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“We have got to realize and understand that God will never give you a vision that He also doesn’t give you what it takes to pull it off. That God will never put something on your heart that he also doesn’t give you what it takes to see it through.”
Jonathan Falwell, from his message “Don’t Let the Vision Become the Victim”, preached at Innovate Church 2009 May 18, 2009
The other day, our youth director expressed his disgust with the fact that there seems to be a trend where pastors are trying to look hip. He said “they dress alike. Their churches look alike. The websites are the same. They use the same jargon. They are all trying to compete with Starbucks. There is no uniqueness in their ministries.”
This caused me to think about what God is calling our church to be. What is he calling me to be? Do I need to grow a “soul patch” and give up the “classic look” in order to reach people with the gospel? Or is he calling me and our church to be the unique creation that He called into existence?
A.W. Tozer has a great perspective on this issue. Consider what he wrote 60 years ago concerning the issue of Christian literature. It will provide some thought concerning the call to be you and the issue of the “party line.”
“Christian literature, to be accepted and approved by evangelical leaders of our times, must follow very closely the same train of thought, a kind of “party line” from which it is scarcely safe to depart. A half-century of this in America has made us smug and content. We imitate each other with slavish devotion. Our most strenuous efforts are put forth to try to say the same thing that everyone around us is saying-and yet to find an excuse for saying it, some little safe variation on the approved theme or, if no more, at least a new illustration.” A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, Christian Publications
Thanks Tozer. You have helped me think through the “party line” and make the decision to not grow a “soul patch.”
“The idea of cultivation and, exercise, so dear to the saints of old, has now no place in our total religious picture. It is too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and fast flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.
The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.”
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, Christian Publications
“There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to, teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not satisfy.”
A.W. Tozer The Pursuit of God, Christian Publications
“A religion, even popular Christianity, could enjoy a boom altogether divorced from the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and so leave the church of the next generation worse off than it would have been if the boom had never occurred. I believe that the imperative need of the day is not simply revival, but a radical reformation that will go to the root of our moral and spiritual maladies and deal with causes rather than with consequences, with the disease rather than with symptoms.”
A.W. Tozer Keys to the Deeper Life, Zondervan Publishing House
As I mentioned before, I was encouraged to expand a prior blog post, Incorrect Motives for Praying for Revival, into an article. The resulting article, “The Quest for True Revival”, was published by Empower Ministries International in their Dunamos newsletter. The article is now appearing in Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox as a two-part series. The first part was published in the May 28 edition of the Toolbox. You can click here to read it. The second part will be published June 11.
The church’s prayer time on Sunday evenings have become a very special time. It is very evident that God is moving. Last Sunday I handed out a prayer card that would serve as the focus of our prayers for the summer. The prayer card covered nine areas of prayer.
1. That the Holy Spirit would open our eyes to our true condition.
2. Confess and turn from any sin or habit that is hindering your walk with Christ.
3. Ask that the Holy Spirit would fill and empower you.
4. Ask that the Lord would consume you with a desire for the Word of God.
5. Ask the Lord to burden your heart for those who need Jesus.
6. Ask the Lord to give you new opportunities for ministry.
7. Ask the Lord to prepare our hearts and lives for what He is about to do.
8. Ask the Lord that we would be used to see many people come to Christ.
9. Ask the Lord for the World according to Psalm 2:8
Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance And the ends of the earth for Your possession.,
Psalms 2:8 (NKJV)
A year ago, I posted some thoughts concerning praying for revival in “Incorrect Thoughts Concerning Praying for Revival.” I was encouraged to expand that blog post into an article. The result of the encouragement was an article entitled “The Quest for True Revival.” Empower Ministries International published the article in February. You can request a copy of the article by contacting them through the Empower Ministries website.
As I have looked at the issue of the need for revival in the North American church, I have realized that I needed to change the focus of my revival prayers. The issue was not that I was praying for revival, but how I was praying for it. As I have mentioned in my blog post last year, many have prayed for revival and few have prayed sincerely. How can I make sure that my prayers are sincere?
I believe the answer lies in moving from what I desire to what God wants. It means shifting the focus from revival changing the culture to revival changing the church. So if I take the improper motives that I had for revival prayer and shift the focus, I find that I have three requests that reflect God’s heart for the North American church.
Request #1. Revival will clean up the Church
As I prayed for revival before, my desire was for God to clean up the moral illness of our society. When I shifted my focus from what I desired to what God wants for His church, the nature of my improper motive changed to a genuine request. Now my desire is for God to send revival to clean up the North American church. As I have mentioned before, there is virtually no difference between believers and unbelievers in thought, word and deed. The only difference is church attendance.
When I shift my focus, I realize that the church needs to be cleaned up. The church has to get serious about it sins. It needs to recognize and acknowledge that it reflects the culture more than it does the Savior who purchased her with His blood.
With this proper focus I am asking God to bring the church to the place where the reality of His word is manifested. The church will exemplify the words of Paul as he quotes the Old Testament, “
Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” (2 Cor. 6:17). I am asking God to allow the church to experience victory over sin, so that the words of the writer of Hebrews are realized, “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us.” (Hebrews 12:1)
Request #2. Revival will restore the Church
In the past, my prayers for revival had been focused on the restoration of the nation to some former glory. But as I shifted the focus of my prayers to what God wants, my request was transformed into a desire for God to restore the church to His glory. Our natural bent is to seek glory. As I prayed for revival in the past, my desire for glory was misplaced. Selfishly I wanted God to bring the culture back to the glorious days, when the church was a respectable part of society. In reality I was not seeking the restoration of glory for the culture, but the church.
