Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - June/73

Contributor - Will Kroon

Title - The Church in the World

Topic - The Church in the World

THE CHURCH SHOULD NOT GET MARRIED TO THE SPIRITUAL AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS OF THIS AGE

It has been pointed out before that if the Church gets married to the Movements that are popular today, she will be a widow the following generation. In other words if the Church is so easily carried away by new movements and ideas that she begins to cast away her own traditions, her-own creeds, she will soon discover that her happiness will be short living. Most of the fads and movements that are "in" today are "out" a generation later.

About 11 years ago the Anglican Bishop Robinson startled the world with his daring book HONEST TO GOD. In that book the Bishop expressed his feelings that the world had become so far advanced and so secular, that, it would be too much to expect of the Christians in our time to think about God, Jesus Christ and prayer in the same way as the generations before us have done. Of course, the bishop said a great deal more than I can mention in this article.

What I would like to point out is that this bishop went -along with the critical feelings which the men of his day had about the Bible. He approved them and tried to make them acceptable to the Church in general. By doing so he shocked the world by his daring approach. What had been meaningful and holy to millions before him, was set aside in order to suit the critical generation of that time. But the book Honest To God did not prove to be the answer to the spiritual needs. It is a pretty well forgotten book today.

About ten years ago several American theologians made the headlines with their "God is Dead" theology. Their way of thinking was popular for a few years but it is pretty well dead today.

At about the same period, Harvard's professor Harvey Cox published his book THE SECULAR CITY. This book became very popular and was translated in many languages. Millions of people around the world considered him to be a modern prophet. He prophesied that our secular society would destroy our present forms of worship, our way of speaking about God, and many other things that were meaningful in the past . He felt that mankind had become of age, had outgrown the traditional beliefs in a supernatural God.

However, things did not happen that way and Professor Cox has been big enough to admit that his predictions were wrong. He is very much aware that the religious climate of today is entirely different from what he envisioned when he wrote his book. At that time his students were loath to speak about the Father above, but now students take the lead in doing so; ten years ago prayer was frowned upon in certain intellectual circles, while in our time there is a renewed interest in prayer movements.

Don't Ignore the Spirit of the Times

When I refer to the above mention-ed theologians I do not want to give the impression that these men have not made a valuable contribution to the Church and to society. Their main weakness was that they were too one-sided and too anxious to be relevant. Their attempt, to change the biblical message in order to get the approval of men was doomed to fail; it was doomed to fail for the message is not to be changed to meet the need of men, but man has to change in order to meet the will of God.

These theologians have been successful, however, in focussing the attention of the Church on feelings, issues, doubts, that have been smouldering for a long time. Therefore it is not wise to ignore the concerns of these modern writers. I believe that the Church should treat these concerns as a family treats a sick child. With an unwritten, but silent approval of the other members of the family, most attention will be focussed temporarily on that member of the family who needs special care. When the needs of the sick child are met, the family can go on with its normal activities. So the Church should treat the movements of the time -as sick children, who need extra attention for the time being but who do not and should not receive that attention when the illness has been cured.

Some Practical Considerations

One of the reasons why I share this concern with you is that I feel that we ought to be aware of the constantly changing religious climate. For instance, thousands of seminary students have been trained to give leadership in the thoughts and movements that are relevant at that moment. They are well versed in the thoughts that are "in" at that time, but what about when they graduate from seminary? Then the climate may change and will they then be able to help the people who wrestle with the basic ABC's of the Christian faith?

It is quite understandable that students are impatient and want action. It is understandable that they are anxious to get involved in fights for justice, for equality and peace. These are valid concerns and they always will be.

However, what they tend to forget is that the persons in the congregation expect slightly more than a concern for social issues. They want to find out something about the Holy, the Almighty God. They want to know something about the deeper spiritual needs of mankind.

So whatever movement is "in" at the moment no seminary should ever neglect to stress men's relationship to God before it gets engrossed into the social ills of the time.

PRUNING "DEAD WOOD"

When the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec met in Hamilton recently its president announced at that meeting that "there had been rigorous pruning of the 'dead wood', with 1.172 names removed from the church rolls". One thousand and three persons were added to the denomination through believers baptism.

I have no clue whether they have more or less "dead wood" in their denomination than we in ours. However, I did gather from that report and from a conversation with my Baptist colleague in our area, that there is dead wood in denominations that practice infant baptism and in those that only practice "believer's" baptism.

The question which I would like to raise at this moment is not. how to bring new members to the Church, but what, can be done to keep them in the Church till death. How will they get enough oil in their lamps, figuratively speaking, in order to be ready to meet the bridegroom at the unexpected midnight hour?

Already in the New Testament we read that Christ touched on the problem of "dead wood" among the circle of his followers. He said to Peter: "I have prayed for you that your faith might not fail". He was concerned about the temptation of the Evil One and He wants us to be concerned, too.

Will you as readers think along with me as to what can be done to prevent the forming of dead wood in the Church? What can be done to stop people from dying a spiritual death?

Many of the evangelical denominations seek to prevent spiritual death by organizing seemingly unending series of spiritual revivals. The sick are being revived over and over again. The denominations of the Reformed faith have put the stress on sticking to a solid spiritual diet (biblical preaching, doctrinal teaching and faithful Bible reading at home) and regular spiritual exercise (faithful attendance of services of worship and involvement in some form of Kingdom work).

Is there anything else to be done? Let us hear it: It is a matter that concerns us all.

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