John H Armstrong

Liberating the Church

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther performed a relatively minor act. He posted ninety-five theses (in Latin) on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. His desire seems to have been rather simple--start a serious conversation about some of the ministerial abuses inside the church. His act was the equivalent of posting a few items for dialogue on the Internet, a kind of blog post for academic debate. Historians, always looking for key dates, now see this as the spark that lit the fire that led to the Protestant Reformation. Luther himself was not so sure but this fact is clear: the events that followed October 31 1517, created a great turmoil in the Western church.

Luther argued that the church in his day had been taken captive by an inadequate gospel message. Luther's pamphlet, The Pagan Servitude of the Church, likened the church's situation in 16th century Europe to Israel in Babylon. The people of God were prisoners of a false gospel, a false worldview, a false Christian practice. In this form of captivity they could not experience the full potential of Christ's promises and kingdom. Luther's actions, and reactions, are still debated. One thing is certain: Nothing has been the same since, for better and for worse. The Catholic Church later acknowledged a real need for ethical and ecclesial reform by pursuing the Counter-Reformation. But visible unity, torn asunder in the early 1500s, now seems virtually impossible. 

The gospel of the kingdom has always been the central message of the church, in good times and bad. This gospel is one of great joy. It proclaims that a new order has broken into human experience and with it has come the divine power of Jesus to cleanse, forgive, renew and reconcile all life. This reconciliation brings those who come to Christ back to the Father, through the person and work of Christ the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This kingdom gospel turned the world upside-down in the first three centuries. Where it is preached and lived today it still does the same. Witness Latin America, Africa and Asia all three.

This should make us ask, "Is the gospel of the kingdom really being preached in our modern Western context?" If the answer is in doubt, and I am convinced that it is, then the theme for today should again be "liberating the church" from its cultural captivity to structures and forms that keep it from renewal.

This burden for renewal from cultural captivity has been at the heart of every great movement in Christian history, whether Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox. Whether it was St. Paul, Anthony, Pope Gregory the Great, Benedict, Athanasius, John Calvin or John Paul II, the renewal of the church by the gospel of the kingdom has been central to this message.

This same desire for liberation motivated English separatists against liberal Latitudinarians, it impassioned Whitefeld and Wesley to preach to the masses, and it prompted Jonathan Edwards to spread the flame of revival to the American colonies by writing of the great works of Christ by the Spirit. It also gave rise to the vision of neo-Calvinist Abraham Kuyper, with his particular burden for the Lordship of Christ over all life. And it gave it to Cardinal John Henry Newman, who desired to recover the Christian principle of education in the universities of England. It even inspired the early fundamentalists who saw that consistent liberalism was not Christianity; e.g., J. Gresham Machen's book, Christianity and Liberalism. I believe the same spiritual force was behind Vatican Council II, the implications of which are still being worked out in the Roman Catholic Church and beyond. And my friend T. M. Moore sees this same spirit of releasing people from bondage to cultural forms of Christian faith as fueling the Jesus Movement of the 1970s. I was there and I do agree. 

What this is all about is really the status quo. The gospel of the kingdom will always oppose the status quo, regardless of the cultural and church context. Christianity is concerned for personal, social and cultural transformation. Anything less is not the message of the kingdom. We may, and often do, mess this up but we can never be satisfied with business as usual. We should not rush to disunity but at the same time we should not run from our duty to pursue the renewal of the church, all of it. Let us remember this gospel of the kingdom, this good news, on this Reformation Day 2009.

Praying for Revival in Our Cities

One of the numerous opportunities that I am afforded for missional impact and input is in prayer movements for revival and city transformation. Most of you already know that the first Thursday of May is the National Day of Prayer. This year a group of my friends are staging an important event in suburban Dallas two days before the National Day of Prayer, on May 5. I have taken a particular interest in this effort as a friend and supporter. God of the City is the project. There are many such events around the country and I urge you to support them in your own area and pray for revival in the churches of our land. The great need of the hour is not going to be met in Washington, D.C., but in your town and mine, in your church and mine, when the Holy Spirit is poured out in mercy and power upon large numbers of our people. Come Lord, refresh us from on high!

I have made a personal commitment to pray for this ministry and joined the wall. Each Monday, at 11:00 a.m., I add my prayers to the wall of intercessors. I encourage you to join in such fervent prayer with me. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

We Need Showers of Mercy to Fall Again

The latest Wall Street Journal economic-forecasting survey suggests that the current recession may turn out to be the longest and most painful downturn since the Great Depression. On average, these economists expect the downturn to conclude in June 2009, marking an eighteen-month duration, the longest postwar period of decline. The economists on average said the unemployment rate will peak at 8.4% in response to this recession, as pain in the labor market extends into 2010.

