We figure out that we used to go to church together.  After catching us up on his family, he proceeds to tell us about a prison ministry in which he's involved.

And the dilemma begins...

We told him about a friend of ours who also was involved in ministering to prisoners (thinking they might know each other).  This led to a story about how our friend recently was scratched from the list of approved ministers at a prison because of what he was preaching.

Supposedly, one Sunday our friend preached from a scripture in Isaiah that says, "all our righteous acts are but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6)."  He told the prisoners that like himself, we're all sinners with the inability to ever do enough to earn God's approval and make ourselves "right" before God.  He emphasized that the Bible says it's our righteous acts that are viewed as filthy rags, much less our filthy acts.

He told them that if any of us were to have any hope of being declared right before God, that we could accomplish this only through the imputed righteousness that is available through faith in Christ alone.  A true gift.  Righteousness accomplished not through anything we do, but solely through what Christ did on our behalf on the cross.

Sounds pretty straight-forward, doesn't it?

I finished the story by telling him that after our friend preached this message, he was asked by the prison chaplain not to come back.  The chaplain told him that prisoners didn't need to be reminded of their sin, but instead, needed to be esteemed, loved and encouraged to turn over a new leaf.

So after telling the guy at Panera this story, his only response was this:  "Yeah, you've got to leave all that denominational stuff at the door.  I tell people all the time, you've got to just stick to preaching the gospel because when we all stand before God, all that's going to matter is what you did with your life (emphasis added)."

And I realize, what "the gospel" is to some, isn't the same as what "the gospel" is to others.

Michael Horton has a great quote for this kind of  "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" theology:  "You can turn over a new leaf and still be dead in trespasses and sin."

And that's why doctrine matters.