Kingdom People

In counseling, I often come across two kinds of people:

Some people think they are true Christians, but are probably not. They need a dose of gospel confrontation.

Other people doubt they are true Christians, but probably are. They need a dose of gospel comfort.

Sam’s Story

Sam is a twenty-something who is upset with God because of a recent downturn in his business profits. He waltzes into my office, mad at God and (by extension) the church.

I ask a few diagnostic questions, and I quickly discover that Sam is living with his girlfriend. He rarely attends church. His biggest goal in life is to make a lot of money.

In short, Sam is not living the life of a Christian. I fail to see any genuine fruit of repentance. The more I talk to him, the more I realize that he is not concerned about his lack of commitment to the Christian community; neither is he upset about his misplaced priorities or sexual immorality.

I ask him some questions about his spiritual condition. He tells me about a decision he made at a youth event ten years ago. He raised his hand, filled out a card, and got his “ticket to heaven.”  He insists that he is truly saved because of this experience.

What does Sam need? The gospel.

Sam needs to be confronted with the lack of fruit in his life. He needs to see his life compared to the holiness of God. He needs to hear that true salvation always leads to good works. The absence of fruit in his life indicates that Sam is not a true believer.

I urge him to examine his own life to see if he is in the faith. I urge him to see himself in light of God’s holiness. I urge him to repent of his sins and trust in Jesus. By pointing to the fruitlessness of his life, I confront him with the gospel truth that Jesus Christ transforms us into new people. Sam is comfortable in his sin and needs to be confronted with the gospel.

Jenny’s Story

Jenny is a twenty-something who meets me and my wife in my office. She has a sweet spirit and a naturally introspective personality. She tells us that she feels guilty about the sins she commits daily. She weeps about the ways she fails the Lord. Her constant struggles against sin are causing her to doubt if she is saved.

I ask a few diagnostic questions and discover that Jenny is very active in church. She sincerely wants to please the Lord. She is very aware of her sinfulness, and that is why she fears she doesn’t have enough fruit to show for her salvation. Looking at her life, I see fruits of repentance and faith everywhere.

What does Jenny need? The gospel.

But I take a different road with Jenny than I did with Sam. I challenged Sam to examine his life and see that the fruit of his life indicates a diseased tree. He needed to repent and trust in Jesus. I confronted Sam with the gospel that leads to a transformation of life.

But with Jenny, the last thing I want to do is say, “Look at your life! It’s obvious you love the Lord. You do good works. You repent of your sins.” Once I tell Jenny to examine her life, I’ve condemned her. “I haven’t done enough to prove my salvation,” she will say.

Instead, I take her back to the truth of Christ’s righteousness covering our sinfulness. Look to Christ, I tell her. Remember that your salvation is not dependent on you, not even on the works you do after you are a Christian. Christ is your redeemer. Christ is your righteousness. Jenny is conflicted about her salvation and needs to be comforted. So I point her to Christ.

Confrontation and Comfort

We all need the gospel.

Some people think they are Christians because of a one-time decision that never bore genuine fruit in life. They need gospel confrontation: the gospel changes us.

Others doubt they are Christians because they recognize their sinfulness. They need gospel comfort: the gospel saves us.

The gospel should comfort the conflicted and confront the comfortable.

Earlier this week, I reflected on a visit to a Roman Catholic church. Today, I am putting down some reflections about a recent visit to a megachurch.

I read recently that some people are attending churches “undercover,” much like mystery shoppers who frequent restaurants and stores and report on their findings. I deplore the consumerist mindset that treats the church as just another company.

But I wonder if our churches might not benefit from “undercover” visitors who take stock of every aspect of the worship, looking for the message of the gospel? How many churches could we attend without hearing about Christ crucified? How many ”worship sets” do we sing that leave out the cross and resurrection? What view would one have of God if they sat through just one typical evangelical worship service? 

The irony you will soon discover in the following description of a megachurch visit is that the Roman Catholics read more Scripture in worship than we evangelicals do. And we’re the ones who believe sola Scriptura, right?