While desiring glory for the church is good, I was wrongly seeking it for the church and myself from the culture. The glory that the church should be seeking is God’s. Isaiah tells us that there is where glory truly belongs. Recording the words of God, he writes “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.” (Isa 43:7) God created the church to bring Him glory. Selfishly I was seeking glory that did not belong to the church or me. Glory alone belongs to God. So when we shift our focus from self to God, everything we do (preaching, singing, writing, ministry) takes on new meaning as we do it for His glory. So when I pray for revival, I am praying that God will restore the church to His glory.
Request #3. Revival will make the church like Jesus Christ
As I shifted my focus in prayer from what I desired to what God wants, I came to a realization concerning what the ultimate desire of God is for His church. He wants the church to reflect the character and nature of His Son, Jesus Christ. Out of my false sense of comfort, I prayed for the culture to become as the church. Sadly, the church has been becoming like the culture.
The mandate of the scripture is that believers are not to be like the world. John tells us “Do not love the world or anything in the world.” (1 John 2:15). So when I pray for revival, once again my focus shifts from the transformation of society to the transformation of the church. I want the church to become like His Son. This is what Paul was implying when he tells the Romans “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2) Praying for revival moves me to ask God to transform the church to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
It has been a while since I last posted my thoughts on this blog. Since that last post, a lot has taken place in my life and the church. Last fall I made a statement in a sermon, “It’s time for us to quit doing church and be the church.” That statement plagued my thoughts for several months like a bad song that you cannot seem to get out of your mind. In December I decided to do a series based on that statement after the New Year entitled “Be the Church!“
I started the series in March. When I began to preach the series I had no idea what the response would be. On the first Sunday of the series, our attendance doubled that evening at prayer time. The next week it doubled again. Some who did not attend the first week of the series stated that they felt that God wanted them to come to the prayer time. When they didn’t, they were racked with guilt for the whole week
Usually our prayer times last an hour, now they last two. In fact people hang around for an extra thirty minutes after prayer. Prayer itself has changed. No longer is the focus on asking God for things. Prayer has taken the form of seeking God’s presence in the midst of His people.
I have also noticed several things taking place among those who are responding:
1. A passion for the presence of God
2. A sensitivity to personal sin
3. A growing desire for the Word of God
4. A increased burden for the lost
5. A desire to begin new ministry opportunities.
Things are happening in our church. We have baptized eight individuals since the New Year. Two weeks from now we are going to baptize 3 more. We are getting new visitors every week. It seems that God is bringing people to the church. Every Sunday has become extremely important now.
God is doing something. I have come to realize that I am just a passenger on a journey. I have even given up my side-seat driver’s license.
Therefore, I have decided to post my thoughts and struggles in the coming weeks and months as I watch God begin to do a mighty work in my life and the church.
[Note: I have really wrestled with whether or not I should write a post about the election. But in light of some things that I am hearing among God's people, I thought that I needed to share some ramblings from the West Branch.]
“NERO BECOMES EMPEROR!!! Followers of the Way React.” It is interesting that there is no evidence that such headlines ever existed or even matter in the early church. Yet almost 2,000 years later, the election of the leader of the most powerful nation in the world has drawn an ugly reaction from some in the church.
In the last two days, I have witnessed an amazing paradox. I have seen civility on the part of unbelievers, whether they voted for the president-elect or not, and ugliness on the part of Christians. In fact, the ugliness has been rather “over the top.”
In the last few days, I have been told that “pastors will be arrested for their sermons like the pastor in Sweden.” I have seen outright prejudice exhibited among some. I have seen people discussing that “there will probably be an assassination.” I have heard more than enough talk about the antichrist.
I have met numerous people over the past eight years that were very passionate about their opposition to our current president. I have heard them speak of the need for impeachment. But I have never heard the ugliness that I am now seeing expressed by those who claim to be the followers of Jesus Christ.
As I have looked at the downright sin of God’s people, the ugliness that is being exhibited by those who attend our churches is a direct result of the actions and words of Christian leaders. Here are some observations:
1. Leaders have not been careful with their rhetoric.
The “argument from the extreme” is a tool that works well in raising the passions and emotions of people towards an issue. The problem with this methodology is the fact that “rhetorical reality” is not necessarily real life. The average person in the pew is having a hard time telling the difference between the two. Thus we are hearing outrageous predictions being made as if they are indeed fact.
2. Leaders have given lip service to the supremacy of Christ.
Theologically we believe that God is sovereign and that he alone sets up rulers (Romans 13:1 ). Yet practically we have been living otherwise. In fact, we have become convinced that our only hope is in the political process. Therefore most believers have aligned themselves with a political party that has recently lost credibility on the moral level. The unbelieving segment of our country views the church as a wing of that party. We are seen as a political movement.
3. Leaders have missed the “Big Picture.”
All of life is moving to the great and glorious moment when Jesus Christ will return to establish His kingdom. Until that great moment, the church has been given the responsibility to make disciples of all nations. Yet in North America, the church has lost sight of the “big picture” and focused its attention and energy on the culture wars. Standing on the issues of morality is important. But showing the supremacy and glory of Christ in His church supersedes everything else.
4. Leaders have neglected the purity of the church.
Much of the ugliness that is being displayed by God’s people is a direct result of an attitude of moral superiority. The church stands in judgment of the sins of our culture, while turning a blind eye to its own sin. Study after study and poll after poll continue to reveal that the only difference in the lifestyles of believers and unbelievers is church attendance. We are just as likely to engage in immoral activity as an unbeliever. Yet we neglect that reality and judge others. Thus we feel that we have a right to be ugly and demonize those that we disagree with.
I am grieved by what I am seeing. I am also aware that there is no easy solution to our ugliness. I can only brace myself for the continuing fallout that the church will experience among unbelievers in our nation. We are losing credibility fast and for the large part the church does not seem to care.
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. (Romans 13:1 NKJV)
