Editor’s note: The following is an edited transcript of Mike Bullmore’s first message at the 2024 Annual Conference.
I’m especially eager to share with you a foundational paradigm that I want to lay to stand on for the rest of our sessions. It’s not so much an exposition as it is a Biblical theology. At least that’s what I’m going to argue—that this is a profoundly Biblical idea, this idea of the functional centrality, the functioning centrality, of the gospel.
This is something that has occupied my thinking for many years now. I don’t want to pretend that this is highly revolutionary. In one sense I’m not going to be saying anything new. But I can say that this idea, the functional centrality of the gospel, has been remarkably clarifying for me as a pastor, and it has been remarkably fruitful for me in my life and in my ministry. So I believe when this—the functional centrality of the gospel—is intentionally pursued and intentionally applied, it actually can be revolutionary in our lives and in our ministries and in our marriages and in our parenting and in everything that we are about as Christians and certainly for the well-being of our churches.
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Mike Bullmore is a recently retired pastor who resides in Bristol, Wisc. and continues in ministry by teaching and training pastors.
