This is the continuation of Thoughts from a spiritual graveyard.
Reasons for faith, hope, and action.
We have looked at the condition of evangelical faith in the Nordics and are not encouraged.
We have buried our weakly founded hopes in nostalgia, magic, and analysis.
Now, what?
Irrefutable facts
First, I will not try to use rhetoric or jump directly to the Bible to encourage us, but simply remind us about some empirical facts that don’t even require Christian faith to acknowledge. Facts we tend to forget in our Nordic, somewhat self-absorbed depression:
The number of people who declare themselves as Christians is bigger than ever (<2 billion) and the number is growing.
We may not be seeing this in the Nordics or in the West or Middle East, but in East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America where we are also seeing the highest increases in global population, people are coming to faith in Christ. This is happening mainly in Pentecostal and charismatic churches with teachings that in some areas are not exactly ‘evangelical kosher’, but still, Christ is preached (Phil. 1:15–18), and the Spirit is working.
We tend to think that our times are uniquely bad, but we are wrong. The Church has been here—and worse—before and yet it has always been under God’s control and ordinance. And each time, often when the light seemed most dim, he turned it around and created a new dawn, a season of blessing and growth.
We tend to think that our times are uniquely bad, but we are wrong.
It takes no more than the most cursory reading of the history of God’s people to see that the development and growth of the Church has been anything but a straight curve.
The entire Old Testament is one long story of radical ups and downs with numerous periods of deep crisis, spiritual decay, and death, symbolised by, for example, a graveyard(!) of dry bones (Ez. 37).
This pattern does not radically change with the birth of the church.
“At least five times, the Faith has to all appearances gone to the dogs,” G. K. Chesterton dryly states in The Everlasting Man. His point was mostly directed at the faith content, but he could just as well have been writing about the spread of Christianity and influence of the church (the dramatic waxing and waning of Christianity throughout history is excellently illustrated in this short video).
One vivid example: In the year 1800 on the church’s holiest day, Easter Sunday, only six people participated in the Lord’s Supper in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the very center of the Church of England. As Chesterton added, whenever the faith seemingly went to the dogs: “Each time it was the dogs that died.” Our dogs will die too, sooner or later.
The secret source
The secret behind the dynamic and longevity of the Christian church is not sociological, psychological, or economical. It’s spiritual (Zach. 4:6,1 Cor. 4:20).
In the first article, I mentioned an attraction to graveyards, not least because they are, paradoxically, evidence of life—yes, of lives lived, but there is more to it. Graveyards remind us of the historical event that forms the firm foundation of our hope, the impossibility turned into physical fact: The resurrection of Jesus Christ and the will and power behind it (Rom. 6:10–11, 1 Cor. 15:20–26).
What we need is not primarily the correct rational analysis, missiology, or concepts. We need something more radical: a divine intervention; a supernatural resurrection (Ez. 37:5–6). This resurrection must come from that very grave where we have laid to rest all that stands in the way of God’s sovereign intervention: our panic, despair, defeatism, and our belief in our own resources, concepts, and ideas about how a revival should unfold.
We need a resurrection of true faith, love, and spiritual power, one that can only come from God. Not disconnected from our involvement, attitude, or behaviour, but still, in its essence: A miracle.
The first thing we can do is to repent from our sins, misconceptions, and seeking God for our own purposes and turn our attention to the One it’s all about; the main character in this story—His Story—Jesus Christ; the only true source of faith, hope, love, growth, per, and everlasting life (John 6:68; Rom 11:36; Col. 1:16–18).
“It must see Christ”
In his brilliant commentary on the first chapters of the Book of Revelation, What Christ Thinks of The Church, John Stott writes: “A church with its back to the wall, fighting for survival, needs more than moral exhortation and pious entreaty; it must see Christ” (emphasis mine).
And, if I may add, we must see not just any figure of Christ—not just the humble, human, gentle, caring Christ, as the children of Jerusalem’s streets saw him—but the resurrected Christ: the strong and mighty, fearsome, indestructible warrior, conqueror, king, and judge; crowned with glory and honor, and reigning over heaven and earth (Rev. 1:13–16; Heb. 2:9; Matt. 28:8–9).
We need to see him—and we need to help others see him. This vision of Christ must be at the center of our witness, our songs, our admonitions, our prayers, and our preaching.
We don’t yet see Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Greenland, or the Faroe Islands wholly subjected to Christ, just as the congregation of Hebrews didn’t. With their natural faculties they could only see pressure, persecution, and problems. “But we (can) see Jesus” (Heb. 2:9)—the ultimate reality—if we open our eyes and have our eyes opened. We will see him if we “pick up and read” as Augustine was reminded, if we pray, and if we live in faithful service, as if we actually believe in him we preach and proclaim.
Stay true
Yes, but aren’t we to do anything to bring about a new awakening of our churches and countries?
Of course. As mentioned above, God rarely decides to perform his miracles entirely independent of human activity. There are a million good things to do and we live in an age of access to almost unlimited inspiration about how to be on mission. This is a gift to be used and multiplied, not content with being the most inspired and resourced, yet inactive generation in history …
Let me highlight three suitable postures for us as Christians living in our current spiritual graveyard:
Prayerfulness
Prayerfulness: We don’t know what to do. We can’t bring about what is really needed, in ourselves. But we have direct access to him who knows and can (Eph. 2:18). It can seem useless and feel boring or even frustrating, but prayer is the highway to God’s heart. And God’s heart is our only hope. Let’s use this unique practice to confess, to encounter the risen Christ, to seek him for his own sake—and for the sake of our church. It is remarkable that the Old Testament and Jesus himself talked about the temple, the ‘church building’ as a ‘house of prayer’ (Isaiah 56:7; Matt. 21:13). Not a house of preaching or working or socializing, but of prayer. That should give us a hint.
Faithfulness
Faithfulness: God does not require us to be extraordinary, super-spiritual, successful, or effective, but to be faithful stewards of his truth and salvation (1 Cor. 4:1–2). It takes a load off our shoulders—and places emphasis where emphasis is warranted: stay faithful, regardless of the times, surroundings, and even the attitude and behaviour of fellow Christians; stay faithful, even if you should become the last Christian in your family, city, country! You know what you have heard, ‘seen,’ and experienced (Acts 4:20). Stick to it. Live by it.
Small acts can be radical means of making visible another kingdom, a greater love, a different foundation and hope.
Living arrows
Living arrows: Who God is, what he has done, and what this means for the world and for us cannot be communicated too much or in too many ways. Here, words are essential, but in a time that is overloaded with information, skeptical about all truth claims, and eager to point out inconsistencies, being and behaving in line with what we believe is probably even more important. We must honor God and others in small, every day ways, acting as living arrows pointing toward the goodness of gospel and our God (1 Pet. 2:12). It could be praying before meals; talking well about your spouse and your boss; spending time with misfits; sharing your time and money generously; being a truly honest and forgiving person.
Small acts can be radical means of making visible another kingdom, a greater love, a different foundation and hope.
Can these bones live (Ez. 37:3)? Only the Lord truly knows but let us move forward boldly with our actions and attitudes rooted in Christ and his power, rejecting nostalgia, magic, and endless analysis. Let us hope in him and then watch and see what he shall do.