Here are some thoughts on my mega-church visit…

A service at this church is a massive endeavor which takes a tremendous number of volunteers and paid workers. Once we arrived at the entrance to the building, the doors were opened by greeters who said, “Good evening,” and “Hi, how are you?”. Once inside, another lady greeted us and told us she was glad that we were there. My wife and I made our way to the nursery wing, where we dropped off our son. The nursery is filled with volunteers that stay with the children during the service. Smiling ushers led us to our seats on the bottom floor in the towering auditorium.

The service began with a man who was leading the church in singing as he played the piano. He was joined onstage by several other people who sang as well. The orchestra and band were hidden down below the choir loft. The ushers that greeted us at the door were involved in serving Communion at the appropriate time. Some of the people on staff baptized new converts at one point during the service.

The senior minister preached the sermon and went down front afterwards to greet people coming forward at the invitation. Many other counselors, elders and ushers were involved in this part of the service as well. There were probably more than 500 total people working to make this service possible.

Several things strike me as being important to the planners of this worship service. First, professionalism is definitely a goal of the worship team and musicians. The music and singing from onstage is executed so well that no awkwardness exists at all. A strong sense of professionalism pervades the atmosphere. Everything done must be top-notch.

Another important factor for the planners is efficiency. The service begins and ends at a certain time, leaving little room for flexibility. It is amazing that so much is accomplished during this worship service within the time constraints of one hour.

Another important factor is outreach. The people are friendly to visitors and church members demonstrate a genuine caring attitude. The music was contemporary, and the sermon seemed relevant to believers and non-believers alike.

The auditorium is built like a 3-tiered stadium. Since it seats thousands of people it is very easy to feel lost within the massive space. There was a cross on the wall behind the stage, as well as a dove that signified the Holy Spirit. Other than these two wall fixtures, nothing would have communicated to an outsider that this was indeed a church sanctuary. The facility is immensely practical.

The décor matched the worship service, thoroughly contemporary and professional. The people who led the service seemed educated and at ease in their task of addressing so large a crowd. The printed materials were full color brochures which not only told about that evening’s worship service, but also about all the activities and programs that the church offers. Overall, all these factors create a sense of “aliveness.”

Everyone around us sang during the appropriate times. I noticed that most everyone took Communion when the plate was passed. People were very attentive to the pastor’s message. I have been in few churches where everyone seemed to be so utterly engaged in the program and in all that was taking place. People applauded when the baptisms were finished, signaling that everyone understood this as a crucial event in a person’s life.

I felt that Communion was taken reverently by the people around me, but since there was very little comment from the stage about the significance of Communion, I cannot describe the individual’s understanding of this ordinance. It seemed to be an intimate moment between the individual and God rather than a corporate event.

The way that this church took Communion is deficient for several reasons. First, there is no clear explanation of the significance of Communion. Neither is there any discussion about who is eligible to receive the elements. Secondly, a newcomer to the church would not know what to do in this situation. Communion takes place in the middle of the service, before the sermon. It is an intimate time of personal reflection. Little emphasis is placed on the corporate “coming together” at the table of the Lord.

Immediately following Communion is the ordinance of baptism. I must admit that I enjoyed the way that the service structure joined the two ordinances side by side in this way. Still, the lack of explanation of Communion’s significance needs to be addressed.

Every worship has a theology, be it sound or errant. The church’s worship service began with the song “Holy is the Lord God Almighty,” a song that speaks of how the earth is filled with His glory. From the start of the service, we were invited to worship a holy and powerful Creator God.

Another song was “God is Great,” about the awesomeness of God’s character. We sang “Amazing Grace,” which explained that salvation is by grace alone for wretched sinners.

“Made Me Glad” was taken directly from a psalm that speaks of what God has done for His children. Overall, I believe the songs chosen helped bring God’s transcendence into view, while the atmosphere of the church emphasized His imminence.

The church’s role in the life of a believer was most evident in the child dedication ceremony, when the parents committed to raise their children in the fear of the Lord and the church committed to assisting them in this God-given task. Even in a church this large, the covenantal aspect of church membership shined through in this moment.

