Challenging Times

In my last two posts in this series, I expressed my concerns that, with all our talk about the Kingdom of God, we are losing the plot when it comes to the destiny of individuals after death.

(OK. I accept that this is not either/or, but both/and. I think it’s the current crop of writers who are making it either/or, because they are talking about changing the world now, at the expense of being concerned with the personal salvation of the individual. For example, in ‘Everything Must Change,’ Brian McLaren says as much, explicitly and repeatedly.)

I want to push this argument a step further:

There’s also a resounding silence on the subject of sin. It is rarely mentioned at all. If it is mentioned, it is almost always in terms of ‘structural sin’ or ‘institutional sin,’ rather than personal sin. (Structural sin is nice, because I don’t have any personal accountability for it.)

And once again, we are losing the plot. We are sinners. Bringing it right down to brass tacks, I am a sinner, and that is the heart of my problem.

In Matthew 7:11, Jesus says:

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

He isn’t making a theological point about our sinfulness – he’s talking about God answering our prayers. And almost in passing, he says ‘though you are evil.’ He doesn’t need to justify it. It isn’t up for debate. He takes it for granted that his hearers are sinners.

In 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul says (- I’m not going to get into a debate about the Pauline authorship of 1 Timothy! -):

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.

I wonder whether one of the main reasons for the decline of the Church today is that we are losing the plot – we simply don’t have the guts to talk about sin any more.

We’ve just finalised the workshop programme for the Future Church event with Mike Frost at Central Hall Southampton on 3-4 October.

I’m really encouraged about this: I was looking for a spread of workshops that would have something for everyone, from those who are not persuaded about missional church through to those who are gung-ho to go out and plant a new missional church tomorrow this afternoon. I think we have that.

Workshop leaders include John Ayrton (from Portswood Evangelical Church), Billy Kennedy (from New Community), Phil Kingsley (a missional church planter in Dublin), John Risbridger (from Above Bar Church) and Tony Watkins (from Damaris).

The programme for the Future Church event with Mike Frost in Central Hall Southampton is now up on our web site.

Other useful links:

• About Mike Frost and the future of the Church
• About the tour (dates and tickets)
• Book tickets for the Future Church event in Central Hall Southampton
• Download a flyer for the Future Church event in Central Hall Southampton
• Video and audio of Mike Frost

The Slipstream podcast for July is now online, featuring Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, the author of many books including ‘The New Testament and the People of God,’ ‘Jesus and the Victory of God,’ ‘The Resurrection of the Son of God,’ and – recently – ‘Surprised by Hope.’

‘What I really want to say to the next generation is: ‘I want you to know your Bibles inside out and upside down in the original languages as thoroughly as you possibly can. I want you to get on your knees and learn how to pray – and not just five minutes here and there, but serious prayer for God’s world, for God’s people… and the third thing is, I want you to learn how to love people.’

Go here to listen.

This programme includes a review of Tom Wright’s recent book ‘Surprised by Hope,’ by Eddie Arthur, Executive Director of Wycliffe Bible Translators UK.

Order from the UK

Order from the USA

In the first two posts in this series, I argued that a lot of contemporary Christian writing ‘moves the goalposts,’ from the question of an individual’s destiny after death to the issue of righting what’s wrong with the world here and now.

One of the clearest examples of this is Brian McLaren’s recent book ‘Everything must change.’ In it he says again and again that the Good News is not about people being rescued from this evil world, but about bringing in the Kingdom of God ‘on earth, as it is in heaven.’

This kind of thinking plays down the importance of individual salvation, and plays up the idea of making the world a better place in this life. And it is, quite simply, wrong:

Possibly the earliest Christian document that we have is Paul’s letter to the Galatians. (1 Thessalonians may be earlier – no-one can say for sure.)

Within four verses of the beginning of this earliest of letters, Paul says that Jesus

… died for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.’ (Galatians 1:4)

There’s nothing here about making the world a better place, or bringing in God’s kingdom. Rather, there’s a recognition that the world is (and always will be, as long as the present order of things lasts) an evil place, from which individuals need to be rescued. (Literally, it’s ‘evil age,’ not ‘evil world.’ I don’t think this changes the argument.)

The point is that individual salvation does matter. People’s destinies in eternity do matter. Our primary business isn’t to try to change society. It is to seek to save individuals. We don’t bring in the Kingdom of God – only God does that. Our job is to announce the arrival of his kingdom, and to invite people to submit to his rule.

Has ‘missional’ just become another trendy buzz-word that people can cut-and-paste onto existing church programmes and activities to make them look more interesting and contemporary?

This post on Alan Hirsch’s blog is worth reading on this subject, as are the comments (nearly a hundred of them, last time I looked).

According to Alan, it was Tim Keller who first raised this question, in conversation with Ed Stetzer. Alan’s blog entry about it is part of a synchroblog by more than fifty bloggers around the world.

The desire for spurious trendiness is one problem. Another is that there are still a lot of people out there who don’t know what ‘missional’ means (and who are probably vaguely suspicious about it as a result.) So I’d like to offer a prize for whoever can come up with the best word or phrase that means ‘missional,’ but doesn’t include the word ‘missional.’ (No fortune – just fame.)

Incidentally, Alan Hirsch is in the UK in about a week from now, leading a ‘Missional Masterclass’ for ‘Together in Mission,’ and speaking at another event for the West of England Baptist Association. Both these events should be really worth going to – I’m planning to go to the Missional Masterclass. I’m also hoping to interview Al for the Slipstream podcast.