Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory

Greetings All,

     Yesterday I received a book in the mail sent to me by a wise old friend. As one who loves to climb mountains, the title captured my attention when I opened the package: "Canoeing the Mountains," by Tod Bolsinger. Yet, the secondary title clued me into the fact that it probably was not what I initially thought - "Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory."

     As I read the first chapter I felt like the author had been a fly on the wall in many of my conversations in recent years!  He even mouthed some of the exact phrases I had used!  So, today, I let you in on an issue that has been weighing on me (and many others in ministry) for at least the past decade or longer - trying to minister in a post-Christian (often anti-Christian) culture.  This selection below is just to give you a taste of what he will address in the rest of his book -- offering hope for a breakthrough where many seem to have run into what FEELS like an impenetrable wall we were not trained or equipped to break through. Enjoy.

     "One night after a long day of meetings, an older pastor let out a heavy sigh. He was nearing retirement, and we were working together on a project that was supposed to reorganize our entire denomination in order to help our church better minister in a changing world. And that changing world weighed on him.  He remembered well how not that long ago life was different. He stirred his drink and said to me, 'You know, when I began my ministry in a church in Alabama, I never worried about church growth or worship attendance or evangelism. Back then, if a man didn't come to church on Sunday, his boss asked him about it at work on Monday.'

     Sociologists and theologians refer to this recently passed period as 'Christendom.' The seventeen-hundred-year-long era with Christianity at the privileged center of western cultural life. Christendom gave us 'blue laws' and the Ten Commandments in school [and prayer in schools]. It gave us 'under God' in the pledge of allegiance and exhortations to Bible reading in the national newspapers. (I have a copy of the Los Angeles Times from December 1963 that has stories on the Warren Commission (investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy), the nine-thousand-member Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and a list of daily Bible readings for the upcoming week.  Can you even imagine the Los Angeles Times exhorting people to read their Bibles today?) It was the day every "city father" laid out the town square with the courthouse, the library, and a First Church of _______ within the center of the city.  For most of us these days are long gone. (For some of us, that is good news indeed. Did you notice the reference to 'man' in my friends statement?)

     In our day (unlike then) cities are now considering using eminent domain laws to replace churches with tax-revenue generating big-box stores, Sundays are more about soccer and Starbucks than about Sabbath, Christian student groups are getting derecognized on university campuses, the fastest growing religious affiliation among young adults is 'none,' there is no moral consensus built on Christian tradition (even among Christians), and even a funeral in a conservative beach town is more likely to be a Hawaiian style 'paddle out' than a gathering in a sanctuary.  As we see all this we know that Christendom as a marker of society has passed.

     Over the last ten years I have had one church leader after another whisper to me the same frustrated confession: 'Seminary didn't prepare me for this. I don't know if I can do it. I just don't know...'  A number of pastors are ready to throw in the towel. Studies show that if given the chance to do something else, most pastors would jump at it. Reportedly, upwards of fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry EVERY MONTH  [Every year more than 4000 churches in the U.S. close their doors, almost double the number from 20 years ago.] 

     A couple years ago I learned that three of my pastor friends around the country had resigned  -- on the same day. There were no affairs, no scandals, and no one was renouncing the faith. But three good, experienced pastors turned in resignations and walked away. One left church ministry altogether.  The details are as different as the pastors themselves, but the common thread is that they finally got worn down by trying to bring change to a church that was stuck and didn't know what to do. Their churches were stuck and declining, stuck and clinging to the past, stuck and lurching to quick fixes, trying to find an easy answer for what were clearly bigger challenges. What all three churches had in common was that they were mostly blaming the pastor for how bad it felt to be stuck.

'If only you could preach better.' 

'If only you were more pastoral and caring.' 

'If only our worship was more dynamic.' 

'Please, pastor, do something!'  (That is what we pay you for, isn't it?)

