Jeff Vanderstelt - Gospel fluency: speaking the truths of Jesus into the everyday stuff of life

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Part 1

Gospel Fluency

To

Jayne, my friend, bride, and partner for life.

Your faith inspires me. Your wisdom helps me.

Your love for Jesus has changed me.

Haylee, Caleb, and Maggie.

You make me smile, laugh, cry, and pray.

You are making me more like Jesus .

I pray you continue to become more like him as well.

Doxa Church.

Thank you for embracing the Vanderstelts as family.

I regularly thank God for all of you.

You are so dear to my heart.

The Soma Family of Churches.

You have become more than I ever dreamed and encourage me more than you know.

You truly are family.

I love you.

Part 3

The Gospel in Me

I love this book because its title delivers. To be able to explain what the gospel is, how it works in our own lives, and how its shared is a unique and powerful combination Ive never seen before. Jeff has written a book that will be around a long time because it reforms evangelism in a fresh way.

Bob Roberts, Senior Pastor, Northwood Church; author, Bold as Love and Lessons from the East

Jeff calls us back to the gospel, not as a trite phrase to throw around in Christian circles but as a life-changing language in which we grow more fluent as we use it in community. The analogy to learning a foreign language helps us envision how to become fluent in the gospel, working, eating, and even dreaming while immersed in the good news of Jesus and how that changes everything. This is an extremely practical and helpful book!

Wendy Alsup, teacher; blogger; author, Is the Bible Good for Women? and Practical Theology for Women

Its easy to forget how good the good news of the gospel is. This practical book will help you to see that good news, and to share it with others.

Russell Moore, President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention

Even the title of this book, Gospel Fluency , gets at a right understanding of the gospel: the message from God that must be spoken. Our communication of the gospel is more than a data dump; its a message that we must share without accent, as native speakers who have immersed themselves in knowing and speaking the living gospel. Jeffs clear call, through compelling stories and biblical foundations, is to connect the gospel to all areas of life, and then speak it fluently to believers and nonbelievers alike.

J. Mack Stiles, author, Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus and Marks of the Messenger

Jeff Vanderstelt has a gift for clarifying and simplifying what is often complex and puzzling. Gospel Fluency is no exception. In this book, Jeff invites believers, unbelievers, pastors, and church leaders to think about their faith with fresh eyes and fresh language. He invites us not to a system, a catchphrase, or a fad, but to a refreshing vision of Christ our Savior and the life he offers.

Mike Cosper, Pastor of Worship and Arts, Sojourn Community Church, Louisville, Kentucky

I have known Jeff for over a decade now, and his heart beats for the church to be all that God has called her to be in Christ. He is not just an ideas man; he is on the ground, living out the truths you read in this book. As the culture shifts and attractional ministry fades, Jeff will be a faithful guide for us all.

Matt Chandler , Lead Pastor, The Village Church, Dallas, Texas; President, Acts 29 Church Planting Network; author, The Mingling of Souls and The Explicit Gospel

When Christians speak about the gospel, it should sound like our native tongue. Gospel Fluency helps us articulate and live the gospel we love. Our fluency in the gospel is necessary for us to be ambassadors for our gospel-giving King. We need books like Gospel Fluency to both ground us in our practice of the gospel and raise us out of living our daily lives in the cultural drift.

Daniel Montgomery, Lead Pastor, Sojourn Community Church, Louisville, Kentucky; Founder, Sojourn Network; coauthor, Faithmapping , PROOF , and Leadership Mosaic

Ive been wanting to have a resource from Jeff on this topic for a very long time. It is so, so, so needed. As Ive worked with different Christians from several churches around the city of Chicago, Ive witnessed the lack of gospel understanding that has permeated many solid churches. I will personally hand out copies of this book like gospel tracts.

Jackie Hill Perry, poet; writer; hip-hop artist

It was our day off, and I had just returned from dropping the kids off at school to find Jayne still in her blue bathrobe, drinking her morning coffee. It was clear she wasnt doing well.

Jayne was struggling with a lot of anxiety over our children. Where were they with Jesus ? Were they going to surrender their lives to him? Were they safe in our neighborhood? How could we protect them? And what about school? Should they actually be going to a public school? What were they being exposed to? She was being crushed by the weight of so many concerns.

Part of our job in growing in gospel fluency is paying attention to the overflow of our hearts. What comes out in the form of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors finds its origin inside of us. Too often, we focus our attention on changing the external rather than addressing the internal. But Jesus was very clear that what defiles us proceeds from inside our heartsour beliefs and our motives. The fruit of our lives comes from the roots of our faith. Just as a thermometer detects a fever, what we see or experience tells us about the gospel health of our hearts. So we need to learn to trace the fruit back to the root.

Over the years, I have learned to ask four key questions in progressive order when forming people in the gospel: (1) Who is God? (2) What has God done (which reveals who God is)? (3) Who am I in light of Gods work? and (4) How should I live in light of who I am?

For instance, (1) Who is God? One answer is that God is love. (2) What has God done (in other words, how do I know he is love)? He sent his Son to die for me while I was still a sinner. (3) Who am I in light of Gods work (in this case, his sending of his Son to die for me)? I am dearly loved by GodI am Gods son. (4) How should I live in light of who I am? I should love others as God loved me.

I encourage people to apply these questions to their Bible study and to all of their discipleship processes. I do this because we all do what we do because of what we believe about (1) who God is, (2) what God has done, and (3) who we are in Christ or apart from Christ.

The roots of our faith produce the fruit of our life.

When I am seeking to discern ). We do not always believe the truths about God as revealed in the gospel; therefore, we are living in unbelief.

We still are being saved.

How do we know if the fruit of our lives is like Jesus ?

Well, it helps to get to know what Jesus is like. This is why we need to continue to become more and more acquainted with him by reading the Scriptures, especially the Gospels, which describe how Jesus lived. Remember, Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do (John 14:12). In another place, he summed up all of the commands in this way: Love the Lord your God with all you are and love others as yourselves (Matt. 22:3740 ).