For the Church, Change Is Not Necessarily Failure

After a year of Covid-19, riots, political upheaval, and changing political landscape one thing is clear. The world as we once knew it is gone and it is not coming back.

February of 2020 seems like it was a different century. Christian Colleges are facing a presidential executive order that would force them to abandon their historic faith in order to open dorms in the fall (here), former students are suing to remove all religious exemptions from the equality act, (here), and churches around the world remain closed as a result of the Covid-19 epidemic. There are some things that we must learn as we face the new world in which we find ourselves.

Get over it. There is no going back to normal.

This is not a time to cry in our pillows over what we have lost. This is the time that God has given us in which to serve Him and we must face it with faith and confidence in the sovereign God of the Universe. He still rules in the affairs of men. Our responsibility is to get in line with what He is doing and not just mourn losses. The status quo was broken anyway.

Our God is great enough to continually accomplish His purpose in billions of different ways in billions of different situations around the globe. This is our wake-up call. We must use this time to rise out of the stagnation that had surrounded us and follow a call to revival and more effective ministry.

We must fight for our faith or lose it.

I am not talking about fighting politically or in the courts (although I am not saying we should just give up in that area either). There is a tendency to just wither under the constant attack, belittling, and lies that we face. Sometimes it seems easier to just give in. Our world considers faith and church non-essential—even dangerous.

The core of biblical Christianity cannot change because God cannot change. We must fight to remain faithful to our Lord, whatever the cost. Giving in to the pressures of this world will not gain us the admiration of the world, will not provide peace for our souls, and will only bring the disapproval of our Lord.

The choices are now much clearer. There remains no middle ground. The perception of being faithful to our Lord while being liked or tolerated by the world is a bygone illusion.

It is time for a change in strategy while maintaining our commitment to our faith.

Personal revival is essential, it always was, but now it is plainly so. There will be no spiritual survival in the world we face without a deep and abiding personal walk with our Lord. If we refuse personal revival now, we deserve to go the way of the Dodo bird, but what about our children? Will we sacrifice them too?

Our own children are the battleground. 

Preparation to face a hostile world must start from the time that they are born. The public and charter schools are now more than ever brain-washing institutions intended to drive our children away from biblical Christianity.

The attack comes from every direction. Parents must bite the bullet and take control of their children’s media input. Take away the smartphones! The big social media institutions are not friends of the faith and they are intentionally targeting the hearts of your children.

Parents must take hold of the educational atmosphere of their children. The pressures kids face in non-Christian school environments today are beyond what most of us imagine. Don’t think so? Sit down with your kids and ask them what is going on in the classroom, hallway, and locker room. Ask them without being judgmental or angry.

Pursue the hearts of your children earnestly. They are not born biblical Christians. They do not depart from the faith. When they leave it’s because they never bought in, to begin with.

We need to be more serious and intentional about church.

If you aren’t motivated to pray now, I cannot imagine what will motivate you. The fields are white, we must go in the power of the gospel and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is not a time to play worship or entertain. Discipleship must be immediate, demanding, deep, and sincere. Church discipline must be practiced faithfully. Tomorrow’s church must be more a boot camp than a social club.

We have many more churches to plant. The days of the megachurch are likely over. Megachurches cannot nimbly navigate the waters ahead and will become high-profile targets for persecution and abuse. This does not mean that the Kingdom cannot advance. Church success in the future will be in more churches, not huge churches.

Christian secondary education will change.

Without favored status in the culture, privileges will be lost. This at a time where the Christian College is more necessary than ever. The advantages of accreditation and financial subsidies for Christian colleges are on the verge of disappearing unless there is a miraculous intervention of God. In light of that, we need to think through some things.

We must abandon the financial/career motivation for Christian education. Parents must understand that financial success motivation is often a shortcut to spiritual ruin. We have always claimed this as a secondary purpose for Christian higher education, but now we will have to live out that claim. We are preparing evangelists to reach the world. They need the ministry and spiritual tools to survive in the world without the benefit of the credentials to be accepted by the world.

Schools might need to abandon the furniture to keep the faith. Nothing should be off the table except what is clearly not biblical.

Such monumental and difficult choices must not be interpreted as failure.

It is not a failure to give up the status quo–even give up a burdensome college campus–to be more effective in clear biblical purposes. The real failure is NOT adapting to the new world we are facing. Our campuses and our institutional structures are only tools toward that end. We must not mourn the loss of ineffective tools or in nostalgia long for what it is past. Those things were useful for a time but have the potential to be burdens in the future.

We need to re-examine scriptures not only for our theology but also for a re-focused methodology for ministry.

There is no merit in being different just to be different, but there is virtue in re-examining what we do to confirm that we are functioning in a truly biblical way.

I do not know exactly what is ahead. It seems that Christian Colleges might need to reorganize under denominational tags with clearer doctrinal positions or better yet organize under individual church ministries to maintain any kind of educational autonomy. Freedom from the bureaucracy and burdens of accreditation might allow schools to educate more efficiently and effectively. Certainly, seminary education will have to be smaller and more decentralized. Covid-19 has already made that happen. Distance learning technology allows opportunities previously not available.

These days are uncomfortable but that does not mean they cannot be days of victory. It is time for an attitude change. Put away the fear, sorrow, and mourning.  God is not dead and He is not sleeping. This is a day of opportunity.

Souls for Jesus!