The service’s climax is the pastor’s sermon. The Bible message is given preeminence over all other aspects of the service, including the singing. The sermon was very practical and accessible. People seemed to understand the pastor’s message and I saw many people nodding their heads in agreement.

The sermon explained both what salvation is, and who Jesus is. I must give credit to the pastor for crafting a sermon that explained the Holy Spirit’s power in the life of Stephen, while maintaining a strong evangelistic emphasis.

One of the songs was taken almost directly from a psalm. During Communion, Philippians 3:10-11 appeared on the large screen behind the stage. The pastor read selected portions from Acts 6-7 as the main text for his sermon. Besides the pastor’s reading, there was no other public reading of Scripture aloud.

The songs were uplifting and God-centered, so I did feel encouraged to praise God. The sermon was Bible-based, and God did speak to us through His Word.

The impression one gets from visiting this church is big! Everything is big, from the sound, the screens, the auditorium, to the sermon. It is easy to feel as if you are only a spectator and not a participant, due to the size of the crowd.

The worship service falls somewhere in between formal and informal worship style. The service itself is very structured, so it would be a mistake to consider it informal in its presentation, as if everything were spontaneous or off-the-cuff. At the same time, the atmosphere is informal. Some people are dressed casually, while others are dressed in suits and ties. The worship team was dressed in “snappy-casual” attire. This juxtaposition of structure and informality does not a create dissonance, however; instead, it seeks to make the service accessible to the greatest number of people possible.

I grew up in a Baptist church that was a little more traditional in its musical style. Still, I must say that I am familiar with this type of worship service. My home church follows a similar order of service, and the climax is the sermon there as well. I got the feeling that the church is something like what my home church would be if it were 20 times larger.

My wife and I enjoyed our visit to this mega-church. We both felt that the Spirit of God is at work in this community of believers. Even though there were some aspects of the service that we felt could be improved, we believe that this worship service was honoring to God in the way it centered on God’s character and taught about salvation as His gift of free grace to sinners.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2009 Kingdom People blog

In 1914, Ernest Henry Shackleton led an expedition to cross the entire continent of Antarctica, but wound up shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. To rescue his team, Shackleton sailed a tiny boat across 850 miles of rough seas to South Georgia Island. Despite the choppy waters and gray skies, Shackleton was able to safely navigate the boat to their destination. If his coordinates had been off by even one half of one degree, his team would have missed their destination by hundreds of miles and perished.

Ship captains, airplane pilots, and astronauts will be the first to tell you that the tiniest navigational error can have disastrous consequences. The same is true for those of us who have been commissioned to lead our churches. A seemingly insignificant shift in direction can have major implications.

In recent years, leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention have bemoaned the falling number of baptisms. Pastors, missionaries, professors, and analysts have all offered a variety of reasons for why our numbers are declining, along with advice for how we might get back on track.

But I wonder if one of the main reasons for the dwindling number of baptisms is represented by a subtle shift in vocabulary – so subtle that we might overlook it.

There was a time when we spoke of unsaved people as “lost and dying and on their way to hell” – a phrase that painted a vivid picture of the stakes of being outside of Christ. We spoke of unsaved people in this way for so long that such terminology became something of a cliché.

Today, it seems that many pastors and church members tend to shy away from terms like “lost,” “unsaved,” and “unbeliever.” Instead, we speak of the people we are trying to reach as “unchurched.”

I believe that this change in terminology betrays two mistaken beliefs:

1. First, it indicates that our people believe the goal of the church is to grow the church.

Evangelism becomes less about reaching the unsaved in order to see them get saved, and more about reaching unchurched people in order to get them churched (or even worse, reaching other-churched people in order to get them to our church). Outreach becomes little more than an attempt to sell people on the benefits of coming to church.

Church-focused outreach is easier than Christ-focused outreach. In many places in the South, church attendance is still woven into the fabric of the culture. Many unchurched people already assume that they should go to church. So our outreach merely reinforces the cultural assumption that church attendance is important.

Furthermore, we are more comfortable reaching out to people with a Christian background than we are witnessing to Muslims and Hindus. In our increasingly multi-cultural world, it is much easier to reach the nominally “Christian” who already share our assumptions than the foreigners who are moving into our neighborhoods.