     And to make matters worse, the pastors don't know what to do either. As a seminary vice-president I am now charged with confronting this reality head-on. Our graduates were not trained for this day. When I went to seminary, we were trained in the skills that were necessary for supporting faith in Christendom.  When churches functioned primarily as vendors of religious services for a Christian culture, the primary leadership toolbox was:  1. TEACHING (for providing Christian education).  2. LITURGICS (for leading Christian services).  3. PASTORAL CARE (for offering Christian counsel and support).  In this changing world we need to add a new set of leadership tools..." 

     If you would like to know what those new and necessary tools are, you will need to purchase his book for yourself!  As a pastor who has lived long enough to see Christendom progressively and purposefully deconstructed, and replaced at almost every turn with secularized and post-Christian alternatives, it has been stretching.  I'm not one of the pastoral casualties he lists, but in all honesty there have been times I have come pretty close. In fact, given those statistics it may be time to start a "pastor support group" for those who feel they are on the verge of being one of those 1500 pastors every month who leave the ministry.

     I haven't had time to read far into his book, but I wanted to share the introductory chapter so people can know there is a voice of encouragement from someone who has his ear to the ground, and has himself been a pastor ministering in our post-Christian culture.   A culture where traditional styles of leadership and ministry (which garnered much fruit in the not-so-distant past) can actually be a hindrance and obstacle in the present. His word to pastors - "Start with conviction, stay calm, stay connected, and stay the course - even when navigating loss."

     Ministry has always required people to, "run the race with perseverance"  (Hebrews 12:1-2).  Yet today is one of those cultural seasons or times when like a runner in a marathon on a hot and humid day, people in ministry are encountering what in the Boston Marathon is called, "Heartbreak Hill" -- a long gradual incline at the 20 mile mark.  It's a "grueling test of endurance" as one writer puts it, which drives many to give up before the finish line.  A place where one must be mentally prepared, make adjustments, and persevere, or become a casualty.  If you happen to be at that place, maybe you might want to see what Bolsinger has to say.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

A Selection of Short Thoughts

Greetings All!

     Sometimes you can say a lot in very few words!  Therefore,  today, instead of one longer thought, I offer you many short thoughts -- all which struck me as worthy of sharing.  I trust one or more may hit home for you as well!   Enjoy!

     “Prosperity cannot be a proof of God’s favor, since it is what the devil promises to those who worship him.”

John Piper

     “When we deal seriously with our sins, God will deal gently with us.”

Charles Spurgeon

     “Evangelism must start with the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the demands of the law, and the eternal consequences of evil.”

Martin Lloyd-Jones

     “I frequently hear persons exhorted to give their hearts to Christ, which is a very proper exhortation. But that is not the Gospel. Salvation comes from something that Christ gives you, not something you give to Christ.  The giving of your heart to Christ follows after receiving from Christ the gift of eternal life by faith.”

Charles Spurgeon

“I’m just a nobody telling everybody about somebody who can save anybody.”

Anonymous

“Your personal testimony, however meaningful to you, is not the Gospel.”

R. C. Sproul

     “In our day it is considered worse to judge evil than to do evil.”

Os Guiness

     “Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible.  Faith begins where man’s power ends.” 

George Muller

     “Worry is believing God will not get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong.”

 Tim Keller

     “You will derive far more benefit from a single verse of Scripture read slowly and prayerfully and duly meditated on than you will from ten chapters read through quickly.”

A. W. Pink

     “I must listen to the gospel. It tells me not what I must do, but what Christ the Son of God has done for me.”

Martin Luther

     “If you are really saved, brethren, not a hair of your heads belongs to yourselves. Christ’s blood has either bought you or it has not. And if it has, then you are altogether Christ’s – every bit of you – and you are neither to eat nor drink, nor sleep, but for Christ.”

Charles Spurgeon

     “The doctrine of grace and redemption keeps us from seeing any person or situation as hopeless.”

Tim Keller

     “God has given me everything, forgiven me everything, promised me everything, and I lack nothing except the faith to believe it.” 

Martin Luther

     “The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.”

Elisabeth Elliot

     “You have become blind when you see nothing wrong with something God has called sin.”

Anonymous

Many blessings in Christ, Pastor Jeff

Simple Church

Greetings to All and Prayers for a Happy New Year!