We have lost more than two trillion dollars in personal savings already. A crisis of character linked to greed, fraud and arrogance plagues us profoundly. (Consider the hubris and corruption in Illinois alone!) An unprecedented national deficit reveals that both political parties are “out of control.” Many states, my own included are broke. Some are even seeking bankruptcy. And this doesn’t even deal with the looming insolvency of programs such as Medicaid and Social Security. The U. S. average, average mind you, for credit card debt is $13,000. Millions live in fear and 37 million of our fellow citizens go to bed hungry. 11% of U. S. households face a daily lack of food. And 40 million of us have no health insurance at all. Our infrastructure is broken and disasters have revealed huge problems at every level. Would you say we are living in fragile times? In addition to this our borders and ports are open targets and terrorists are very likely to strike us again in the months ahead.

In such times what will we do? This is the question every Christian should ask? Will we be there to serve, to care and to share good news in every possible way? This could be the greatest moment for true revival in our entire history. I am praying and watching and believe God is working. Are you?

At What Time in History Do We Now Live?

Francis Schaeffer referred to our times, some thirty years ago. and asked, "How Then Shall We Live?" I head Schaeffer speak at Wheaton near the end of his life and there was an urgency in his manner and message that was quite striking. I think he saw something that disturbed him very deeply. He looked to the future with genuine concern. While I do not entirely agree with Schaeffer's specific analysis about every point he made at the time I do believe that what he saw is increasingly self-evident to discerning Christians. Our culture, as we have known it in my lifetime of almost sixty years, is rapidly changing. The result is a new era that has been called post-Christian, or more to the point, post-Christendom.

I would like to propose a simple observation here.The church has passed through four major eras of development in terms of the socio-political (cultural) environment in which we have lived and witnessed to the faith that is found in Jesus Christ.

The first era was that faced by the earliest Christians. In this period the congregation was sharply and clearly distinguishable from the culture around it. Indeed, the church was in a tiny minority status and was universally persecuted and hated. During the first three hundred years of Christian history congregations not only drew a sharp boundary between themselves and the world but the world was antagonistic and often persecuted the church. We still find this in some parts of the world; e.g. Muslim countries, China, etc.

The second era overlapped the first and developed almost immediately. It retained the strong boundary between the church and the world but it sought to push the frontier of mission into the hostile world through witness. This era continued, to varying degrees, until about the time of Constantine.

The third era lasted for centuries. It saw the church become one with the empire and the social and cultural environment around it. Mission still took place but it was a matter of pushing mission and empire (culture) in tandem. The world outside the church/empire/Christendom still remained hostile (e.g. Muslim lands) but the church sent missionaries to preach the gospel and establish the church in foreign lands. This mission often looked and felt like Americanism as much as Christianity.

The fourth era is the one we began to enter in the late 20th century. This era follows a time when the parish-congregation had sought to engage the mission frontier and then minister to a culture where there was some hostility, some indifference and some supportiveness. I think this is where we are in America now, though the "supportiveness" component is fading away rather fast. I also think, all things being equal, that we will have to move closer to the first two eras over the next forty years or so unless we see a major change in the wider culture of America. We are entering an age in which we will no longer minister from Christendom but in the shadow of it, a shadow that may hurt us as much as help us.

There is no question that Schaeffer rightly saw the church in America becoming more and more like the church in Europe. At the same time there are still far more people in the churches of America than any other Western nation. But the number is in decline and the evidence that we lack a solid, biblically-informed, world view is evident everywhere. Without Christians who think and live deeply we are one generation, or less, from becoming much like the church in the rest of the West.

What does God see when he looks at the church in America?

1. Large numbers of people who still claim to follow Christ.

2. Growing ministries and schools, though this is beginning to slow in recent years.

3. A failure to grasp the great truths of the faith and be deeply formed by them.

4. A decrease in real church growth.

5. A domesticated Christ and a privatized gospel crafted by marketers in ministry and tailored for individualism.

6. Large numbers of Christians whose lifestyle is not radically different from that of non-Christians.

7. Racism, sexism, hypocrisy, hero worship, materialism, busyness, destruction of the family, abortion, self-indulgence and spiritual and intellectual mediocrity.

Bottom line: Christ does not reign supreme in our churches!

God sees all this and must judge it. He withholds blessing and most of us never notice. He sends "locusts" who eat away at our economy, our homes and our schools. And he sends this judgment first to the church because he always begins with us first.