2. Secondly, our shift in vocabulary indicates a lessening of the eternal stakes of salvation.

I am thankful for the Conservative Resurgence in our denomination that has brought a renewed emphasis on orthodox theology. But I wonder how much of that orthodox theology is truly believed by the people in our churches.

Do we truly believe that Jesus is the only way to God?

Do we truly believe that people outside of faith in Christ will perish eternally in hell?

Do we truly believe that people who claim to be Christians and yet show no fruits of repentance have a false assurance of salvation?

Do we truly believe that people of other faiths are “lost and dying and on their way to hell”?

If so, why do we lessen the stakes of evangelism by speaking in a way that emphasizes church attendance over salvation in Christ?

Of course, evangelism includes inviting people into our churches. But inviting people to church is not the goal; it is only one means whereby God may accomplish his mission of seeking and saving the lost.

So yes… we believe that people need what the church has to offer. But we are not called to sell others on the greatness of our church, but to proclaim the greatness of our Savior.

In the choppy waters of our postmodern, increasingly post-Christian society, staying on course is no easy task. Jesus told us the way is narrow. God commanded the Israelites: “You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.”

If we need a course correction, let’s do it now. Let’s remind our people of the Christ-centeredness of the Great Commission. Let’s plead with lost people to flee to Jesus and escape the wrath to come. Let’s make evangelism and outreach about Jesus again. Maybe then, we will see lost people be found, unsaved people get saved, condemned people be pardoned, and then (and only then) – unchurched people be churched.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Yesterday, I posted a few thoughts on why Europeans tend to lean toward pacifism to solve problems whereas Americans tend to see war as a good solution.

Today, I want to take that conversation in the direction of current evangelical practice. Many of our evangelical brothers and sisters overseas believe that American media and culture promote a mindset of violence. Whenever I have brought up these concerns with my fellow American friends, I have gotten blank stares and then a quick denial that violence in any way represents us.

But consider the media choices we have at our disposal: movies, video games, the R-rated violence of a TV shows aired in prime time. Taking my son to see Wall-E a few months ago, I was appalled at the number of small children going to see Hulk with their parents, and I heard that crowds of children had front row seats to the disturbing violence of The Dark Knight.

Most evangelicals apparently do not see this trend as problematic. How many times do we hear leading evangelicals speaking out against the depictions of violence on TV or in the movies? We are very much aware of the sexual perversity on the big screen and the now-commonplace acceptance of homosexuality. But surely a constant stream of media violence is also deadly to our souls.

The latest way for youth groups to attract young men is by setting up video game consoles with violent games like Halo 3. Ask evangelical youth pastors if they would ever consider using pornography as a way of attracting young people to church. “Of course not!” would be the answer. But why is it we never give a second thought to the video games that bid us into a world of graphic violence?

“It’s not real. It’s just fantasy,” we say, shrugging aside the violence. But could we not use that line of reasoning for pornography as well?

Of course it’s fantasy. That’s not the point. The truth is… even fantasy shapes who we are and what we believe. We would never allow pornographic fantasy into our youth groups, but the gory bloodiness of video games sneaks in under the mask of “harmlessness.”

I believe that we should heed the warnings of many of our European brothers and sisters in Christ on this matter. We are a violent people. We consume violent entertainment. And the transformation of the gospel must reach even into this tender area and change our hearts.

I recently listened to the testimony of a Moldovan pastor who had a history of gang life. As he recounted his testimony, I was struck by how many times he mentioned non-retaliation as one of the integral parts of the transformation that took place in his life. 

Before he became a Christian, this man was impressed by two young believers who had invited him to church. He had beat both of them up and sent them on their way. But he soon discovered that neither one had turned him into the police. The young men continued to greet him and invite him to church even after he had acted violently against them. The Holy Spirit used these believers’ act of forgiveness and non-retaliation in order to chip away at this man’s hard heart toward Jesus Christ.