     As we begin the new year, I thought I would start us off with a call to return to simple.  Simple and uncomplicated ministry.  Ministry as Jesus did it.  Ministry stripped off all the ways we try and make it more complex than it really is. Spirituality that's focused on the important.  Being the Church Jesus wants us to be.

 

This was driven home to me in a book recommended by a close friend: Simple Church, by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger.  It is a straightforward and down to earth appraisal of how ministry should look. How Jesus intended it to look. If you happen to be struggling with the church as it often is, and want to consider it from a refreshing perspective, I would encourage you to pick up this easy to read book. As you go through it I am sure you will likely find yourself saying on many occasions, "Yes, that IS how it should be."   I offer this excerpt as a mere taste of what is in the book. Enjoy.

     "Simple churches have chosen to align themselves with the way God works. They have chosen to partner with the discipleship process revealed in Scripture. They have chosen to structure their churches around a simple process...  We are not claiming a simple church design is easy. There is a big difference between simple and easy.  Simple is basic, uncomplicated, and fundamental. Easy is effortless...  Leading a local church is neither simple nor easy, but the church strategy does not need to be complicated. The ministry design can and should be simple.

     If anyone knows simple it is Jesus. If anyone is a revolutionary, it is Jesus. He is the simple revolutionary. He stepped into a complicated and polluted religious scene. It was cluttered with Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians, Zealots, and Essenes. He did not play by their rules.  He could not stand their hypocrisy.  He preferred spending time with tax collectors and sinners.  The religious leaders had developed a religious system with 613 laws. They chose that number because that was how many separate letters were in the text containing the 10 Commandments. Then they found 613 commandments in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament). They divided the list into affirmative commands (do this) and negative commands (don't do this).  There were 248 affirmative commands, one for every part of the human body as they understood it. There were 365 negative commands, one for each day of the year. They further divided the list into binding commands and nonbinding commands. Then they spent their days debating whether the divisions were accurate and ranking the commands within each division.

     Enter Jesus. Jesus has the ability to take the complex and make it simple. The prime example is Matthew 22:37-40, where Jesus gives what has become known as the Great Commandment. Here is the scene. Jesus has just stumped the Sadducees. Literally. He silenced them by His wisdom (Matt. 22:34). Next up are the Pharisees. Maybe they can do a better job knocking this revolutionary down. The Pharisees gather for a meeting. They devise a debate strategy. The goal is to humiliate Jesus in front of the crowd. They choose their smartest guy, a lawyer, to take on Jesus. He asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment in the law. Of all the 613 commandments, he is asking Jesus for the greatest. Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend (are summed up in) these two commandments." Think about the significance of that moment. He said all the Law (and He added the Prophets) is summed up in this simple and perfect phrase. He was not lowering the standard of the Law.  He was not abolishing it.  He was capturing all its spirit, all of its essence, in one statement.  He said all of it hangs on this.  He summed up 613 commands in two.  Jesus took the complexity and the advancement of the Law and made it very simple.

     Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher. In the Jewish culture, each rabbi had a "yoke" of teaching. His yoke was his instructions, his content and his message. Many rabbis put yokes of teaching on the people that were impossible and legalistic. These yokes pushed people away from the grace of God and not toward it.  These yokes burned people out and turned people off.  Jesus stepped onto the scene and said to the crowd one day: "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30). Jesus said HIS yoke was easy. His teaching was in stark contrast to the religious rabbis of the day. He was not offering a complicated and long set of rules, rituals, and regulations. He was offering grace. He was offering a simple relationship with God. As a simple revolutionary, Jesus was bothered by meaningless and distracting clutter.