Unless the church opens its eyes to the real dangers then we will see more and more of what Francis Schaeffer feared would happen near the end of his life. But remember this: the Lord always sends judgment to his people in order to wake them up so he can bless them again. Hope, as I noted last week, is found in judgment.

Judgment and Hope

Most of us hear the word judgment and think only of dire and problematic circumstances and a gloomy end. While it is true the Bible portrays a coming day of final judgment, when all will give an account of every thing done in the body, the biblical emphasis more nuanced and developed than this aspect alone. A careful study of the Scripture reveals that judgment comes now to bring about repentance and hope.

The major premise seems to be clear: One year passes to the next and one century into another. Great leaders and nations come and go. Only a few things stand the test of time. God's truth alone remains and will never pass away. When God speaks his word is sealed in heaven and remains alive.

The minor premise follows from the first: There are clear patterns in the Holy Scripture which reveal how God speaks and works in this age of grace. Sometimes he gives messages of warning. Sometimes he sends messages of hope. With his powerful and anointed Word come seasons, epochs of special activity, divine patterns, that all fulfill his sure Word.

If you do not listen to his warnings, and heed them, then you will face a season of judgment. For those persons who do heed his warnings, as well as for those churches and nations who do listen and obey, the Holy Spirit gives new beginnings. These are best seen as "resurrections" rooted in genuine hope.

God's judgment is primarily remedial in this present age since his purpose is to bring the gospel to all people and nations and thereby redeem an innumerable company of people so vast that we cannot number them. His grace is greater than all our sin. (This does not mean he will universally save all people in the end but it does mean he is the one who is "seeking and saving the lost" all over the planet and that the number is immense!)

History has crossroads moments. Judgment always begins in such moments when the people of God are judged first. "For it is time for judgment to begin with God's household; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God" (1 Peter 4:17)?

I believe we are at a crossroads in the West, especially in America. This has little to do with elections and political cycle. Whether we have had Republicans or Democrats, evangelicals or non-evangelicals, in leadership it has made little or no real difference. It is time that we recognized this was the truth. It is so easy for us to become captive to the ideology of the left and/or the right. Both have something to contribute, if we pause and listen carefully to the central concerns in the messages. But the real issue is not our ideology or how such ideology will rescue us.

The real issue is this---God confront his people (first) with their sin in order to bring about hope and joy. His judgment is generally "remedial" and intended to awaken us from our slumber before it is too late.

Throughout my nearly 60 years of life I have heard Christians talk about "the end." Yet we are still here and America is still around. And though we are in a bad economic cycle we have been here before too. It could get much, much worse but the end result will not likely be the worst we dread.

At a crossroads God confronts his people with their sin. We have grieved him deeply by embracing the idols of our age: consumerism, pleasure and entertainment, financial security as an end in itself, etc.

When God judges he withdraws his blessings (cf. Ezekiel 34:26) and the "rains of his righteousness" are withheld (Hosea 10:12). We find ourselves in "waterless pits" (Zechariah 9:11). I believe this describes the scene I find in almost every church I see today. Some are better than others, and many outwardly prosper, but all are in some way touched by the judgment of God.

But remember, this judgment is meant for our good. It is meant to correct us because God still loves us. The "God of hope" (Romans 15:13) is still the God of the covenant. He keeps calling to us to pray, to seek him, to repent, to turn from our idols and unbelief. He desires our complete trust and nothing less.

The summons God is giving to his people in America seems obvious to me: Seek me for hope. I will renew you, restore you, revitalize you and reform you. Our "waterless pits" can become "pools of living water" as the refreshing rains of God's Spirit return to pour mercy and blessing upon us again (Hosea 6:1-3).

God is the God of promises. His promises speak of new beginnings, seasons of renewal and times of grace and blessing. Thus messages of judgment are always filled with words of hope. God remains, forever, the God of mercy and hope. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. What we need is a growing corporate hope for the mercy and blessing of God, not a new man-made effort to build a movement or create a new political course. This is not a Pietism that avoids the world. Every reader of this blog site knows I care deeply about many cultural and political issues and seek to think deeply about them. But in the end our real hope is in the Lord our God. And in the present time of judgment there is hope just over the horizon if God's people---all of them (Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox)---seek him and pray for his mercy.

