Jesus, Where Are You?
“This is not your father’s Oldsmobile . . this is the new generation of Olds.”
The last words of a dying automobile, this series of commercials which began in 1988, featured celebrities and their children as the message bearers for a new generation of Oldsmobiles. William Shatner and his daughter were in the first commercial filmed underneath the desert stars with a classic “Star Trek” twist. Ringo Starr and his daughter would follow later!
The series of ads failed in their goal to revitalize the sales of Oldsmobile, which is now a relic of years gone by.
What Oldsmobile failed to do, we can and should be doing in the dying institutional church of our day.
It’s not that we haven’t tried. Churches with coffee houses, colored lights, and contemporary worship with worship leaders serving as cheerleaders abound. Yet, the church continues its downward slide on the slippery slope of institutionalization.
Back in 2019, I read an article by Emma Cooper, entitled, “Anything But Christian: Why Millennials Leave the Church.” In it, Emma described all the bells and whistles used by so-called culturally relevant churches to reach the younger generations.
Her conclusion?
We don’t want coffee. We don’t want multi-colored stage lights.
We want Jesus.
And we can’t find Him in your churches.
Ouch!
Before mercilessly blasting Emma as just another one of those spoiled brat Millennials, it might be worth considering her point, which is, We can’t find Jesus in your churches.
Jesus, where are you? is the heart cry of many today.
Traditional, contemporary, somewhere in between, or none of the above, unless our churches point to the person and calling of Jesus (and make no mistake, that calling involves a cross and death to self) to those desiring to be his disciples, we are just selling people the same old Oldsmobile!
And they aren’t interested. In the least bit. For what we’re selling.
It is time for us to distinguish between the institution of Christianity and Christianity itself.
Institutions have buildings and budgets, colleges, universities, and seminaries. They have mission boards and employees. They offer careers and opportunities for advancement within the organization.
None of these things are wrong in and of themselves. In fact, they can be great tools in the hands of our Lord to reach others with the good news of God’s kingdom. But when these institutions serve anything but Jesus, they are not only misguided, they are stumbling blocks to a world in desperate need of Christ.
What are some of these stumbling blocks in today’s institutional church? Let me name some of the most obvious, although they don’t appear to be obvious to those immersed in the current church matrix.
Doctrine.
I just spoke to a former student who has left the institutional church. He no longer draws a salary for serving as a pastor. Instead, he devotes himself to making new Christians and growing disciples in house churches, while making a living by other means.
He shared with me an experience he had visiting what would be considered a strong, Bible-based, evangelical seminary in the United States. He said something like this - “You know, Dr. Dan, I heard some really good bible teaching in the chapel of the seminary where I took my sabbatical. It was great. But I couldn’t help but notice that the students seemed intent on making sure the speaker said the right things in the right way.”
I remember attending a well-known evangelical movement’s conference a few years back and experiencing the same thing. The particular group that conducted the conference was known for the many young pastors who were a part of their ministry.
One of the speakers at the conference was Timothy Keller, who I admire greatly. Maybe because he’s an old guy like me! Seriously, I think highly of Tim Keller.
I was on the hotel shuttle bus headed for the day’s conference session. Seated in front of me were two young pastors discussing Keller’s teaching from the previous day. Which, by the way, was filled with grace and truth.
Anyway, these guys were picking apart, piece by piece, everything this man of God had said, weighing it against the doctrines of the great reformers and other “heroes” of the faith. A mix of both grief and anger filled my spirit hearing two young shepherds of the flock obsessed with right doctrine to the point of missing the Spirit of Jesus in a man who had so much to teach them.
It’s hard to hear the call of Christ when we are busy listening for and dispensing “right” doctrine to those seeking to follow Jesus. And no, as I’ve said before, I’m not discounting the importance of doctrine. But when doctrine becomes the end, rather than the means to the end, we have committed the sin of bibliolatry.
Survival or Empire-Building
These opposites of survival and empire-building also serve as stumbling blocks in the institutional church today. In the United States and South Korea, where I lived for twelve years, smaller churches are dying in droves. Meanwhile, the larger, mega-churches are assimilating the orphans of these churches into their expanding campuses with their buildings, book stores, and coffee shops.
The survivalist mentality of many dying churches reminds me of Jesus’ warning that those who seek to save their lives will lose them. Meanwhile, the bigger-barn approach of many mega-churches reminds me of the rich man who tore down his barns to build bigger barns and the indictment of Christ who asked, What does it profit to gain the world and lose one’s soul?
The Christianity of the New Testament is neither about survival or empire building. It is about the Kingdom of God which is antithetical to both.
Equating Politics with God’s Kingdom
“Christianity,” wrote Soren Kierkegaard, the brilliant Christian existentialist, “if it wishes the help of government, betrays the fact that it is not the Christianity of the New Testament.” (See Soren Kierkegaard, Attack Upon Christendom, p.63.)
I go to the polls and vote, like any good Christian citizen of my country should. I do not, however, believe in mixing the unholy leaven of politics with the bread of Jesus.
I heard a story years ago about a father who wanted to teach his children a lesson about compromise. He made his kids a batch of brownies. Eagerly they crowded around their father to get their share. “Before I give you a brownie, I want you to know what is in these brownies,” he said. “I have used the best sugar and chocolate, the finest flour and eggs available. And I have also mixed in just the smallest amount of dog poop from our backyard. Now, who’s first?” None of his children ate a single brownie.
Mixing politics and God’s kingdom is far worse. Christian politics (which, in and of itself, is a contradiction) is a mixture of God’s kingdom and the dying kingdoms of a sinful world. And it is a poison that is killing our witness to Jesus.
For those who say to me, “Dan, our faith is threatened. We must do something. Persecution is coming if we don’t,” I say this - There is NOTHING that can threaten our faith, nothing that can separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus, our Lord. As far as persecution goes - that’s the norm, not the exception. At least for New Testament churches and New Testament disciples.
Christians and their churches are not meant to be isolated from their countries and communities but neither are we meant to take up the weapons of flesh and blood and fight against and demonize those for whom Jesus died. We are called to deny ourselves, our so-called rights, pick up our crosses, and follow our Lord and Master who rejected the ways of the world for the way of the cross.
Time to stop. At least for now. I’ll have more to say in future posts.
And like the old tent revival preacher I once heard, “If I’ve made you mad, I hope you get glad!”
I’m not bitter and I’m not grinding an ax. Been there, done that and I know the difference.
I also know that some will disagree and disagree strongly with what I’ve written. And some who will disagree are far more godly servants of Christ than I’ll ever be. But I figure if Balaam’s ass could be used by God to speak a word that needed to be heard, I can too.
In Christ,
Dan
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