     On at least one occasion, Jesus cleansed the temple. Many biblical scholars believe he did this twice during His earthly ministry. Mark 11 gives the account of one of His cleaning projects.  Jesus was enraged by what he observed at the temple. The temple had the appearance of being a place where people would seek God, but this was not the reality. People had lost their focus. Mark describes three areas of clutter that infuriated Jesus.  FIRST, people are buying and selling in the temple... The leaders allowed vendors to set up shop in the temple.  Historians reveal vendors were typically set up outside the temple, but (in Jesus day) the makeshift marketplace is inside the temple. Jesus responded by driving out those who were selling doves.  SECOND, money changers were exchanging foreign currency for the Gentiles. The Gentiles needed Jewish money to buy sacrifices and they were being exploited with a fee for the exchange. Instead of the temple being a house of prayer for all nations (including Gentiles) it was cluttered with people robbing them financially. Jesus reacts by throwing over the tables of the money changers.  THIRD, the temple had become a shortcut for people to pass through the city...  Jesus stopped them.

     His behavior in the temple gives us amazing insight into the heart of God. Jesus is adamantly opposed to anything that gets in the way of people encountering Him. He quoted from Isaiah that day saying, "Is it not written. 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?' But you have made it a den of thieves!"  (Mark 11:17).  Many of our churches have become cluttered. So cluttered that people have a difficult time encountering the simple and powerful message of Christ. So cluttered that many people are busy doing church instead of being the church. What about your church?"

     Just some food for thought as we enter the New Year and hopefully "clean out" and "simplify" our approach to God.  For Jesus wants us to know, "[His] yoke is easy and [His] burden is light."  He designed it that way.  He fought to keep it that way.  May He win the fight to do so in your life and in your church.

     With Prayers for a Year Where We Can Learn to Enjoy the Simplicity and Light Load of Being In Christ, Pastor Jeff

Four Wrong Answers to the Question “Why Me?”

Greetings All,

This week's "thought" comes from Tim Keller's blog ( www.Redeemercitytocity.com ) in an entry dated August 6, 2012.  It is a little lengthy, but who can honestly deal with the question of why there is suffering in the world in just one or two paragraphs?  If you have ever asked, or had someone ask you the question, "Why Me?"  it will be worth the time it takes for you to read this entry.  Obviously, I offer it to those earnestly interested in knowing how to respond to such a question since those who aren't truly interested will not take the time to go through it.  Keller (as usual) offers some very good insights. Enjoy.

Four Wrong Answers to the Question “Why Me?”

     When I was diagnosed with cancer, the question "Why me?" was a natural one. Later, when I survived but others with the same kind of cancer died, I also had to ask, "Why me?” Suffering and death seem random, senseless… As a minister, I’ve spent countless hours with suffering people crying: “Why did God let this happen?”  In general, I hear four answers to this question—but each is wrong, or at least inadequate.

     The FIRST answer is: "This makes no sense—I guess this proves there is no God." But the problem of senseless suffering does not go away if you abandon belief in God. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” said that if there was no higher divine Law, there would be no way to tell if any particular human law was unjust or not. If there is no God, then why have a sense of outrage and horror when suffering and tragedy occur? The strong eat the weak—that’s life—so why not? When Friedrich Nietzsche heard that a natural disaster had destroyed Java in 1883, he wrote a friend: “Two hundred thousand wiped out at a stroke—how magnificent!” Nietzsche was relentless in his logic. Because if there is no God, all value judgments are arbitrary. All definitions of justice are just the results of your culture or temperament. As different as they were in other ways, King and Nietzsche agreed on this point. If there is no God or higher divine Law, then violence is perfectly natural. So abandoning belief in God doesn’t help with the problem of suffering at all, and as we will see, it removes many resources for facing it.

     The SECOND answer is: “If there is a God, senseless suffering proves that God is not completely in control of everything. He couldn’t stop this.”  As many thinkers have pointed out—both devout believers as well as atheists—such a being, whatever it is, doesn’t really fit our definition of God. And this leaves you with the same problems mentioned above. If you don’t believe in a God powerful enough to create and sustain the whole world, then the world came about through natural forces, and that means, again, that violence is natural. Or if you think that God is an impersonal life force and this whole material world is just an illusion, again you remove any reason to be outraged at evil and suffering or to resist it.

