I love that expression and I believe it wonderfully describes a healthy expression of evangelism and Christian mission in the world. Lesslie Newbigin, a British theologian and missionary to India once said, “Mission begins with an explosion of joy.”

In this third part, I want to briefly talk about evangelism and Christian mission in the midst of our growing secular culture. First of all, most of us are intimidated by the topic of evangelism. We know we are supposed to be sharing our faith, but we feel inadequate or uncomfortable. We feel the pressure and feeling of not wanting people to reject us or worse, feel like we are judging them. We have all probably been exposed to forced evangelistic methods and programs and know that they are inadequate and sometimes even harmful especially in our current secular culture. For years now, the mission of the American church has been driven by the idea of “relevance.” Stefan Pass states, “…why should the Church be ‘relevant’ in the first place, and who sets the criteria for this relevance? Wouldn’t this mean to subject the Church to worldly standards? Surely the Church exists for the pleasure of God, and that should suffice.”

After decades of serving within the Church in several different cities and settings, I feel like I am just now deeply wrestling with the problems of “relevance.” Obviously, we are to be relevant when it comes to our communication and cultural circumstances. The problem comes subtly when we are more concerned about being relevant than about being faithful to the Word of God. When relevance takes over the mission of the Church, we adopt worldly business practices and metrics to determine our success rather than a Spirit-led process. This process is more defined by prayer, repentance, and transformational testimonies whose fruitfulness sometimes is hard to measure. Here are a few thoughts that we should think about when it comes to a renewal of evangelism and the mission of the Church.

1.) Nothing is more relevant than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The starting place for a new zeal for evangelism is a revival of the soul to be overwhelmed again by the mighty grace of God so there is an “explosion of joy” that we cannot hold back.

2.) We must remember that Jesus was not concerned about building a crowd. He was concerned about who would forsake it all and follow Him as a disciple. This biblical truth would radically impact our preaching, teaching and sharing.

3.) We must remember Jesus’ rebuke of Peter that he was too concerned about the things of man rather than the things of God. As soon as we start to adapt our message to what we think people want to hear so we can be seen as relevant we become people pleasers rather than God pleasers.

4.) The drive of relevance will always water down the message and leave no space for theological and spiritual depth. The emphasis becomes no different than secular marketing plans of doing whatever it takes to muster up a little interest rather than bold, loving truth telling with dependence upon the Spirit to awaken souls.

Quotes:

Pilgrims and Priests, Christian Mission in a Post-Christian Society by Stefan Pass, p. 3.

The post What is the Spirit saying to the Church (part 3) appeared first on Stephen Woodrow.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” -Matthew 6:33 

Recently I finished ready Bonhoeffer; Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during WWII and Hitler’s Third Reich reign of terror between 1933 and 1945. Reading about the history of Nazi Germany and the relationship of the Church and State during this time was very insightful into many of our current struggles and issues. 

This is the first (v.1) part in a multi-blog series where I will be exploring history, Church and State issues in light of many of our current issues. I invite you to join me in some healthy discussion. 

Let me begin this blog series with a recent quote from Tim Keller, 

“In many churches across the US many members are falling into one of two camps, Keller said, ‘On one hand many young evangelicals particularly those living in cities almost have a tendency to be over-woke and take their cues from the secular world, talking about Christian nationalists in nasty ways…It is dangerous. But it’s also one of the ways that you fuel the extremists as sort of subhuman…But a bigger number of evangelicals many of them in the South and Midwest are unhappy because their minister isn’t denouncing the Left enough and isn’t telling people they need to vote for Trump…In an op-ed for CP conservative author and radio host Michael Brown clarified that those who simply love and appreciate America are not Christian nationalists but warned that equating America with God’s kingdom or merging the cross with the flag is a terrible and dangerous mistake…and that is the error of Christian Nationalism. The irony of all this is that if we would be kingdom minded people first and foremost we would bring the most blessing to America. If we would look at America as our mission field rather than our spiritual refuge we would help our nation fulfill whatever plans the Lord has for us. And if we would exalt Jesus infinitely more than any political leader we would better serve our country and our leaders.” (Christian Post article, Friday March 12, 2021, Tim Keller: Church’s affiliation with Republicanism has given Christian nationalism a place to incubate)

