I attended a national meeting of pastors in the Dutch Reformed Church today. Stuart Murray was the speaker for the day. As far as I am concerned; Stuart is the authority on church planting; his book ‘church planting’ is pretty much the standard work on the thing that I have chosen to make my profession.
But the Dutch Reformed Church asked Stuart to speak about another subject, ‘The End of Christendom.’ He argues that the era of Christendom has now come to an end - and this, in his view, is a good thing!
I love the quiet British demeanor with which Stuart delivers that message to a group of 400 (mostly very traditional) Dutch reformed pastors! His two speeches contained some real pointed remarks. No surprise then that the response was quite critical. The organisation had asked two people to respond; both responses were not very helpful (in my view).
I think Stuart is right. We live in a new world and it is terribly confusing. I think it confuses all of us; and yes, it really confuses me too.
One thing Stuart said that really struck a cord with me was this: he asked if it would be helpful to look at ourselves in this new world through the same eyes as the people of Israel during the time of the exile to Babylon. Like the children of Israel who were longing for their homeland and sad about its demise (Ps 137) we often can long back for the time when the church was large and strong, and faith was relatively simple. Like the children of Israel, we can try to get back to that era, back to that understanding of the world. But an interesting thing happens to the exiles in Babylon: while they are making every effort to go home, back to where they came from and the life they knew, the prophet Jeremiah tells them to stay and to engage with the city. “You are going to be here a while,” he says, “get involved and get used to it.”
This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."
Hmmm... that keeps going through my mind again and again. Seek the peace... Build houses... Plant gardens.... Seek the prosperity of the city... If it prospers, so will you.
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