     The THIRD answer to seemingly sudden, random death is: "God saves some people and lets others die because he favors and rewards good people." But the Bible forcefully rejects the idea that people who suffer more are worse people than those who are spared suffering. This was the self-righteous premise of Job’s friends in that great Old Testament book. They sat around Job, who was experiencing one sorrow in life after another, and said, "the reason this is happening to you and not us is because we are living right and you are not." At the end of the book, God expresses his fury at Job’s "miserable comforters." The world is too fallen and deeply broken to issue in neat patterns of good people having good lives and bad people having bad lives.

     The FOURTH answer is: "God knows what he’s doing, so be quiet and trust him." This is partly right, but inadequate. It is inadequate because it is cold and because the Bible gives us more with which to face the terrors of life. God did not create a world with death and evil in it. It is the result of humankind turning away from him. We were put into this world to live wholly for him, and when instead we began to live for ourselves everything in our created reality began to fall apart—physically, socially, and spiritually. Everything became subject to decay. But God did not abandon us. Of all the world's major religions, only Christianity teaches that God came to earth (in Jesus Christ) and became subject to suffering and death himself—dying on the Cross to take the punishment our sins deserved—so that someday he can return to earth to end all suffering without ending us.

     Do you see what this means? Yes, we don’t know the reason God allows evil and suffering to continue, or why it is so random, but now at least we know what the reason isn’t—what it can’t be. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us! It can’t be that he doesn’t care. He is so committed to our ultimate happiness that he was willing to plunge into the greatest depths of suffering himself.  He understands us, he’s been there, and he assures us that he has a plan to eventually to wipe away every tear…

     Someone might say, "But that’s only half an answer to the question 'Why?'" Yes, but it is the half that we need.  If God actually explained all the reasons why he allows things to happen as they do, it would be too much for our finite brains. Think of small children and their relationship to their parents. Three-year-olds can’t understand most of what their parents allow and disallow for them. But though they aren’t capable of comprehending their parents’ reasons, they are capable of knowing their parents’ love, and therefore capable of trusting them and living securely. That is what they really need. Now the difference between God and human beings would be infinitely greater than the difference between a thirty-year-old parent and a three-year-old child. So we should not expect to be able to grasp all God’s purposes, but through the Cross and gospel of Jesus Christ, we can know his love. And that is what we need most.

     In Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts, she shares her journey to understand the senseless death of her sister, crushed by a truck at the age of two. In the end, she concludes that the primary issue is whether we trust God’s character. Is he really loving? Is he really just? Her conclusion:  "[God] gave us Jesus... If God didn’t withhold from us His very own Son, will God withhold anything we need? If trust must be earned, hasn’t God unequivocally earned our trust with the splintery wood on the raw wounds, the thorns pressed into the brow, your name on the cracked lips? How will he not also graciously give us all things He deems best and right? He’s already given the incomprehensible.”

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Grace

Greetings All!

While visiting a conference in Pittsburgh, PA, two weekends ago, I picked up a new book entitled: "Grace" by Randy Alcorn.  It consists of 203 short thoughts (some just a couple of sentences long) describing the grace of God. It would make a great daily devotional, or could act as a supplement to another devotional.
     Alcorn offers many of his own insights on grace, while supporting most of them with great quotes from other contemporary and antiquated authors. I offer you seven selections (a week's worth, one for each of the next seven days) to give you a taste for what the book has to offer!  Enjoy.

"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness 

could be gained through the Law, Christ died for nothing." 

                     Galatians 2:21

     "Grace never ignores the reality of sin. In fact, it emphasizes it. Paul said if men were good enough, then "Christ died for nothing." Benjamin Warfield said: "Grace is free sovereign favor for the ill-deserving."  If we don't see the reality of how ill-deserving we are, God's grace won't seem amazing. If we minimize our unworthiness, we minimize God's grace." "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me..." (John Newton).

"Yet he gave a command to the skies above, 

and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained 

down manna for people to eat; he gave them the 

grain of heaven."         Psalm 78:23-24

     "Louis Cassels wrote, "If God wants you to do something, he'll make it possible for you to do it, but the grace he provides comes only with the task and cannot be stockpiled beforehand. We are dependent on him from hour to hour.  As God didn't allow the Israelites to store up manna, he doesn't let us store up grace. He always gives us enough, but we can't deposit it for the future. We have to get it fresh every day. "He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater, He sendeth more strength when the labors increase; To added affliction he addeth His mercy, To multiplied trials His multiplied grace" (Annie Johnson Flint)."