Closely linked to this pastor’s conversion story was his determination to not take revenge upon those who hurt him. Even after his former gang members attacked him for attending church, threw homemade bombs into the church meetings, and shattered the windows with rocks, the pastor refused to take action against them. The decision to refrain from vengeance, the decision to see non-violence as the Christian, gospel-centered response to a world of hatred was an integral part of his repentance and faith.

I am not interested in arguing for a pacifistic position on war. I do not believe that such a position can be supported by Scripture. Pacifism is wrong because it forgets “what time it is.” It assumes we must live in the world as if the final consummation of new heavens and new earth has already occurred and evil has already been finally defeated. We are living in the “time between the times” – between Christ’s initial victory over Satan and death on Easter Morning and his final implementation of that victory upon his Return. The “already/not yet” nature of the kingdom means that the end of all war is still “not yet.”

But as heralds of the coming kingdom of peace, we as Christians should be naturally resistant to the inherent violence of our culture. We must practice non-retaliation in our personal lives, seek to be at peace in the church, and decry the thirst for violence that so often marks our entertainment choices.

Pacifists we are not. Peacemakers we are.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

“If you preach the law as the Bible really does, or the gospel as it’s really meant to be proclaimed, you will empty the Compaq Center.”
- Dr. Michael Horton

Let me start off by expressing my appreciation for Michael Horton and the weekly radio show he hosts: The White Horse Inn.  I download and listen to every episode. Even when I disagree with the panel discussion, I find their discussions worthwhile. Their conversations have increased my appreciation of the gospel and my dedication to preach it faithfully.  I heed their warnings against watering down the gospel – a temptation for many pastors and churches that subscribe to some church growth philosophies. 

But I am afraid that the above quote by Dr. Horton could be misinterpreted.

I agree with Dr. Horton that, if he has in mind Joel Osteen’s church in Houston (which meets at the Compaq Center), he is probably right. Were Osteen to preach the biblical gospel, he would probably lose a great number of his people.  Osteen’s messages are motivational speeches, not biblical sermons.  So, yes, if Osteen were to begin preaching about sin, grace, and redemption, the people who flock to hear him week to week would probably go somewhere else.  

But we should not take Horton’s remarks as referring to any mega-church.

It would be a shame for us to grow suspicious of any ministry that sees a measure of numerical success.  We could easily adopt a mindset that says, If a mega-church pastor is seeing numerical growth, he must be doing something wrong. He must be watering down the gospel. He must be giving them entertainment over substance. Otherwise why would he have so many people? 

History should correct our suspicions. 

• Charles Spurgeon filled the Metropolitan Tabernacle for many years and was a faithful preacher of the gospel. 
• D. Martyn Lloyd Jones saw numerical success and was one of the greatest preachers of the last century. 
• Tim Keller today reaches many people in New York and preaches the gospel faithfully.
• Mark Driscoll in Seattle does not hold back from confronting lost people with the truth claims of the Christian gospel and he has seen great numbers fill his church.
• John Piper in Minnesota preaches expositional sermons to a full sanctuary every week.

Numbers can be deceiving.  We should not equate big numbers with God’s blessing. Neither should we equate low numbers with God’s blessing.

God forbid we criticize mega-churches and then begin to take pride in dwindling numbers just as some pastors take pride in swelling numbers. Both mentalities are centered on numbers. If we begin patting ourselves on the back because our churches are shrinking, we are just as prideful as those who pat themselves on the back because their churches are growing.  

Numbers do not tell the story.

Emptying your church does not mean you are faithfully preaching the gospel. You might just be boring.

Filling your church does not mean you are faithfully preaching the gospel. You might just be a good entertainer.

Numbers should never have the last word. We must commit to faithfully preach the gospel in season and out of season.  And let us never succumb to the temptation to see success or failure solely in terms of numbers.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Imagine the following scenario. The year is 2068. The Western Church is preparing to celebrate Easter.

In this particular year, Easter Sunday happens to coincide with the April 22 celebration of Earth Day, a holiday that has been increasing in popularity since it was first observed a hundred years before. In order to best participate in the culture in which they have been placed, many evangelical churches choose to forego their Easter celebrations and to celebrate Earth Day instead.

