Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Silent Revolution

A little while ago I was watching the movie The Terminal. It was about this guy who lived in an airport terminal for like 5 months, while there he learns to speak english, builds community and by the end of the movie has led a silent revolution. I say he led a "silent revolution" because of the way this revolution occured. He didn't force the revolution by power, money or influence. He had no hidden agenda's. It was a revolution grounded in relationships. He was tenacious and geniune about initiating relationships. He was completly transparent and vulnerable for the sake of people. The revolution was beautiful. In the final scene numerous airport employee's risk their jobs to help this man gain his freedom.

I believe Jesus led a silent revolution, and i believe the church is called to lead a silent revolution, and more directly I believe a Christian is to be one who leads a silent revolution.

On Saturday I attended my friends wedding. It was back in my home town of Owen Sound. It was at this old cool looking CRC church, one of those churches which must have taken 50 strapping dutch men to piece the beautiful wood ceiling together. Many, and I mean a lot of my high school friends showed up, people I hadn't seen since grade 13 (7 years ago). We did the usual small talk, figuring out the basics (were your live, work, and what's your relational status). Then the minister started into the service, right away I realized the minister's relationship with God must be boring. He was boring, rigid, fake, God and Church were some sort of social, governmental trend, key aspects in fulfillnig the rules needed for the maratiel certificate. This was extremely frustrating for me, and discouraging. See, my friends knew I was about to become some kind of pastor guy. At the reception people were cracking jokes about the boring pastor, some of my friends asked me if I could explain what "Benediction" meant. Then I realized, we Christians gotta represent or get off the stage. Now I know why God spits lukewarm Christians out, we are disgusting. Now I know I sound self-righteous, and honestly I have my faults, lots of them, but common why would anyone ever want to be in a relationship with the God that minister had a relationship with, boring... Why do we cover or hide Jesus with words like "Benediction" Why? It's just confusing and wierd for people.

My dream is to "equip people to lead a silent revolution of their community, by learning and living the way of Jesus"

In the upcoming weeks I will be writing about my dreams of what a church that leads a silent revolution would look like. Let the second reformation continue to transform the church and people of God. So that we better reflect the glory of our lord and Savior, so that we truly become a city on hill that cannot be hidden, a fragrance that is not the stench of death, but the smell of life.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, it seems like you have a great passion for seeing things done right in the Church. I respect that and hope you continue with your line of thinking. I would encourage you in a few ways if I may. You should really consider this idea of the "silent revolution." This is not the Biblical style of leadership or Christianity that is required of us believers. I know and understand that this is a very "emerging" view of how we ought to be as believers (which is a whole other conversation) but it is not right. Jesus never lead a "silent" revolution. He lead a truth filled, Spirit lead powerful and VOCAL revolution.

Sure he "ate" with sinners and was their friend. But, this was not silent evangelism, nor was that of the apostles or John the Baptist. Infact, as John the Baptist came preparing the way for the Lord he came with a very stern and strong vocal message calling for repentance! The first message Jesus preached in the Synagouge was a very strong message of ...repentance.

Jesus was not sitting and eating with sinners, merely demonstrating a holy character and perfect life. No, He, the Lord of Lords was clearly speaking truth with authority and power proclaiming the good news of the gospel.

You see, the Bible outlines some very clear messages. The main message being that we are to call others to repentance, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to make Him our only Lord and Savior. This should be the first message out of our mouths to people (of course in a loving and gentle way that Christ also would have used) and the lifesyle that validates the message we bring follows.

You see, we are not called to live a silent revolution at all, we aren't even called to a revolution quite honestly. While the gospel revolutionizes peoples lives, scripture is also clear that as the end times come closer and closer things are going to get worse and worse (1 Peter elaborates on this greatly). We are called to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15).

My friend, do not call people to a silent revolution, call them to a bold, spirit filled, loving evangelism that is followed up with a life that emphasizes the true change that Jesus Christ has made in your life. We must pray for each other like Paul continually asked prayer for, to speak "boldly as we ought to!"

Let us not confuse the great commission. We are sent lead and call people to the true Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May we do it ever so boldly, no matter what the cost.

Blessings in our great Lord...

Greg Musselman said...

Wow! my first comment ever, thankyou! I really appreciate your feedback and your pointed response. I'm the kind of guy who speaks first and learns later, I'm becoming more of a think first and then talk guy, but it's not natural for me. The problem with "blogging" is that it's very much based on emotion, it's like my place to journal thoughts and ideas that haven't eactly been refined. I appreciate your attempt to refine my thinking. With regards to this specific post, it's been something stirring in me for a while. I think we agree on almost everything, it's just perspective differences. "Silent" for me doesn't mean weak, or keeping quiet about the gospel. I desperately want to live hope, the way of Jesus to a broken world. I don't think Jesus meant shouting on the street corners to "repent" or forcing Jesus in people's faces by power, structures, advertising. The "silent" I am referring to was the wildfire way the good news spread, being through passionate individuals who genuinely had met Jesus. I think His revolution came as a surprise to the culture of His day because it was so different then the revolutions that had occured become him which came by force, politics, and power. (Alexander the Great, The Roman Empire, Judas Maccabeus and the Jewish Revolt, Augustus, the Seleucid Dynasty) Jesus' revolution was completely different, maybe "silent" isn't the best term, His revolution was unconvential.
You say that we are not called to lead a revolution. Here's one point were I disagree, are we not called to "go into all the world and preach the gospel" The gospel is revolutionary, we can't help but continue in this tradition.

As far as "Emergent" goes I don't place myself in that camp! There are many idea's that I disagree with, although they do ask good questions. I would like to say I believe in the continued reformation of the church. I know dthis is a huge subject, and for its sake I'll post a blog on my idea's of the "emergent" church in hope of your response.