I think this is a very good assessment of two very dangerous ideologies and movements gaining ground in our culture and country today. The first dangerous ideology and movement is the “over-woke” movement which has embraced for the most part a very progressive secular viewpoint. This ideology reigns supreme in most major media outlets, entertainment and social media platforms and all public education. This ideology has crept into the Church today and is replacing the authority of the Scriptures in many people’s minds with secular progressive ideology. 

The second dangerous ideology and movement is “Christian Nationalism.” This is the ideology that merges the cross of Christ with the American flag. This ideology has been around for awhile and usually is tied to the Republican Party, but has grown more recently in response to the secular progressive movement. This ideology is dangerously knit into many church cultures today. We will look more deeply at these two destructive ideologies in this blog series as we look to learn from history and scripture. 

Christians should beware and be aware of “labelling.” We all label – it is our culture.  In some ways it is helpful to position thoughts and ideas but it is destructive and not helpful toward healthy dialogue if we label someone to discount them or minimize their viewpoint without hearing them out. It is not helpful to say that anyone who voted for Trump is a Christian Nationalist just like it is not helpful to say that anyone who voted for Biden is a secular progressive. 

Any country that moves away from God only becomes more evil with less liberty. This has been the record of history. And the move toward evil can happen quickly as we will see in this series as we look at Nazi Germany. And today with technological advancements things can happen even quicker. Both secular progressivism and Christian Nationalism can lead to a socialism or a fascism led by an evil dictator. We will explore this more deeply in the weeks ahead. But for the Church and those who follow Jesus the more important issues are going to be how we are going to respond and be a faithful and strong Church in the future with our priority on the Kingdom of God not on the Kingdom of this world. We must encourage each other and grow in our understanding of what it means to “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness” and know that Jesus also said, 

“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” John 18:36

The post Thoughts on History, Church and the State v.1 appeared first on Stephen Woodrow.

Let’s not miss this moment. What do we mean by that statement? Everyone is in agreement that these are unprecedented times for all of us living now in the  21st century. The convergence of pandemics, politics, and protests is bringing about rapid cultural unrest and change. A few questions that can help us get our bearings in the midst of this cultural storm are:

Are we primarily looking to culture or scripture to make sense of this moment?

How do we know if we are subtly surrendering to secularism?

How is the Church suppose to be in the world?

How do we know when too much of the world is in the Church?

Anti-Christian cultural changes have moved into warp speed this summer. We as a nation are clearly a secular culture now. The newest data reveals that the “majority of Americans no longer believe human life has intrinsic value.” The majority polled recently rejected the idea that “human life is sacred.” Interestingly, though the majority still believes that humans are “basically good.” (Gospel Coalition data)

Some other clear signs of this warp speed cultural change are that America no longer sees Church as essential and the Supreme Court’s redefining the definition of “sex”, which was a natural result of the court’s redefining marriage a few years ago. These will have huge ramifications for our culture moving forward. The State of Utah has legalized polygamy, for we as a culture no longer have any moral foundation to guide us since we have abandoned “absolute truth.” 

Now, none of this surprises God, He is at work, like He has been throughout the ages to refine, correct and strengthen His people – His Church. I truly believe that God desires a major overhaul of His Church and that is what we must not miss. 

God desires His people to get serious about His Word 

God is serious about sin and desires His people to be holy

God loves His Church, the Body of Christ and expects it to shine during these times

God promises to judge His Church first, to purify it so it can be pleasing to Him

We cannot shine for Him in the world until He shines within us and the Church. He cannot shine within us and within the Church if we are more glued to social media and news than the Word of God and the fellowship of the saints. It is that simple – Let’s not miss this moment! 

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