Lest We Drift: A Review

Wilson, Jared C. Lest We Drift: Five Departure Dangers from the One True Gospel. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Reflective, 2025.

I was somewhat late to the Gospel Centered party. When the movement started, I was doing everything possible to run from the church and organized religion in general. I still had some Christian values that I had learned at my parents' knees, but that was about it. When Mars Hill was at its height of influence in 2013, I was on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic and had never heard of Mark Driscoll or any of the other key figures in the movement at the time. It was not until what might be considered the end of the movement that I was drawn to repentance. That being said, I have appreciated the heart of the movement. The desire for and focus on the centrality of the gospel have been foundational for me. One of my fondest memories to date was attending the final T4G conference in 2022. For me, it was my first conference, and it set a high bar. So it surprised me when I began to read more widely and found that this whole movement was being pronounced dead by so many. What could be more critical for the church than to be centered on the gospel? Though Wilson and I come to the movement from different backgrounds and at various times, I find a kinship in his emphatic answer to the question. Nothing is more crucial for the church than gospel centrality.

A Gentle Critique

I will have much to say in favor of Wilson's book, but I do believe it could be improved in some places. As I read through the book this last week, I had a recurring thought in a couple of the sections. He seems to be warning us against losing sight of the importance of nuance in things like social justice and political theory. He says, "In a matter of months, it seemed, one's affirmation or rejection of the concept of 'social justice,' apparently regardless of any nuance in its definition, became a sign of one's liberalism or one's conservatism." In this part of the book, Wilson argues that the conversation has become polarized into those for or against social justice. There is no space between the two sides for many. He says, "The era of context and caveats is over." Here, Wilson is saying that this is a negative thing. That context and caveats can be helpful. Something that I agree with.

As a pastor, I am constantly asked questions that people expect to have a black and white answer to. In some cases, there is a simple answer, but in many others, there is no simple answer. My congregation has started to playfully mock me for my tendency to answer such seemingly simple questions with "yes and no." I do this because some questions do not have a simple yes or no answer. So, if I agree with Wilson that nuance is important, where is the critique? It is that Wilson does not seem to apply this logic to the various groups and tendencies he is addressing throughout the book.

To be fair, Wilson is painting with a broad brush here. In this short book, which consists of only 202 pages, Wilson hopes to deliver something readable to pastors and church leaders that they can read regularly. A longer book would make that much more difficult. The danger in such broad strokes is that much of the nuance required to address the various issues he is writing about is lost. Topics like Christian nationalism and wokeness have a wide variety of definitions depending on who is talking about them. That being said, I do not think that Wilson aims to lump everyone together into those for or against a given position, whether that be in the realm of social justice or anything else.

Why You Should Read the Book

One of the parts of the book that stood out to me was chapter four, "Less than Delight: A Drift into Dryness." In this chapter, Wilson discusses how some have rebelled against gospel-centered preaching in the church out of a fear that it will become boring. He writes, "There is certainly a way that gospel-centrality awkwardly applied can result in a mundane formula that over time fails to captivate." The reason this stood out to me is that this awkwardness must come from not understanding the centrality of the gospel. As someone who believes in the importance of gospel centality, I find it staggering to read about some who find preaching the gospel to be wearisome. At the same time, I am faced with the reality that this is something that can happen. Gospel wearisomness may not be a drift that I am as susceptible to, but I am certainly susceptible to a different form. We all are, which is Wilson's overarching point.

Each one of us, whether we are a new Christian just starting out or a pastor of 30-plus years, is suceptible to drift. There is a reason that Paul calls together the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28 (ESV) to warn them to "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood." The warning is not just from outside influences, but from within. False teaching can come from both intentional decievers and wellmeaning teachers. We find a similar warning from Paul in 1 Timothy 4:16. If we are blind to the realities of drift, then we are likely to be drifting ourselves. We need reminders like Wilson's to draw us back. We need faithful brothers around us who will challenge us on the things we do and say, so that we might finish the race faithfully.

A Final Thought

When I first picked up this book, I had little to no expectations. I have read many of Wilson's works in the past and have enjoyed them. I have not alwasy agreed with his conclusions, or even some of his premisies, but I have found him to be gracious. The same is true here. I would love for this book to be a deeper treatment on the subject. To really delve into some of the topics to ouline how and why different issues are related to gospel centrality, but I do not think that is the purpose of this book. After reading it, I can appreciate it for what it is: A call for gospel faithfulness and a warning against slowly drifting away. We need this kind of warning in the church today. We may say the gospel-centered movement is dead, but we must never give up on gospel-centured preaching and teaching in the church. As Christians, our whole lives should be oriented around the gospel. We are saved by grace, through faith, in Christ, so that we might walk in the good works that the Lord has prepared for us. We are to work out our salvation knowing that God works in us both to will and to do. He who has began a good work in us will bring it to completion in Christ Jesus. Everything we do as Christians, weather we eat or drink, is done inlight of this truth: While we were dead in our trespasses and sins, Christ died for us. The gospel is of first importance. It is for the Christian who is a just starting out and who has been faithfully walking for forty years or more.

Last week I published an article on the importance of gospel clarity that I believe matches up well with Wilson's book. The idea is that gospel centrality does not mean that we only preach the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, but how all of Scripture points to and helps us to understand the gospel more fully. I hope that you find it helpful. I hope that you will read Wilson's book and as Paul says, "Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers." (1 Timothy 4:16)

Soli Deo Gloria