramatically changed the make-up of our families in just one generation. Just a generation ago, family members would not excuse themselves before we prayed over a meal. Just a generation ago, we did not argue with our children about their gender. Just a generation ago, a parent’s influence outweighed that of their children’s friends.

Relevancy is the significance of something in the current time. The gospel is more relevant now than it has been as early as a generation ago. There exists, in this present day, a vast population that does not know the message of Jesus Christ. In their defense, they have not been told/taught the message of Christ. Far too long, we Christians have been preaching and explaining to ourselves. Our children don’t know the gospel because we have not shared it with them. Our children did not render the gospel irrelevant. We did, by acting as though it wasn’t significant enough to pass down. It is our apathy towards our faith that has made the gospel uninteresting and irrelevant to the new generation. The message that gives life meaning is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our children suffer life’s meaning and struggle with purpose. It is time that they learn the relevance of the gospel in their lives today.

Urgency describes a state or situation requiring immediate attention. Look at the ground Christianity has lost in just one generation as a result of our lazy evangelism. What is lazy evangelism? For churchgoers, it is sporadic church attendance, which communicates to your children, “God is not very important.” For Christian leaders, it is leading isolated worship, merely preaching to folk who already know the gospel message. If we want to stop the rapid moral decay of our society, we must begin to share our testimonies about the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Our children need to know our faith now. They need to know who saved us, who sustains us, and who is keeping watch over us. They need to know what God has purposed in us and for us right now! We cannot afford to withhold our testimony of faith any longer. It is urgent that we share the gospel with this generation more so than in the recent past.

Potency is having great power, influence or effect. We need not worry about whether the message of Jesus Christ can do the job of changing the world. The gospel has already done that, time and time again. It’s too exhaustive to make references to how many breakthroughs and reformations that Christianity has produced. Allow me just to mention the most significant. The writers of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John told the story of Jesus and changed the world forever. There is no need to worry about who will or will not receive the gospel message. The work of the gospel has already been done in The Word. All we have to do is share it. It has within it all the power necessary to transform lives. Though there is a caveat, we cannot share something we have not taken the time to know ourselves fully. If we revisit the gospel and rediscover its truths, we can do the work of discipleship by sharing the message that is potent enough to change the world just as it has done before.

We ought not to believe the lie that the story of our Lord, Jesus Christ, is no longer relevant. Let us not be fooled into thinking we have more time than we actually have to share our faith. Finally, do not be convinced that the gospel message will not affect this generation. There has never been a time or a people that proved God’s word to return to us void of relevancy, urgency, and potency. This time and this people are of no exception.