Re-porching the Church
Introduction
In a week when I have been disturbed by “believers” falling away from the faith (2 Cor 13:5-6), as Jesus warned, “many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matt 24:11-12), we need a deeper Word from the Lord has a word for today (Amos 3:7; Rev 2:7etc.). How have we gone from a situation where 50 years ago you were presented with a Bible climaxing a citizenship ceremony, to a time when our major institutions (politics, media, tertiary education, business) have been taken captive by anti-Christ powers (Rev 16:13-14)? Whilst from the time of the Caesar cult Satan has had a vast propaganda machine churning out idolatrous lies, what is a root sin in Western Christianity allowing this to take place? I sense an evil and insidious power generally overlooked.
The Corporatisation of Christendom
The life of the people of God is moving from the “little flock” of Jesus (Luke 12:32) to the cold anonymity of sheep life in the huge stations of today. Recently, I conversed with a distressed young teacher stranded in a Christian school culture that has lost its “first love” for Jesus (Rev 2:4). There is no inner flame of fire burning in prayer and evangelism for their hearts have turned from adoring the Lord to the intoxications of academic success. (An old sin of mine!) they have fallen pray to a culture that elevates expertise above godliness (cf. 1 Tim 3:16). Through Bill Hybels’ fall the seeker-sensitive movement have been exposed as pursuing excellence above Christ. After all, “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” (Isa 53:2 https://theunstuckgroup.com/excellence-honors-god-bill-hybels-willow-creek-get-wrong/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excellence_theory). Seeking “influence” is a great diversion. I once unsuccessfully opposed the adoption of “policy governance” theory by the Churches of Christ as being theologically unsound. It assumes that churches, as non-profits, have board governance of some kind, and focus on the effective and efficient functioning of those boards. Whatever happened to our vision of the costly kingdom of God! Similarly, whether Maxwell’s laws of leadership are “irrefutable” I cannot judge, (https://trinitasadvisors.com/2018/03/12/a-summary-of-john-maxwells-the-21-irrefutable-laws-of-leadership/), but I do know the Lord’s Spirit works through the unpopular way of the cross. Let me attempt to clarify what is really at stake here.
Flash and Spirit
Many principles/laws in the world “work” in the sphere of “common grace” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_grace), especially through people of great natural giftings. In their day, for example, the venerable “4 Spiritual laws” seemed to work well (https://campusministry.org/docs/tools/FourSpiritualLaws.pdf). But supernatural divine power comes only through those whom he has personally wounded (Gal 6:17), for the Father’s ways operate in costly “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6). Contemporary Christian entrepreneurs recognise that whereas nine out of 10 new businesses fail, 99.5 percent of franchises succeed. Hence the impressive proliferation of franchised churches (Centrepoint, Hillsong, Kingdom City, Nations, True North etc.). None of this looks at all like the radical diversity of the New Testament Body of Christ (1 Cor 12; Rom 12). We have left no place today for radical pioneers like Smith Wigglesworth, David Wilkerson, and Alan Walker. We need gospel power.
Death and Resurrection
Prophetic signs of resurrection power occur throughout the history of salvation. The body of Abraham must be “as good as dead” (Rom 4:19 Heb 11:12) for the child of promise to be born. Isaac must be sacrificed for “resurrection-sized faith” to be released into the world (Gen 22; Heb 11:17-19). This is what the martyrs of the old covenant mean in God’s eyes (Heb 11: 36). Jesus’ loud last cry was a prophetic foretaste of his all-transforming power “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Matt 27:50-52; John 5:28-29). The resurrected Jesus alone has power to undo our institutionalisation of everything, for nature is “made perfect” through death-and-resurrection (1 Cor 15:46; Heb 2:10; 5:9). Before the cross the apostles were hierarchical and competitive, after the Lord’s death-and-resurrection they were united as one: “they had argued with one another about who was the greatest…They all met together and were constantly united in prayer,” (Mark 9:34; Acts 1:14).
Renewing the Porches of Culture
In one of his last writings, Tim Keller observed that Western cultures have lost their “porches”, (https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/gospel-in-a-post-christendom-society/.) The once safe places for believer and unbeliever to dialogue without threat have largely disappeared. Ordinary places, beyond the “culture wars” where men and women can chat without the threat of being judged about opinions (Rom 14:1). We need places created by the Spirit where people need not “perform” and can risk “beings themselves”. This is the reverse of the destructive anonymities of large religious institutions. The professionalisation of Christianity must die in order for the resurrection of in-depth community life. Depersonalising demonic powers have ruled God’s people for too long (https://www.desiringgod.org/books/brothers-we-are-not-professionals )!
Conclusion
When national evangelist Alan Walker started Lifeline in 1963, he trusted in Christian love reaching out to heal broken people through the empathy of ordinary caring saints. Today, broken humans are encouraged to contact a “highly trained accredited non-judgemental crisis supporter”. Where has our Jesus gone to? For all its practical persuasive power, dominant Christian culture has squeezed out “the revelation of the mystery” (Rom 16:25) belonging to the inner identity of the Church as Christ’s Bride (Eph 5:32). This makes our meetings all too predictable. Jesus is Lord of all, a Lordship opposed always and everywhere by intrigue and deception. The secular institutions of today will remain controlled by postmodern “woke” ideology until the paradigms dominating the people of God go through a death-and-resurrection experience stripping off all their clever giftedness. Without this, there can be no lasting revival in Australia, no “Wave of Glory” in our midst (https://www.worldprayerassembly.org/ ). We need nothing less that resurrection life. Let us fall to prayer!