Not surprisingly, other evangelicals take these churches to task for replacing Easter with Earth Day.

“Why shouldn’t we?” the churches answer back. “After all, we should be looking for points of contact with our neighbors. We would seem out of touch with society if we celebrated Easter and did nothing special for Earth Day.”

“Can’t you see how you have been co-opted by the culture?” other evangelicals ask. “You’re allowing the culture to dictate your church celebrations!”

“We are never commanded to celebrate Easter,” reply the church leaders. “Paul even says to avoid legalism when choosing to celebrate one day over another.”

Now let’s rewind back 60 years to 2008. Many evangelicals who follow the traditional church calendar are in a quandary. Pentecost and Mother’s Day fall on the same date this year (May 11). While most evangelicals in the West (though not the case worldwide) have long jettisoned the celebration of Pentecost, many evangelicals outside the U.S. embrace the history of celebrating the church’s major feast days.

So what to do on Mother’s Day?

For many in the U.S., this question will seem odd. After all, most evangelical churches do not follow a specifically Christian church calendar, except for perhaps Christmas and Easter. For my father-in-law (a Romanian Baptist pastor), the answer is clear. You celebrate Pentecost and make mention of Mother’s Day as well. Of course, he, like my other Romanian friends, is still wondering why in the world we do not celebrate Pentecost here.

A few thoughts…

Every church has a calendar. Whether the church chooses to follow the traditional calendar of the Church and preach according to the readings in a lectionary does not change the fact that every church has a way of ordering time.

The question is not, Will we follow a calendar? but Whose calendar will we follow? In other words, does our church’s ordering of time follow the wisdom of the ancient church or the whims of the consumerist American culture?

Many of our churches have a list of unofficial celebrations that order our congregational time.

• New Year’s Day.
• Valentine’s Day.
• Mother’s Day.
• Father’s Day.
• Fourth of July.
• Memorial Day.
• Halloween.
• Veteran’s Day.

By rejecting the traditional church calendar, we did not reduce the number of our celebrations; we merely replaced them with the celebrations of the culture at large.

Granted, churches do well to emphasize many of these celebrations. We can benefit from using the cultural opportunity to speak to the biblical vision of motherhood and fatherhood, etc.

But we should be willing to listen to the tough questions from those outside our culture about what our church calendars represent.

Why should the consumerist culture of the United States dictate what we celebrate as a church?

Why is it that so many American churches celebrate with great fanfare the birth of their nation (July 4) without even so much as mentioning the birth of the church (Pentecost)?

Does the way we order our time shape us as the unique, called-out people of God or merely reinforce our nationalist, consumer-shaped identity?

Listening to these tough questions may make us uncomfortable. (They make me uncomfortable too. My current solution is to celebrate Pentecost with our Sunday School class and then celebrate Mother’s Day with the rest of the church.)

As evangelicals, we do well at seeking points of contact with our culture. It would be foolish to celebrate Pentecost on Mother’s Day without ever mentioning our mothers. Our goal should not be to adopt a “we’re proud to be out of touch” mentality that harms our witness.

I am sure that evangelicals will come down on different sides of the issue of ordering time. We should refrain from dogmatism on this matter. After all, the Scriptures do give us freedom in ordering our time and celebrations.

But surely we should wrestle through these decisions. To blindly go forward without giving thought to how our time is ordered is to prepare the foundation for the imaginary scenario I described earlier, where Earth Day takes over Easter. I hope I never see that day.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Christianity Today’s February 2008 cover story “The Future Lies in the Past” charts the increasing evangelical adoption of ancient Christian traditions and rituals in forming current spirituality. Chris Armstrong describes evangelicalism’s surge into the past, from “ancient-future” leader Bob Webber’s acclamation of the Great Tradition to the identity crisis of younger evangelicals today.

It’s true that this “blast from the past” is taking place in evangelical life, perhaps in more ways than Webber would have anticipated. Armstrong’s article points out the return to liturgy and tradition, but he leaves out the variety of ways that evangelicals are connecting with the past. The Ancient-Future side might actually be one of the less-influential corners of a movement spreading throughout evangelicalism from all directions.

