Learning From the Past and the Future
Mike Goeke, October 2010

I recently participated in the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa. I was part of a team representing the Exodus Global Alliance, an international network of ministries helping people find freedom from homosexuality and helping churches address homosexuality with hope and redemption. During the course of the week, we presented several sessions on issues related to homosexuality and reaching the gay community with the Gospel. The Lausanne Congress was comprised of over 5,000 delegates and volunteers from all over the world – all gathered to discuss issues related to the evangelization of the nations. It was an eye-opening event. In some ways, my eyes were opened in encouraging and inspiring ways. In others, my eyes were opened in ways that were dark and discouraging. As I process what I experienced, I believe there is much to take away and much for us to learn as American evangelicals and Southern Baptists.

I brought many things home from Lausanne, but one thought that resurfaces over and over in my mind is the place that we, as Western Southern Baptists and evangelicals, find ourselves in the big picture of global Christianity. I believe that Africa, whose churches are generally legalistic and legislatively focused, represents where we have been as the "American" church. Canada and Europe, whose churches are generally highly pluralistic and secular, represent where we are going. This question resonates in my mind; can we do anything to stop the momentum before we end up in a place where we have either completely capitulated to culture or completely lost our ability to relevantly speak into culture?

I believe that we are in an important time as the church. We have a curious opportunity to look globally and see our past mistakes in the paths other evangelical bodies are taking as well as seeing the potential mistakes in the paths other evangelical bodies have taken. The world is a mess! We must put everything we do as the Body of Christ on the table and run it through the sieve of Scripture and effectiveness. Lives and souls are in the balance. We will likely discover that some traditions and ways of doing things must be surrendered. The alternative is to risk surrendering the lost to an eternity separated from the Lord.

Looking at the past gives us a clear picture of what did not work. Fighting against culture did not work. We lost sight of Jesus' own ministry to the lost. He fought FOR the world, not against the world. He loved sinners and built relationships with them. He did not build a fortress around Himself to protect Himself from the world; He sought opportunities to connect with the world and gave His life FOR the world. We, on the other hand, opposed movements but failed to speak redemption to the souls represented by the movement. We did our best to stop immorality from invading our culture. Our efforts were like fuel on the fire. Not only did we not stop the progress of the world, but we turned the world away from its only hope.

We can look to Canada and Europe to see other things that did not work. Simply ignoring difficult issues does not work, either. Limiting the message of the church to one of lofty, out of touch spiritual principals clearly compartmentalizes Christianity in the lives of those who claim it. Fearfully avoiding 'controversial' topics, such as homosexuality, and allowing culture to be the singular voice anyone hears on those topics only serves to diminish the relevance of the church. When the church is silent, Christians will eventually fall prey to worldly ideas. Where the church has melded into an institution that looks just like culture, the church is no longer viable. As the church loses is influence, panic usually leads to the acceptance of secular ideology or humanistic theology in an effort to be tolerant of culture and to 'look' relevant. The battle is lost at that point, and the church just becomes another venue for man to worship himself.

As we assess the reality of the world before us and look both behind us and ahead of us, I believe we would be wise to simply look to the Word. What we see today is not new. The churches represented at Lausanne sound very similar, in many ways, to the churches described in the first few chapters of Revelation. Jesus' words to John about the 7 churches described in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 are amazingly modern and relevant to us today. Within those descriptions we see legalistic, loveless churches and apathetic churches and theologically liberal churches and persecuted churches and churches who have capitulated to culture. Jesus' words to these churches provide great warning and instruction to the modern church in its response to culture.

Four churches in particular, the churches at Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira and Laodicea, resonate with the current attitude of the church towards culture. The church at Ephesus did things well. They had solid structure, their theology was good and they did not tolerate wrong teaching or heretical theology. Its members were patient, faithful workers. But they had lost the love they once had for the lost and for each other. They were hard-hearted. The church in Pergamum held fast to their faith and did not back down even in the face of persecution. They were faithful and passionate. But they lacked wisdom, and opened their church to false teaching and false doctrine, which led to idolatry and sexual immorality. The church in Thyatira was full of hard workers, and full of love, faith, service and endurance. They cared greatly about those within their community and those outside of their community. But they opened their church to false prophets who lured people into sexual immorality under the guise of Christianity. They accepted wickedness under the banner of tolerance. And, finally, the church at Laodicea was rich in material things, but was destitute in spiritual things. They stayed squarely on the fence, fearful of offending anyone. In that fear, they became totally powerless.

Perhaps we, as Southern Baptists, should simply listen to Jesus' strong words for these churches. Jesus praised the orthodoxy of the church at Ephesus, but called them to love because truth without love becomes cold and benign. To the churches at Pergamum and Thyatira, he praised their works and their perseverance, but called them to be wise and discerning about doctrine, and warned them of the dangers of false teaching and false prophets. And to the lukewarm, non-committal, self-satisfied church at Laodicea, he challenges them to recommit to their faith, and to live what they say they believe. It is not orthodoxy that makes a church effective, and it is not love and tolerance that make the church effective. To be all that God has called the church to be, it must resonate with 100% truth and 100% grace. We must commit to that beautiful Scriptural balance.

We have a window of opportunity to speak truth, with grace and humility, into culture and offer a redemptive, hopeful message to a world that sees us as antiquated and heartless. We must speak into hard and controversial issues, and we must love people without hypocrisy – without any expectation of something in return and without any manipulation. We must walk with people as they deal with real, difficult and life-dominating issues. And, as Jesus instructed in Revelation, we must be the Church – full of love, full of mercy, full of truth and full of Christ.

Will this change the course of culture and/or the earthly manifestation of the church? I don't know. Will we stand before God and account for our obedience and stewardship of the grace and truth we have received? I believe so. My heart grieves the state of the church and our world today. I often contemplate walking away from the burdens of ministry to simply live my faith privately. But God help us if we meet Him with nothing but a testimony of our private faith – a faith lived out only within self-protective walls of safety. I believe the whole of the Gospel too strongly and personally to give up the fight. May we be found faithful witnesses to the majesty of His grace and truth and life-changing love, and may we meet Him face to face with a testimony of a selfless commitment to the power of the Gospel.