AUTHOR: Robin Dugall DATE: 1:14:00 PM ----- BODY:

This is NOT by final blog entry...rather simply the last section of the paper I wrote on Church Renewal. This is the most fun section because it gave me an opportunity to just vent on what I'd love to see in the Church. I'd love to hear your comments. Thanks for walking this journey with me. Sharing "Regurgitations" with you is an honor! In Jesus, Robin 4. ONE PERSON’S VISION FOR THE CHURCH “So is the church living or dying? There is a theological answer to that, which is far from irrelevant to our concerns here: the church will only live in so far as it is prepared continually to die in order to experience afresh the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit.”17 It was called, “the Church without walls”. As portrayed so dramatically in his book, Through the Valley of the Kwai, Ernest Gordon intricately details the horror and human tragedy historically known as the “Railway of Death”. Thousands of European Prisoners of War gave their lives under horrific conditions while in captivity constructing a railway through the jungles of Thailand for the Japanese War machine (1941-1945). While describing his ordeal, Gordon writes, “I do not know when the church at Chungkai was built. Perhaps ‘built’ is not the right word, for it was no more than a clearing in the jungle. It had for a roof the great vault of the firmament and for its walls the forest of bamboo. There were no doors. One could enter at any point. It was all door. It was hard to know when one was in church and when one was not…the church was a fellowship of those who came in freedom and love to acknowledge their weakness, to seek a presence, and to pray for their fellows. Ours was a church of the Spirit. It was not hidden in the corner nor off on the periphery. It was the throbbing heart of the camp – giving life to it, and transforming it from a mass of individuals into a community.”18 When I first read this moving passage, I thought to myself, “now, that’s what I want to experience in church”…a church without walls…a community of faith that transforms the lives of people regardless of life’s circumstances. Throughout the Bible, we see that Community has always been the dream of God. Since He first created human beings to experience what He enjoys in the fullness of His nature (Trinity), Community has been a part of God’s vision for the people He created. To know God-honoring Community no matter where we are in life…to know the power of Community where one can experience the fullness of the human condition in the context of God’s power and love…to know the fellowship of Community in gathering whenever and wherever we can in order to give witness to the presence of the Almighty in our midst…now, that is what I so passionately desire to experience in the contemporary church. I believe that I am not alone in that obsession. As I mentioned at the outset, it may appear from the comments above that I am a pessimistic about the state and future of the Body of Christ in contemporary America. Believe me, as I attempted to outline, there is much to be discouraged about especially in light of what many of our brothers and sisters are experiencing in the church in places in the world like Africa and China. Even so, I am optimistic about the Church. Why? Because the Church is the bride of Christ. Because the Church is something that God will not forget and never abandon. Because the Spirit of God will do what God needs and wants to do in order to make the church’s mission effective even if that means He will use other means and expressions of church rather than the institutional church that currently exists. As I attempt to outline some of characteristics of a renewed church, I do so in the context of hope. Hope, not because of what I trust in the heart of humanity but rather what I know about the power and presence of God. With God all things are possible! That is something on which to stake a life and a legacy of ministry. For passionate Christ-followers emerging into a new century, the bottom line of a new vision for Church begins with one word, “Revolution”. We have to start a revolution. As mentioned above, reformation never goes far enough. Well meaning pastors, leaders and believers adhering to reformation will struggle against reality to the detriment of the faithful incarnation of the Church in our time. They will hold on to as many sacred cows as is possible in an attempt to ease their confusion and terrified hearts. No one welcomes radical change. Even so, I believe that that is what it will take to actualize a Christ-honoring, faithful, powerful, and impactful expression of the Church in the 21st century. I love what I heard George Barna say in a doctoral class recently, “If I’m going down, I’m going down making sure God gets a hearing in our culture?” If only every Christ-follower expressed and lived out that intensity of passion and abandonment. The revolution must incorporate several factors that will shape the character of Christ-followers as well as increase the likelihood of cultural impact. The first of which has to do with a renewed theology…in other words, we have to get our heads in the right place…we need a new mentality. We must see a revival of the teaching and preaching of a biblical worldview. This not only will provide the foundation on which to build faithful Christian spiritual formation but it will also begin to turn the tide of the theological persuasion that attempts