1. Reformed Resurgence

Take the Reformed resurgence among young adults. In my own denomination, young Baptists are intrigued by the Calvinist roots of our Southern Baptist Convention. Some of the youngest Baptist leaders can quote from the earliest Southern Baptists better than their fathers and pastors. The desire for rootedness, for deep connection with the past has led many to the Puritans, whose books continue to be printed by Banner of Truth and Crossway.

2. Emerging Church

The Emerging Church disparages the rootlessness of contemporary evangelicalism and the pragmatism of the Seeker movement. The Emerging Church merges ancient rituals with current expression, and this strange marriage takes place in a variety of ways.  Some Emerging churches have rediscovered prayer rooms, incense, candles, icons, and labyrinths.

3. Spiritual Disciplines Movement

Richard Foster’s influential books on spiritual disciplines deserve a place in the Ancient-Future spectrum. Foster has long advocated a deeper embrace of the devotional heritage of the past, even if the classics take us back before the Reformation. Those who have followed Foster’s lead have taken up ancient Christian disciplines – fasting, contemplative prayer, etc.

4. The Organic/House Church Movement

Though I have argued that the most recent expression of this movement (Barna and Viola’s Pagan Christianity?) actually hates church history, I do see a common impulse between this group and the Ancient-Future movement. Both movements are about looking back in order to look forward. Of course, Barna desires a return to the pristine quality of the earliest church, which I believe never existed. But the desire for rootedness is present here in this odd house-church manifestation as well.

5. The New Monastics

Some might equate this movement with the Emerging Church, but it has its own distinct features. The Emerging Church is about contextualization, while the New Monastics tend to focus on the building of faith-communities and opportunities for spiritual retreat and reflection. Monastic prayer, fasting, giving to the poor, etc. are making a comeback among young evangelicals.

6. People Like Me

I can’t be pigeon-holed into any one of the above categories.

While I have a deep appreciation for Robert Webber, the worship of the church where I serve could hardly be considered “Ancient-Future.”

Theologically, I lean Reformed and I love Church History but I am not a five-point Calvinist and sometimes tire of the seemingly endless introspection of the Puritans.

I am not part of the Emerging Church, though I believe the movement has raised some good questions that we as evangelicals need to do business with.

I regularly practice certain spiritual disciplines and have no qualms about following the Church Calendar, observing Lent, and praying ancient prayers by candlelight.

I am not a Monastic, although a good spiritual retreat is a balm to my soul.

I love high-church liturgy, although I rarely get to experience it.

I hunger for more frequent observance of the Lord’s Supper. 

I yearn to find roots in the Church, roots beyond contemporary evangelicalism.

I suspect that there are many people like me, whose mouths water when hearing about liturgy, tradition, stability, and ancient rituals, but who often feel deprived of such aspects of Christianity due to the current trajectory of evangelical churches.

I am glad to see the evangelical movement looking backwards for a change. It is deeply humbling to see the vastness of the Christian tradition and our speckled and shining history and then to discover we are part of something bigger than ourselves – bigger than our denominational distinctives, bigger than our petty problems, bigger than our foolish fightings. We belong to the Church that for two thousand years has witnessed to the world that Jesus is Lord.

written by Trevin Wax. copyright © 2008 Kingdom People Blog.

Related Articles:
Book Review: Ancient-Future Faith
My Interview with Robert Webber
Baptists and the Lord’s Supper

Let me warn you. The following video is funny, but it is also crass. (The only reason I’m posting it is because it is part of an actual sermon. This is not a parody, folks.) 

It’s a YouTube of an independent Baptist, KJV-Only preacher who is speaking about the text that uses the phrase ”him that pisseth against the wall.”

Two aspects of evangelicalism sink to a new low here. First, this KJV Only preacher shows his desperation by using this example to bolster his case. (Not all KJV Only preachers would go this far.) Secondly, the whole “we need real men” theme (and real men speak crudely from the pulpit, of course) that runs from the Man’s Church to Mark Driscoll has apparently made its way into the very heart of isolationist fundamentalism.

(Comments are now closed on this post. I’m tired of seeing them in my inbox.)  

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