"In him we have redemption through his blood, 

the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the 

riches of God's grace that he lavished on us." 

                Ephesians 1:7

     "Benjamin Jowett said, "Grace is the energy of the divine affection rolling in plenteousness toward the shores of human need."  No matter what you've done, there is no sin beyond the reach of God's grace once you have accepted Christ's offer of forgiveness. Max Lucado says, "God answers the mess of life with one word: GRACE!"  God knows everything, so no sin surprises him. He knows all our worst secrets (Psalm 69:5). No skeletons will ever fall out of our closets. Jesus will never say, "Had I known you'd done that, I'd never have let you into heaven." He's seen us at our worst and still loves us. "Are you too bad to receive grace? How could you be too bad to receive what is for the bad?"" 

"All of us have become like one who is unclean, 

and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all 

shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins 

sweep us away."     Isaiah 64:6

     "For some, "human depravity" (total inability to earn our way to God) may be an insulting doctrine, but grasping it is liberating. When I realize the best I can do without God is like "filthy rags" in his sight, it finally sinks in that I have nothing to offer. Salvation, therefore, hinges on his work, not mine. What a relief!   "We could not take one step in the pursuit of holiness if God in his grace had not first delivered us from the dominion of sin and brought us into union with his risen Son. Salvation is by grace and sanctification is by grace" (Jerry Bridges)."

"Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, 

he gave it to them saying, "This is the blood of the covenant,

which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." 

                     Matthew 26:27-28

     "No one deserves forgiveness. That's the whole point of grace. On the cross, Jesus experienced the Hell we deserve, so for all eternity we can experience the Heaven we don't deserve. The grace that is free for us was costly to God. But he offers it to us with a heart of infinite love. "I have come to know a God who has a soft spot for rebels, who recruits people like the adulterer David, the whiner Jeremiah, the traitor Peter, and the human-rights abuser Saul of Tarsus. I have come to know a God whose Son made prodigals... the trophies of his ministry" (Philip Yancey)." 

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions 

and sins, in which you used to live when you followed 

the ways of this world."   Ephesians 2:1

     "You and I weren't merely sick in our sins; we were dead in our sins. That means I'm not just unworthy of salvation; I'm utterly incapable of earning it.  Corpses can't raise themselves from the grave!  What a relief to realize that my salvation is completely the result of God's grace. It cannot be earned by good works -- and therefore it can't be lost by bad ones.  Thomas Watson wrote, "[Divine] Acts of grace cannot be reversed. God blots out his people's sins, but not their names."  "If you and sin are friends, you and God are not yet reconciled" (J. C. Ryle)."

"Do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; 

do not worry about it... But seek his kingdom, and 

these things will be given to you as well."  Luke 12:29, 31

     "When we come to Christ, God graciously puts all his resources at our disposal. That's a dramatically uneven exchange since God has so much more than we do, and all we have comes from him in the first place.  "I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low for You... I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal." (John Wesley)."

     I would encourage you to take one of these entries each day for a week and give it much consideration.  Grace (of the biblical kind) may not line up with the persuasions of the world, but it is the essence of nearly all God says in His Word.  Therefore, as Spurgeon once said, "If the people do not like the doctrine of grace, give them all the more of it."

     Many blessings upon your week's contemplation of grace!

In the Service of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff

C. S. Lewis - Faith, Christianity and the Church

Greetings All!

A post by a friend on Facebook yesterday reminded me of the wisdom of C. S. Lewis and how I have not delved into one of his books for quite some time. So, to correct such an inexcusable oversight, I decided to share this excerpt from his books, "Selected Literary Essay, De Descriptione Temporum" (#1)  and  "Letters: C.S. Lewis/Don Giovanni Calabria" (#2). Though both written in 1953, Lewis simply points out a biblical truth spoken of by both Jesus and the apostle John (Matthew 12:43-45 / I John 2:18-19). I hope one might see how it applies to our present day situation. Enjoy.

