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June 29, 2008
The Greatest Threat to the Christian Church in America Today
a
sermon on Acts 4.23-31
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church,
Mobile, Alabama
A chaplain is an insider. A chaplain is part of the organization
he ministers to. (I know women are chaplains too; I plan to mix my pronouns. Try
to ignore them and focus on the message.) A chaplain has official standing. He
belongs. I had a friend in seminary training to be a Navy chaplain. During
summers he was posted at a Naval base or even on a ship. He was an officer.
People saluted him and called him, “Sir.” Everybody basically knew who he was
and what he was there for. When someone needed a chaplain, they knew where to
go. A chaplain receives his support from the organization he serves. It may be a
hospital; he’s on the staff. It may be the military, a police force, or
wherever; he’s one of them. The chaplain gets his instructions from the people
who hired him. He works within the system as part of the system. The system
supports him and recognizes the value of his ministry. Very different from the
work of a chaplain is the work of a missionary. A missionary is an outsider. A
missionary is not a part of the people she ministers too. Naturally a missionary
adapts to the culture she works in, but usually that culture is not her own. She
has to learn new ways of thinking and communicating. Unlike the chaplain, the
missionary has no official standing or position in the society she serves.
People may be uncertain what the missionary is about. She receives her support
from a church or mission society, not the people she ministers to. She gets her
instructions from the people who sent her. She comes from outside the system.
She tries to work within a culture that is not her own. She has to work hard to
communicate effectively and to explain her message. Only those who come to
believe recognize the value of what she is doing. Let’s use our imagination a
little. Let’s imagine a chaplain I’ll call Dan. Like my friend in seminary, Dan
felt a call to be a military chaplain early in his life. He aimed for that, and
he succeeded. After seminary he was ordained and became a chaplain in the Air
Force, and he served in that capacity for 20 years before retiring. He enjoyed
the work, found it challenging and rewarding. But what to do next? In his late
40s, he was too young to retire. He thought about serving a small church as
pastor, one that would have trouble paying a full-time salary, because he had
his retirement. Yet as he prayed about it, he felt a distinct call from God … to
be a missionary. Exploring that call, he
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found an opportunity in a third world country through a denominational mission
agency. They liked him for the position. He felt called to go. … Sit back for
just a moment and contemplate the adjustments Dan would have to make. … Twenty
years as a military chaplain. Now he feels called to be a missionary. Jesus is
the same. The gospel is the same. Nearly everything else will be different.
Think that will be an easy transition to make? I don’t. Let’s shift gears. What
do you think is the greatest threat to the church in America today? What is the
one thing we most need to address or get right if we are to be faithful and
thrive in the 21st century? Is it unbelief? That is a significant problem. Many
Americans, an increasing percentage of the population, are not Christians. Fifty
years ago most non-Christians still had some idea what Christians believe.
That’s no longer true. Even within the church Biblical illiteracy is a concern.
Outside the church it is normal. Unbelief characterizes our social elites, our
institutions (especially institutions of higher learning), and the media. On
some college campuses you can be whatever you want and people will accept you,
unless you are an evangelical Christian. On the other hand, unbelief is nothing
new. The church always contends with unbelief. Plus, we have a risen Savior.
Nothing can change that. People can deny it if they want to, and they do. But
their unbelief does not negate the truth. Unbelief is a problem, but I know a
bigger one. Is it the immorality of our society? Things that were unheard of two
generations ago and scandalous a generation ago are normal today. People are
proud of—they celebrate—behavior Christianity says is wrong. And until very
recently, American culture said it was wrong too. I’m not going to go into a
litany of moral decline. No one can deny a lot has changed in the moral
landscape of our nation in the last 50 years, and I doubt anyone here would
think those changes are for the better. The immorality—or maybe a better term is
amorality, the absence of moral values—in American culture is a big problem for
the church here. It is especially pressing became studies show that Christians
do not tend to be significantly more moral than our non-Christian neighbors.