to convince every Christ-follower that “this world is not our home”. Unfortunately, the old cliché that says, “people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good” is profoundly significant in the context of this discussion. Many people have an “escape” mentality regarding this world. There is a decisively “secular vs. sacred” dichotomy that has been developed that is not biblical or even orthodox but much more pagan in nature. It is amazing to see how ancient Gnosticism is still impinging itself on modern times. Gnostics believed that the material world was evil and cause for escape. In contrast, the bible is clear that the created order is inhabited by the presence of God. Until Christ-followers understand that God has a plan for the redemption and re-creation of this world in which people who love God play a part, we will fail in being faithful to God’s call to this generation at this time in history. Christians will look for escapes and not for an infiltration into the culture for the cause of Christ. Secondly, the Revolution must not be programmatic in emphasis. In the book, Reclaiming God’s Intent for the Church, Marshall challenges the Church to move into an era of “post-pragmatism”…an age that is no longer driven by so-called “proven” methodologies of ministry that promise a success that is more in line with consumerism than with the Kingdom of God.19 We need to repent of our fascination with the latest and greatest programs. We need to repent of our dependence upon conference and seminars that promise the next best “secret” to transforming ministry. Success in terms of buildings, budgets and numbers cannot be our standard for ministry. Success needs to be radically redeemed and redefined. The Body of Christ needs to adopt a theologically faithful missional emphasis where people do not go to church to experience the fullness of the Christian experience but where people in every walk of life ARE the Church as they bring the fullness of the Christian experience to bear in their sphere of living. The Church must embrace a movement mentality over against staid and static programmatic emphases that have a tendency to entrench themselves in the fabric of institutions and emit predictability and lifelessness over time Not transformation. Jesus was very clear that if there are any measures of success in the Kingdom of God that they have more to do with the issues of faithfulness, endurance and perservence. Thirdly, we need to believe that in order to have maximum impact in our world we must have a mindset of infiltration into culture. Christ-followers cannot be secret agents any longer…have to be subversives. We have to believe to the core of our being that we are involved in an enterprise that should have at the core of its character a warfare mentality. It was Jesus who said that His followers would be empowered in such a manner that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. In these moments in Church History, I do not think this would be the reality in American Christianity. I firmly believe that it would not take much for the gates of hell TO prevail. Discipleship needs to be redefined for a new generation. Instead of words like, “learning and growing”, we must employ language that emits the power and breadth of Jesus’ intent in His call to people to follow Him. Words like “zealousness”, “robust imitation”, and “total devotion and abandonment” must be the buzzwords the propel people into faithfulness to Jesus Christ. Matt Redman wrote a powerful song during the past year that epitomizes much of what should motivate the sincere Christ-follower. In his song, “Blessed be Your Name”, Redman writes, “Blessed be Your name when the sun’s shining down on me, when the world’s all that it should be, blessed be Your name; and blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering, though there’s pain in the offering, blessed be Your name…You give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Lord, Blessed be Your name.” There are no guarantees in the Kingdom of God except one – the presence, power and victory of Jesus. When we embrace that this life is not about our desires and us but about the actualization of the Kingdom of God for now and through eternity, then a new movement will begin to transform people and culture. Individual transformation will transform the Church at large. Even so, I envision that there needs to be new ministry models that embody this transformational potential. If, as George Barna mentioned in a recent seminar, only 30% of churches in 2030 reflect a ministry model that even comes close to what we now recognize as congregational ministry, then what other model could surface that would be faithful to the call of Jesus? I feel that it is time to challenge “big churches”, those blessed with resources and buildings, to throw open their doors to a multiplicity of “churches” or expressions of the church to utilize their facilities. The future of the church cannot be dependent upon economic issues like property and buildings. If large churches could have the freedom to have any number of different structures or models of “church” using their space for gatherings of worship, training, equipping and community development, it would not only revolutionize ministry but also begin to tear down the “us vs. them” mentality that so plagues contemporary Christianity in America. We can no longer hold the value of competition as our modus operendi as local churches