"Whereas all of history was for our [European] ancestors, divided into two periods, the pre-Christian and Christian, for us it falls into three -- the pre-Christian, Christian and what may reasonably be called the "post-Christian." This surely must make a momentous difference... [for] it appears to me that the second change is even more radical than the first. Christians and Pagans had much more in common than either has with post-Christian.  The gap between those who worship different gods is not as wide as that between those who worship and those who do not... That Europe [and I will add America] can come out of Christianity "by the same door as she went in" and find herself back where she was, is not what happens. A post-Christian man is not a Pagan.  You might as well think that a married woman recovers her virginity by divorce.  The post-Christian is cut off from the Christian past, and therefore cut off doubly from the Pagan past..."

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     "What you (Don Giovanni) say about the present state of mankind is true; indeed, it is even worse than you say. For [present day people] not only neglect the law of Christ, but even the Law of Nature as known by the Pagans. For now they do not blush at adultery, treachery, perjury, theft, and other crimes which not only Christians, but the pagans and the barbarous, have themselves denounced.  They err who say "the world is turning pagan again." I wish that it were!  The truth is that we are falling into a much worse state.  "Post-Christian man" is not the same as "pre-Christian man."  He is as far removed as a virgin from a widow...

    Regarding the moral condition of our times (since you bid me prattle on) I think this: Older people, as we both are, are always "praisers of times past." They always think the world is worse than it was in their younger days. Therefore we ought to take care lest we go wrong.  But with that proviso, certainly I feel that very grave dangers hang over us. This results from the apostasy of the great part of Europe [and America, I might add] from the Christian faith.

     Hence we are in a worse state than the one we were in before we received the Faith. For no one returns from Christianity to the same state they were in before Christianity, but a worse state; the difference between a pagan and an apostate is the difference between an unmarried woman and an adulterous. For faith perfects nature, but faith lost corrupts nature. Therefore many men of our time have lost not only the supernatural light, but also the natural light which pagans possessed.

     But God, who is the God of mercies, even now has not altogether cast off the human race. In younger people, although we may see much cruelty and lust, yet at the same time do we not see very many sparks of virtues which perhaps our own generation lacked? How much courage, how much concern for the poor do we see!  We must not despair. And (among us) a not inconsiderable number are now returning to the Faith." 

     I have seen what Lewis (and Jesus) are speaking about. The "pagan," be that person polytheistic or monotheistic, has some semblance of a code of virtues based on that belief in a divine being.  It's a pre-Christian similarity to the Christian faith which makes the true pagan open to the teachings of Jesus.  In fact, the pagan who is attracted to Christianity is generally drawn to it because he is moved by the hope he sees for redemptive change.

     But the disillusioned post-Christian is not in that category. The post-Christian has turned against the Christian faith and frequently becomes hostile to it. This is a group which has as some of it's most avid adherents, those raised in the church (or those who simply tasted of the cultural aspects of Christianity, without ever truly embracing Christ) and found mere Christian moralism lacking or unloving.  Such a person often refuses to even entertain the thought that Christianity can bring about positive change. Their nominal associations with the faith, as the old saying goes, gives them "an ax to grind."   Some of the most anti-Christian people I've ever met are not unbelieving pagans, but those who "went out from us" (I John 2:19). They were people who were somehow connected to the Church and found it lacking.  Yet as John goes on to point out:  "They did not really belong to us, for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. Their going out showed that none of them belonged to us"  (I John 2:19b).

     Unlike the pagan who still has the hope of change, they have turned against any hope in redemptive change, and in losing it, feel the grace of Jesus is ineffective.  And when one gives up on redemptive change, they resort to other methods to bring about change -- including the use of power -- which is often aimed at the church to demean or suppress it.  (And yes, I am well-aware that earnest Christian people impatient for change, have also fallen prey to the use of power instead of grace). Which brings us to another insight of Lewis: "The descent to hell is easy, and those who begin by worshipping power soon worship evil."  May that never be true of us!

     Just some food for thought.

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff