Introduction
The prophetic teaching below has its genesis in a meeting held in Perth on the 31st October 2003 within a local church setting. The principles however apply at the city- church level and beyond. During this meeting, which began in a very procedural manner, I sensed the need for much greater coherence in ministry both within and beyond the church, as such I started to ask the Lord for “the principle of coherence.”
Re-Forming the Church
I started to see a picture of a central hub of a regular shape, like a circle, surrounded and connected to a host of varying irregular shapes. The central hub represents a ministry platform or community which serves the outer shapes, it is regular because it does not seek to image any culture in particular. The defining feature of the central hub is that it serves the shapes beyond itself, and within it is defined solely by its geographical location. (Such as Perth, Geraldton, Como, Balga etc.) In this the hub corresponds to the way in which “church” is located in the New Testament; church in Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome , Corinth and so on (Acts 11:22; 13:1; 1 Cor 1:2; Rev 2:1).
The irregularity of the outer shapes represents a host of different sub – cultures that currently exist in broader Australian society. These sub-cultures might relate to socio – economic status e.g. “yuppies”; race e.g. indigenous; music e.g. rapper; sport e.g. skating; profession e.g. lawyers; and so on. God desires to see churches planted into all the expanding sub-cultures of the contemporary post-modern scene. At this point I believe I was taken back to the root principle of coherence that is unconditional and non-negotiable, the Incarnation.
“The Word became flesh” (John 1:14). “Flesh” here stands for humanity, the eternal Son of God became a real human being. Every human being takes on physical form and visibility through the expression of the genetic code contained in its particular DNA. The DNA strands in a functioning organism are in the form of a double helix. One of the strands comes from the mother and the other from the father. As the ancient creeds which the whole church at the time affirmed, the humanity of Jesus is derived from his mother. (“Born of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood”. Creed of Chalcedon 451 A.D.). Since Jesus was male and not female, at the very least a portion of the other strand of his DNA must have been created by his Father out of nothing (ex nihilo). Yet for Jesus to be a fully integrated human being, this other strand must have been in conformity with the already existing pattern or form of the DNA from Mary.
The vastly important implication of this is that the form, image, manifestation or appearance God took on in Christ was shaped by the situation in which he found us. By the Incarnation, God conforms to us and not vice -versa. The principle of coherence at the Word -world interface is the world. The unity between God and humanity created in Jesus was actualised not in the Word’s relationship with God but his emerging relationship with those who were unlike God – the world.
Jesus was a totally contextualised form of the Word. He was one with humanity in general and the Jewish people in particular down to his Galilean accent. God entered into this adaptation not for the sake of His survival but that we might live (John 3:16). Paul approaches this truth when he says that Christ Jesus “being in the form of God did not count equality with God something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taken on the form of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Phil 2:6). A church informed by the reality of the Incarnation must often look like the world. Jesus becomes visible to those currently outside the kingdom of God as we take on their form.
An excellent example of this was provided last week. Following a fatal accident at a car rally on the previous weekend several hundred people gathered at a suburban car club hall in Perth for a “debrief”. Leadership was provided by the official W.A. Motor Sport Chaplain, Terry Dorrington. There was Terry in his cap and jacket appropriately emblazoned and addressing “the motor racing family.” He looked and sounded like someone embedded in the community to which he was speaking and enjoyed complete receptivity. Though prayers and references to the help and mercy of God were offered by Terry, and other facilitators, the event did not “look Christian”. (It certainly did not look like a “church”.) The presence of Jesus was however very manifest. I could sense the Holy Spirit saying, “These ‘pagans’ are open to the ministry of the gospel as long as nothing is ‘put on them.’” This is the direction God is signalling for the church in our city, and Australia. Against what appears to be the flow of dominant Christian spirituality today, we should not expect people to come to us: our speakers, music, buildings etc., but we need to go to them where they are. Jesus is seeking to raise up genuine servant communities that, from the outside, look, as he did, very much a part of the world. This is a great challenge to the majority church that has become inward looking and self-serving.
Facing the Hard Issues
Sadly, whilst there is much talk in our day about both re-formation and revival most of this does not go to the core of identity issues. The Incarnation means that the very identity of God was altered forever; the second person of the trinity is forever in the form of a human being (1 Tim 2:5). God is not merely calling for re- formation in the church, as in the “seeker- sensitive” style approach, both Evangelical and Charismatic, but a re – formation of the church. By and large the church is still at the centre of its own thinking and planning for survival and growth. When the Word became human he placed the kingdom of God a the centre of his life, not the people of God. In fact, the centrality of the kingdom of God, rather than Israel, meant the family of God opposed Jesus (John 1:11). Tragically, this conflict seems to almost inevitably be the case when a genuine kingdom of God movement breaks out in the church.
What then can we expect to happen to the unity of the church in Perth if this is characteristically the situation? True unity cannot be generated in relation to ourselves as the church, but will only emerge as together we face outwards and embrace the shape of the world. That is, as we become radically incarnational for the sake of saving others (1 Cor 9:22). Wherever a sector of the church refuses to embrace this course whole-heartedly we must expect conflict.
This will not be like the old sort of “in house” Christianity conflicts – over doctrine, tradition, spiritual gifts etc., it will be a conflict over the very likeness or identity of the church. Is this suggested pathway worth the risk of open division? The history of the Incarnation provides us with an answer.
Fruitfulness flows from Sacrifice
If the Word of God is conformed to the mortal flesh of humanity during the period of Jesus’ humiliation (conception to death), then the flesh of humanity is conformed to the glory of God the Son in Jesus’ exaltation. In Jesus, humanity now shares the eternal glory of God (John 17:5); “in Christ” there is immortality, omnipotence etc. (Matt 28:19; 2 Tim 1:10). “Crucified in weakness” was an essential prerequisite for Jesus to “live by God’s power” (2 Cor 13:4).
This same order is the pattern for God’s kingly power in the church. As the people of God live like Jesus in his identification with the weak, poor, marginalised and powerless (materially and spiritually), at significant personal cost, our expectation would be for a visitation of divine power (2 Cor 12:8- 10; Phil 3:10). In other words, a genuine re-formation of the church, where it allows itself to be stripped of all pretentiousness, worldly power, prestige and prosperity for the sake of seeking the lost, provides a Christ-centred foundation for revival.
The Holy Spirit is signalling a time of great fruitfulness (the word I believe he placed in my mind was “fructability”). In the context of his dialogue with the Samaritan woman, that is, in territory unfamiliar to the Jews, Jesus spoke of a miraculous conditions where “sower and reaper rejoice together” (John 4:29). This means that there is no delay between planting and harvesting. The Samaritans themselves prefigured this truth. Historically enemies of the Jews, they flock to Jesus because there are no prerequisites for their salvation outside of himself (John 4:36). No longer do they have to worship either in a strictly Samaritan way or adopt the temple worship in Jerusalem (John 4:21). The total acceptability of worship is in Christ. This truth of Christ-centred spiritual worship (John 4:24) must grasp us today. (Some would put this in terms of the church being a “centred- set” rather than a “bounded set.”)
The background to the promise of miraculous harvest conditions in John 4 is found in Amos 9:13. “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the ploughman and the planter by the one treading the grapes.” According to Amos, this follows the restoration of “David’s fallen tent” (9:12), it will see the turning of Gentile people to the true God (9:12) and the rebuilding of ruined cities (9:14).
At the climax of the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:16- 17), the apostle James interprets Amos as being fulfilled in the unconditional acceptance of the Gentiles into the kingdom of God. In particular, they do not need to undergo the rite of circumcision. It was this conclusion, reached by the whole church in Jerusalem (Acts 15:4,22,28), that ensured the early church would neither become a faction of Judaism nor split into two religious – cultural camps, Jew and Gentile, but remain as one under the grace and favour of God. Their principle of coherence was incarnationally informed mission.
Conclusion
A massive ingathering of peoples is prophesied by Jesus, the Old Testament prophets and the apostle James under the conditions of gospel salvation without cultural prerequisites. This message underlies the new covenant in its global status.
Unfortunately, the church, especially in its western forms, has repeatedly adapted itself for the sake of its own survival to temporary cultural forms and then found itself in decline when the prevailing society changes. In many cases a recognition of these trends has precipitated urgent prayer and God has mercifully sent revival.
However, I believe it is now a mistake to look at past revivals in Christian nations e.g. the Welsh revival of a century ago, as providing a template for our current situation. “Christendom” no longer exists, we are in a post-Christian world. God in his wisdom has held back a major move of the Spirit within the church until the culture outside is vastly different from that inside. We are in many senses back in the situation of the early church before Christianity became a recognised and legitimate religion. Excepting we are grasped by the need for a radical re -formation unlike any previous renewal movement any spiritual awakening in the church will be at best temporary.
In finishing this article today, I believe God has brought something to my mind. It is the massive volcanic eruption (“ebullition”) on Krakatoa (Indonesia) in the nineteenth century. From this tiny isolated island an explosion of fiery gases sent material circling around the globe. Are we willing to pray that our tiny and isolated city experience an uncontrolled spiritual eruption that will issue in a missionary exodus that will circle the globe ? Surely this is the will of our Father.