Still, I do not think this is our biggest problem. There is at least one bigger
still. I am convinced the biggest problem the church in America faces today is
the same challenge Dan faces: how to make the switch from being a chaplain to
being a missionary. How do we change our thinking—our practice—to fit new
realities? Before the seismic cultural changes of the last 50 years, the church
in America functioned within society a lot like a chaplain. This was especially
true of the old so-called mainline denominations, such as the Presbyterian
Church. The values of
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American society were the Judeo-Christian values of the Bible, the values we
taught and tried to represent. The churches had standing in society. Pastors
were players in the social scene. People knew what churches were about and
generally felt they belonged. Christian values, if not always Christian
theology, had a place in public debate and decision. Just a few examples: public
schools taught the Lord’s Prayer, no one complained if the 10 commandments were
on display at the courthouse, newspapers printed sermons, stores closed on
Sunday—many of you remember the old days. That has changed, and my purpose is
not to reminisce. It doesn’t do any good. You may miss those things or be glad
they are gone. It doesn’t matter. They are gone, and they are not coming back,
at least not in the foreseeable future. My point, rather, is merely to establish
that not so long ago the church in America functioned somewhat like a chaplain,
and did so successfully. Here’s another example of how this worked. Planting new
churches was relatively easy. All you had to do was find a growing community,
buy a piece of land, build a building, and people would come. All you had to do
to grow a church was to “do church well.” By “do church well” I mean you had
good preaching and music, activities for people to get involved in, and programs
for kids. If you built it, they came. When the church was a chaplain, it was
much more important for pastors to be good at pastoral care than evangelism.
Evangelism was not a priority. Not for pastors, not for churches. The church
tried to meet people’s perceived needs. One happy result might be membership
growth. Outreach meant attracting people to your church to show them what a
great fellowship it was. Over the past 50 years or so, America has changed
radically, but the church has not. We have changed, but I think we still have
that old chaplain mindset. The problem is, the church no longer functions as a
chaplain to American society because American society has changed so much. We
used to be insiders, now we are outsider. We used to speak a common language and
share common values, but not anymore. America doesn’t want a chaplain anymore.
If we cannot adapt to new realities, we will disappear. Our old job is gone. The
challenge that faces us is, now that we are no longer the chaplain, can we
become a missionary? It won’t be easy. First, because adopting a new perspective
is always difficult. Second, because we have to change from something we know to
something we are still trying to figure out. What does it mean to be a
missionary church? How do we put that into practice? People are trying to figure
that out. I have a pastor friend who’s frustrated. He says the church in America
isn’t reaching the lost. Most churches are in decline or at best holding their
own. Mega churches are growing, but they do it mostly by draining members from
other churches. He told me about a church with 12,000 members that baptized only
six adults last year. “That’s not reaching people who need Jesus,” he
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moaned. And he’s right. He’s frustrated, and he is trying to figure out how to
lead a missionary church. Although there are details to be worked out, we do
have some idea what a missionary church should be like. A missionary church
thinks first, not of itself and its members, but of those outside. Another
pastor friend used to say, “The most important people in our church are the ones
who haven’t come yet.” A missionary church believes people need the gospel.
People need Jesus, because as he said, no one comes to the Father except through
him. So the missionary church is confident in its message. It has something
people desperately need, although they often do not know it. A missionary church
is also confident because God has given us our mission. We exist—he put us
here—for this purpose, to boldly witness to Jesus Christ. We are responsible for
introducing people to the claims and promises of Jesus. We are not responsible
for results. God handles that. Each person has to make his or her own decision.
But we are responsible for two things: (1) Making Christ known, so that people
know what they are accepting or rejecting; and they accept or reject the real
thing, not a caricature. (2) Living in a way that gives teeth to our message. So
a missionary church is confident in its message, and it feels an urgency to make
that message known. Believing the gospel is not enough; believing people need
Jesus is not enough; a missionary church has a mission that burns in its bones.
Paul confessed, “An obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim
the gospel” [1 Cor 9.16]. A missionary church feels the same way. A missionary
church has an edge to it. It challenges people. It boldly says, “Here is truth!
What are you going to do about it?” It engages people in honest discussion. It
is not afraid of questions. It asks deep questions and answers them. A
missionary church knows people in our culture have legitimate questions and
difficulties, and it tries to honestly address those. That happens from the
pulpit. It also happens as Christians talk with their non-Christian neighbors
and don’t try to sell them on a religious system but rather show them why Jesus
is so important to us. Donald Miller offers a powerful insight in his book Blue
Like Jazz. A friend once pointed out to him that if you do not tell other people
about Jesus, then Jesus is not really important to you. A missionary church
challenges people to look hard at Jesus and then make up their own minds. A
missionary church knows a commitment to Jesus means a radical break from the old
life in favor of Jesus and his way. It assumes people need help with this. And
it organizes to help them. Small groups are one effective way to do this.