Another Widely Reported Revival Down in Spiritual Disaster

Some time ago a “revival” in Lakeland, Florida, was widely reported, especially in charismatic circles. Friends told me that God was on the move and that this was real. I've heard this before. When this happens, as it does every few years in America, I generally say nothing but wait and know that time will likely prove things otherwise. I admit I am suspicious about most of these modern reports regarding revivals in America. This suspicion is not because I do not still believe in true revival. I wrote of the real thing in my own book, True Revival, more than seven years ago (copies are available though the book is out-of-print right now). My suspicion is rooted in the widely divergent claims often made in these outpourings, as well as in the people who lead these revivals. Their confidence, if you watch and listen carefully, is generally in themselves, not in the Lord God. There is just way too much "flesh" in all of this, something about which the older Pentecostals were so fearful. This is apparent even to some young Christians, which shows just how undiscerning so many Christians really are today. (One is tempted to say gullible here, but that is unkind and unnecessary.)

In the Lakeland movement, evangelist Todd Bentley (seen in the picture on the right) had openly heralded that revival as the greatest Pentecostal outpouring since Azusa Street. From his stage set up inside a gigantic tent in Florida, Bentley preached to thousands. Night after night he brought multitudes to the stage for prayer. Many claimed to be healed of all kinds of illnesses: deafness, blindness, heart problems, depression and dozens of other conditions. The continuous services ran for more 100 consecutive nights. The most amazing claim of all was Bentley’s assertion that people had been raised from the dead during the revival.

As a historian of true revival I must say to people again and again that no true awakening was ever called a real revival, at least not early on, until many months or years had passed and the fruit was tested and proved good. This was true of all previous American awakenings.

This week, a few days after the Canadian minister Bentley announced the end of his visits to Lakeland, he proceeded to inform his staff that his marriage was ending. This was reported by J. Lee Grady (seen at left), the editor of Charisma magazine, not exactly an anti-revival publication to say the least. Bentley’s board released a public statement saying that he and his wife were separating. The news shocked his friends and saddened those who have questioned his credibility ever since the Lakeland movement erupted in early April of this year.

Grady adds, in Charisma, “I’m sad. I’m disappointed. And I’m angry.” He then writes of questions he has about all of these reports. In my view, since Grady is a major defender of charismatic renewals, his views should be heeded with much care. Here are a few of the questions he posed in his own comments. (The entire piece can be read at his Charisma blog site.)

Why did so many people flock to Lakeland from around the world to rally behind an evangelist who had serious credibility issues from the beginning?

To put it bluntly, we’re just plain gullible.

From the first week of the Lakeland revival, many discerning Christians raised questions about Bentley’s beliefs and practices. They felt uneasy when he said he talked to an angel in his hotel room. They sensed something amiss when he wore a T-shirt with a skeleton on it. They wondered why a man of God would cover himself with tattoos. They were horrified when they heard him describe how he tackled a man and knocked his tooth out during prayer.

But among those who jumped on the Lakeland bandwagon, discernment was discouraged. They were expected to swallow and follow. The message was clear: “This is God. Don’t question.” So before we could all say, “Sheeka Boomba” (as Bentley often prayed from his pulpit), many people went home, prayed for people and shoved them to the floor with reckless abandon, Bentley-style.

I blame this lack of discernment, partly, on raw zeal for God. We’re spiritually hungry—which can be a good thing. But sometimes, hungry people will eat anything.

Many of us would rather watch a noisy demonstration of miracles, signs and wonders than have a quiet Bible study. Yet we are faced today with the sad reality that our untempered zeal is a sign of immaturity. Our adolescent craving for the wild and crazy makes us do stupid things. It’s way past time for us to grow up.

Why did God TV tell people that “any criticism of Todd Bentley is demonic”?

This ridiculous statement was actually made on one of God TV’s pre-shows. In fact, the network’s hosts also warned listeners that if they listened to criticism of Bentley, they could lose their healings.

This is cultic manipulation at its worst. The Bible tells us that the Bereans were noble believers because they studied the Scriptures daily “to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11, NASB). Yet in the case of Lakeland, honest intellectual inquiry was viewed as a sign of weakness. People were expected to jump first and then open their eyes.

Just because we believe in the power of the Holy Spirit does not mean we check our brains at the church door. We are commanded to test the spirits. Jesus wants us to love Him with our hearts and our minds.

Because of the Lakeland scandal, there may be large numbers of people who feel they’ve been burned by Bentley. Some may give up on church and join the growing ranks of bitter, disenfranchised Christians. Others may suffer total spiritual shipwreck. This could have been avoided if leaders had been more vocal about their objections and urged people to evaluate spiritual experiences through the filter of God’s Word.

Why did a group of respected ministers lay hands on Bentley on June 23 and publicly ordain him? Did they know of his personal problems?