Believe me I agree with you I believe Jesus calls us to "a bold, spirit filled, loving evangelism that is followed up with a life that emphasizes the true change that Jesus Christ has made in your life." I believe that "silent" doesn't mean "timid" I'm very bold, but I suppose I'm thinking bold in th proper circumstances. Jesus saved his anger and harsest words for the Jewish elite.
I guess for the most point I think we are on the same wavelength, we've read the same book, and are focusing on different aspects.

Thanks so much for your input, your furthered thoughts would be much appreciated. By the way don't be afraid to post who you are. We are in this together.

Your sibling in Christ.
Greg

Anonymous said...

Greg,

Thanks for clearing some of that up for me, it is greatly appreciated! I especially appreciated how you redifined this revolution as "unconventional" as opposed to "silent."

I 100% agree with that term because it is historically accurate to that time. You hit the nail on the head, the Jews were expecting a political revolution that would place them back in control. If you read through the prophetic passages pertaining to the 2nd coming of Christ, you get the picture of what the Jew's were expecting in the 1st coming. They thought the earth would shake, the sky would disappear and the Messiah would establish His Kingdom physically and reign over the earth as King.

I say all that to say that our perspective on the Kingdom of God is essential to understanding our role as believers. Also, it is important to think biblically about how we are to bring that message to the world.

You see, many today are advocating various methods of propogating the gospel of Christ. The question we need to ask is, does God give us the methodology in His Word? I believe He does and it is quite clear. Christianity today is seeking to become like the world in order to reach them. They have this idea that if the world "likes" the Church, they will like the message. In becoming like the world, the Church has forced strong and sound biblical doctrine out of the picture and has focused strictly on loving everybody. We need to get away from the idea that we can't offend people. Let me clarify that statement. While I fully believe that we make all efforts to lovingly and graciously share the Gospel, we do that by sacrificing our Christian freedom at times. Paul was an advocate of this in 1 Cor. 9 where he speaks of becoming a jew to the jews and a gentile to the gentiles. Many people use these verses to advocate a model of becoming like the world. I truly believe that Paul was never ever sacrificing the message or even compromising it by steering clear of the offensive stuff like sin and repentance. How do I know this, well read Gal. 1:10 He was merely saying that when we minister to people, we put aside our Christian freedoms that say we are able to eat all types of food (just one simple example) and abiding by the Jewish diet of clean and unclean foods. Now we do these things as long as they do not stand in opposition to God's Word. So what's my point? Well, It is this... Church's today are caught up in a numbers game. You know what I mean, they will adapt all sorts of methods into the Church to "lure" people in. Then they give them a soft message that often leaves out key elements of the Gospel. They focus on the fact that Jesus loves you and has a better life to offer you. Then they give an altar call or ask you to raise your hand and you're in. Please don't read into these statements, there is no sarcasim intended and I understand this is not the case in all Church's.

The big focus today is on your experience. The problem with that is that experience is subjective and is not easily validated. While experience is important and necessary it should never be above God's Word. We need to bring the focus back to the one source of Aboslute Truth that allows us to know and discern all things when combined with the Holy Spirit. The Word combined with the Spirit is the "mind of Christ" as 1 Cor. 2:16 puts it. When we focus on experience we are left with subjective and relative information that sometimes contradicts the Word and other peoples experiences. We need to learn how to think biblically in a culture and society that is telling us that the Word of God is not relevant. Since when is absolute truth not relevant?

Instead of giving you what the Bible says in regards to these things (at least right off the bat) let me ask you some questions:

1) Is there a set biblical model of evangelizing?
2) What is your philosophy of ministry?
3) What is the purpose of the Church?
4) What does Rob Bell really believe about Scripture, Salvation, philosophy of ministry?
5) As believers, are we "revolutionizing" the world or are we sharing the gospel understanding that the Bible says "few will find it?"(Matt. 7).

I would also like you to clarify what you mean by the "continual reformation" of the church. Does the Bible clearly outline the function and expectation of the church? I think I know what you mean but I am a little confused by that term. It is a very "emergent" term and that leads me to my next point.

I know you said you wouldn't place yourself in the "emergent" camp and that's awesome because it is a very dangerous camp. I don't want to get into much of that at this time but know this. Rob Bell is very "emergent" and even though he is on the more conservative side of that camp he has some very distrubing ideas. Consider what I have written above and look at Rob's Philosophy of ministry. Not only that, look at some of the controversy over his book and his stuff. Please don't take this as bashing Rob Bell, I am not at all about attacking people I only care about preserving the truth of the Bible. I would just encourage you to look into some of the controversial things he believes, believe me they are all over the web.

Another thought... I know that there are times when the gospel spreads like wild fire, but what happens when it doesn't? Do we suddenly change our Biblical approach to appease an unbelieving world or dumb down the message for them? Rember the charge that Paul gave to timothy, "Preach the Word, whether in season our out of season..." (2 Tim. 4:2). The message and the approach are the same, no matter how the world is accepting it.

Remember too that as believers, we need to be careful about how we present information. I understand that blogs generally are emotional outlets but we should be careful about how much opinion we propogate to others and focus more on what God says in His Word, after all that is where the authority and power lies, His Word combined with His Spirit!

Last thought...I promise!! We need to call people back to the Bible. We need to bring people deep into the depths and richness of the Word! Mine the gold from the word and you will make people rich with the knowledge and understanding of god that cause people to live the life they are called to live. Proclaim the truth in love to those who do not know Him, telling them of the Holiness of God, wretchedness of sin and the only hope for salvation. If we do this Biblically we are doing our job as believers!

Blessings in Christ Brother!

P.S. I would like to remain anonymous at this time and hope you can respect that decision for now.