Accountability groups allow people to build close bonds of trust, so that they
can talk about what really troubles them and be open about their needs. Church
has to be a community of people in which you feel loved and accepted and free to
be who you are and able to share your struggles, knowing you will not be
rejected but loved and supported. As you know, I am not big on pushing change. I
have seen too many changes made for no good reason. I have seen too many changes
made without being fully thought out. I
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do not know all that might happen or needs to happen or exactly what God has in
store for us, but I am sure we at Westminster need to try to become more of a
missionary church. If that makes you uncomfortable, don’t worry. It makes me
uncomfortable too. My training and most of my experience are in the old chaplain
model. In fact, next year’s seminary graduates are being trained in that model.
The whole church, from the General Assembly down to the congregations, including
the seminaries and other institutions, assume the chaplain model. We know it
isn’t working anymore. We see the church torn by doctrinal and moral
controversy. We see membership declining across the board. Yet so far we have
been unable or unwilling to make that difficult transition to a missionary
model. If only there were a resource that could help us! If only there were
others who had been there before us to show us the way. Well, it turns out there
is. It might be a bit unexpected. It may seem a tad unorthodox. But there is a
resource that shows us what a missionary church looks like in action: The Bible.
You knew I was going to say that, but before you dismiss it as clowning,
consider this: The circumstances we face as Christians in America today resemble
the circumstances of the New Testament church more than anything else from the
year A.D. 313 to 1960. The Roman emperor Constantine made Christianity an
official religion and began favoring it in 313. From that time until our own
day, the chaplain model made perfect sense wherever Western culture prevailed.
Before that, the church was on the outside, in a missionary mode. Constantine
brought the church inside and gave it standing. In the last few generations, we
have seen Constantine’s legacy erode. It is almost gone. So the circumstances in
which we live and witness as Christians in America resemble the Book of Acts
more than they resemble the church in America just 100 years ago. The church has
always and everywhere tried to be a New Testament church. Now, we are in New
Testament circumstances too. That is why I chose the passage I did. In it Peter
and John have just been tried before the religious and secular authorities for
preaching Jesus. They spoke boldly. The authorities didn’t like it, and they
warned Peter and John not to preach anymore in the name of Jesus. This was the
occasion when Peter uttered his famous line, “Whether it is right in God's sight
to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from
speaking about what we have seen and heard” [Acts 4.19-20]. The authorities warn
them some more, then release them. Peter and John go immediately to the other
believers and tell them what happened. The whole assembly joined in prayer. They
did not ask for protection. They did not ask for an easier time. They did not
ask for new rulers who would be more sympathetic. They asked for two things.
One: Let us speak boldly. Two: God, stretch out your hand and do wonders among
us.
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They asked for courage to face the circumstances they were in. They knew God is
in control. They knew God could change their circumstances if he wanted to.
Therefore he must have a reason for putting them exactly where they were. All
they wanted was boldness to speak, because that was their mission. It was the
work God had given them to do. It was who they were; they were witnesses to
Jesus Christ—not just Peter and John and the other apostles, but all the
Christians. They prayed for boldness and for God to do mighty, miraculous things
among them. Scripture reports that when they had prayed, the place in which they
were gathered shook, and the Holy Spirit filled them and they spoke the word of
God with boldness. … Now for the payoff and the conclusion of the sermon: I have
claimed that once upon a time the Christian church in America functioned a lot
like the chaplain to society. We were insiders. We worked within the system as
part of the system. Furthermore, that because American society has changed so
much, so quickly, we are out of a job. We can’t be the chaplain anymore. That’s
a dead end. Instead, we must become a missionary church. I have confessed that I
only have a vague idea what a missionary church looks like. I shared some ideas
about it. I have argued that we must change our mindset. We have to stop
thinking in chaplain mode and begin thinking in missionary mode. Now here’s the
difficulty. You can’t think yourself into a new way of living. You have to live
your way into a new way of thinking. This means that to become a missionary
church, we have to start acting like one. I offer now a place to start. First,
read the Book of Acts. Make it part of your summer reading. It will help. Acts
does not provide a step-by-step recipe for a missionary church, but it does
offer a sampling of the flavor. Where does our church resonate with the
Christians in Acts? Where do we need to do better? It will tell us when we are
getting hotter and when colder. Second, pray. Pray for boldness is sharing
Christ. Pray for God to work in us until we are the church he wants us to be.
Pray for his guidance in making the transition. Promise to follow wherever he
leads. Being the church in America is not as easy as it used to be, but God has
put us here for a reason. He has given us a mission. With his help, we can be as
bold as those earliest Christians, whose testimony changed the world. Amen.
rev_mauldin@yahoo.com
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