FAQ/What We Believe
You may be asking…
WHO ARE YOU?
Simple Gospel Movement is a collective of ministries, groups, and churches who have all mutually decided to celebrate unity over uniformity.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE “UNITY OVER UNIFORMITY?”
The simple answer is that we commit to agreeing on things that are central to the Bible and we give grace to each other about the peripheral things which are not exclusively stated the Bible.
HOW CAN I KNOW WHAT IS CENTRAL?
We believe the Bible is God’s Holy Word for His people, the church. Everything in it is God-inspired (God spoke, His people wrote it down) and inerrant (no mistakes were made).
HOW CAN THE BIBLE BE PERFECT IF IMPERFECT PEOPLE WROTE IT?
A funny meme comes to mind, which says, “When God put a calling on your life, He factored in your stupidity.” This is a lighthearted way to say that God knows that we are imperfect beings and adjusted things in such a way that His points still got across. We’re talking about the creator of the universe here! He made everything! He can get his point across one way or another. We don’t know exactly HOW He did it (that’s a peripheral thing), but we know THAT He did (That’s the central thing).
HOW CAN I KNOW WHAT IS CENTRAL AND WHAT IS PERIPHERAL?
It’s actually really simple - If it is clearly explained in the Bible, then it is central. If it is not, then it is peripheral. There are many passages upon which God is very clear what matters to Him and how we’re supposed to live. If God said it, that’s what we follow. However, there are other topics and issues upon which the Bible is NOT clear. Those are things we should consider peripheral to the faith. In other words, if it didn’t really matter enough for God to clearly comment, then perhaps we shouldn’t make it a central facet of the faith either. A couple examples: Jesus’ death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin? Central. Wearing a tie to church? Peripheral. Praying for each other? Central. Use of fog machines during a church service? Peripheral.
WHAT ABOUT THAT DEUTERONOMY AND LEVITICUS RULES AND STUFF?
The Bible is divided into two parts: The Old Testament and The New Testament. The Old Testament is largely historical, and yet also reveals a lot about what God really cares about. In the Old Testament, people were fully responsible for their own sins and imperfections. As such, there were a lot of rules, rituals, and regulations that had to be clearly laid out so that people could do the work of managing their sin on their own. When Jesus came and died for all sin, that’s when the law was fulfilled and God’s people began a new era of the Faith under the “new covenant” of grace (Matthew 26:28, Luke 22:20, Romans 7:6). The New Testament is a collection of letters and stories about God’s people and how they lived and benefitted from this new covenant of grace.
DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT STILL MATTER TODAY? GIMME AN EXAMPLE!
In some ways, absolutely - the Old Testament totally still matters today and here’s what we mean. In the Old Testament, it was a command to take a sabbath day (one day off from work each week, Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-14). It was actually the fourth commandment in the 10 original commandments! It was so serious that anyone who broke this rule was to be put to death (Exodus 35:2)!!! Now that we are under the new covenant, there is grace granted for those who work 7 days per week, but that doesn’t mean we should blatantly ignore it now, just because there is no longer death in store for us who break the sabbath rule (Romans 6:1-2). Suffice it to say that this is a topic upon which the Bible WAS very clear. While we won’t be put to death for working for 7 days in a row anymore, God clearly designed us to take a day off each week. In other words, it’s something we should value because it’s also something God values to this day.
DO YOU HAVE MORE EXAMPLES OF CENTRAL/PERIPHERAL TOPICS?
We have put together a short but ever expanding list of topics which we consider to be central or peripheral to the Bible. You can view that page by clicking HERE. If you have questions about a topic that we haven’t shared, send us an email! We’ll do some digging, share our answer with you, and add it to our website.
WHY DID YOU START SIMPLE GOSPEL MOVEMENT?
We’ll give you a little more context into the “why” behind our origins with a quick analogy. Imagine yourself talking to an older gentleman who you know well and have a lot of respect for. Imagine telling him how grateful you are to know him. Then, imagine telling him that his wife is ugly. Now, imagine the gut punch it would feel like for that man to hear you say that. Imagine the punch in the gut that you might receive from him for saying such a thing about his wife! Now, imagine how God feels when we talk about His bride, the church, that way (Ephesians 5:25-27). If God’s bride is unwell, it should be our job to help her find health again. If God’s bride is lost, we should help her find her way back to God’s side. There are a lot of churches in America that have lost their way, focusing on the peripheral and forgetting the importance of things that are central to God. The hope and mission of Simple Gospel Movement is to gather all people around what is central to the Bible. We are a network of ministries, groups, and churches who have all mutually decided to celebrate and share things that are central to the Bible and give grace to each other about the peripheral things.
CAN WE USE YOUR STUFF?
Sure! We make videos, podcasts, and programs, offering them completely free for believers and churches to use! Our only requirement is that you credit SGM as the authors of the content you use in a corporate capacity (e.g. showing a video in a service, using a program at your church).
HOW DO I JOIN SGM?
We have a single standard for all participants of SGM and we call it the APOSTLE Program. You can check it out by clicking HERE.