build walls against cooperation and partnership. The transformed church will be a partnering church without regard for ownership and parochialism. The transformed church is going to be one where leadership being shared is no longer a stated value (that never becomes reality) a living truth. The Church is an organism that is dependent upon every living cell for its life and vitality. Leadership needs training…churches need shepherding but NOT at the expense of the full participation in ministry by every single person who aligns themselves with Jesus as Master and Lord. If subversive is one of the keywords for the character of the transformed Christ-follower, indigenous needs to be the word that inspires an entire generation to seek full partnership in faithfulness to God’s call. We have to tear down, kill and bury the “clergy-laity” distinctions. In fact, I would yearn to see the day where we had no more “paid” clergy. Please do not misunderstand me…if churches need leadership on a full-time basis, there is biblical exhortation to pay those who give of their lives in that manner. But to give ecclesiastical titles that only cater to the inner egos and pride of individuals who are susceptible to building hierarchies and power structures is only a mistake that will keep the church stuck. Leadership needs to be inclusive. It needs to be born out of personal brokenness and administered in humility, accountability and community. We have to empower the laity by bringing down church hierarchies and putting the Church back in the hands and hearts of the people. One of the phrases that caught the attention of the general population during a Presidential Election race during the 1990’s was the phrase, “it’s the economy, stupid”. Well, the borrow a part of that phrase in reflecting on the Church of the Revolution, “it’s about relationships, stupid!” The transforming Church will be intentionally building what is paramount in the heart and vision of God for His children – community. Relationship based ministry has the best chance of influencing people. Relationships of spiritual, personal and emotional accountability and authenticity will encourage the development of the spirit that the Word of God calls for in these changing times. We cannot have churches made up of happy, comfortable people. Churches must be stretching people toward being all that they can be for the purposes and incarnation of the Kingdom. I envision many, many people who are hungry for not more spiritual experiences but for deeper and more biblical relationships will be “building” small communities of “church” around the country. They will meet in homes, businesses, in restaurants…wherever and whenever relationships can be explored in the context of love, transformation and worship. People will no longer go “building or program shopping” when looking for a “church”…they will look for community and transformational relationships that worship and serve God with abandon. 5. Conclusions I love what Brian McLaren wrote a few years back when he reflected on the church. Permit me to summarize: “Leave the distractions; stop bickering, there are big issues at stake; stop wasting energy and resources; stop isolationism; make room for messy, creative thinking; stop shooting yourself; stop being negative; stop compartmentalization; stop playing church.”20 Can we be hopeful for an epic transformation of the Church in our lifetime? Yes! As long as we adhere to a relationship with a God who is about the business of making all things new. Will it happen? Maybe or maybe not. I hate to be bordering on pessimism but it does not take a degree in sociology or psychology to understand the pervasive attitudes of people who take short cuts, the paths of least resistance and who constantly sell out to a quick fix or easy answer. We are a culture of comfort. We worship at the altar of convenience and self-obsession. Could we be the Church that takes on the gates of hell regardless of the cost? Could we build God-honoring communities that would demonstrate to the culture the power of the Gospel without regard for measures of worldly success? Could we worship on beaches; in living rooms; in lobbies of warehouses without having to own some property of our own? Could we get along without the trappings of the culture? We somehow and someway have to start thinking that the Church is NOT here for us but that we are the Church for the world to the glory of God.21 What will kick off the Revolution? Maybe it will take the raising of a new generation of transformed, zealous and sold-out subversives. Maybe it will be caused by more and more closings of local churches for people to wake up. Maybe it will happen if the Church is no longer protected by tax advantages. Who knows? All I know is that something needs to happen. Maybe we should bring back some serious persecution. Maybe even a few martyrs for the faith…a few Christian leaders fed to the lions or something. I do not know! Something needs to shake the Church from its complacency. Something needs to move across the Church that fuels a revolutionary spirit of creativity and “beyond the box” action. I pray it happens during my lifetime. As far as I am concerned, I am doing my best to train up an underground movement of zealots who single-mindedly want to impact the world for Jesus Christ. If you are reading this and you are wondering what is next for you, why don’t you join me?

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