This controversial ceremony was organized by Peter Wagner, who felt that one of Bentley’s greatest needs was proper spiritual covering. He asked California pastors Che Ahn and Bill Johnson, along with Canadian pastor John Arnott, to lay hands on Bentley and bring him under their care.
 
Bentley certainly needs such covering. No one in ministry today should be out on their own, living in isolation without checks, balances and wise counsel. It was commendable that Wagner reached out to Bentley and that Bentley acknowledged his need for spiritual fathers by agreeing to submit to the process. The question remains, however, whether it was wise to commend Bentley during a televised commissioning service that at times seemed more like a king’s coronation.

In hindsight, we can all see that it would have been better to take Bentley into a back room and talk about his personal issues.

The Bible tells us that ordination of a minister is a sober responsibility. Paul wrote: “Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others” (1 Tim. 5:22). We might be tempted to rush the process, but the apostle warned against fast-tracking ordination—and he said that those who commission a minister who is not ready for the job will bear some of the blame for his failures.

I trust that Wagner, Ahn, Johnson and Arnott didn’t know of Bentley’s problems before they ordained him. I am sure they are saddened by the events of this week and are reaching out to Bentley and his wife to promote healing and restoration. But I believe that they, along with Bentley and the owners of God TV, owe the body of Christ a forthright and public apology for thrusting Bentley’s ministry into the spotlight prematurely. (Perhaps such an apology should be aired on God TV.)

Can anything good come out of this?

That depends on how people respond. If the men assigned to oversee Bentley offer loving but firm correction, and if Bentley responds humbly to the process by stepping out of ministry for a season of rehabilitation, we could witness a healthy case of church discipline play out the way it is supposed to. If all those who were so eager to promote Bentley now rush just as fast to repent for their errors in judgment, then the rest of us could breathe a huge sigh of relief—and the credibility of our movement could be restored.

My own conclusion is quite simple. I believe, with Lee Grady, that God may still visit our nation with his power. I see little or no evidence that this is in fact happening just yet. Here is where Grady and I might part company, though I am not sure. Charismatics tend to see what they want to see beyond what is real at times. Non-charismatics tend to see nothing at all except doctrinal debates. But without solid moral and doctrinal fruit these waves of revival will always be mostly made up of chaff, if not outright deception. In the end they make even more of God’s people suspicious of revival in general, as Grady hints. That is a real shame since we still desperately need a real awakening to stir the church in America into a state of wakefulness. Our sleep is long and growing deeper every day.

Preaching True Revival in North Carolina

For the past three days I have been preaching on true revival in a multi-church conference sponsored and hosted by four churches in eastern North Carolina, just a few miles from the Atlantic coast. The churches included Faith Evangelical Bible Church (non-affiliated), Father's House (charismatic), Newport Baptist (SBC) and All Saints Anglican Church (AMiA). These churches are in all in the Newport area. The pastors worked together and tomorrow evening they will conduct a concert of prayer after I have returned to Chicago. I also spoke to a Christian high school on Monday and to ministers this morning. I encouraged the four pastors to continue having a regular community Concert of Prayer in the future and to keep building their relationships with one another and to even broaden the scope of their fellowship. Tonight I met evangelical Christians from almost every possible background, including Roman Catholics as well as Protestants. (I am still amazed when people insist that Catholics are not Christians and that there are not real evangelical Catholic Christians. I meet them all the time but then maybe I just have the fortune to bump into them because I pray that I will meet and encourage God's people everywhere I go.)

Since the late 1980s I have traveled across America, and beyond, preaching on the biblical reality that has been called true revival. Though I am not a friend to revivalism, as a method and a theological system, I still believe in real honest-to-goodness biblical revival. I also believe we need it and we need it very badly. It will not cure all our problems but it would restore power and credibility to the church in America. Our state is one of spiritual lethargy and sleepiness. Awakening would restore us to God and to true holiness and power.

I sometimes ask myself: "Why keep preaching on this subject?" I am getting older and I hate travel these days. My answer is simple: "We still need for God to come and rescue us in these morally and spiritually dark times." Who knows, I might someday be in the place where God begins a new awakening that will surprise me beyond my wildest dreams.

I do know this much: thirty years of evangelical commitment to changing the culture through partisan politics has not brought power to the church or impacted the culture much at all. If anything, it has made our mission to the unchurched much, much harder. When will we stop trusting in princes (presidents or other human leaders) and trust in the Lord our God who brings life to his people and real change in this world? I am not saying we should not be involved in the culture, including running for office and voting for candidates. I am saying that what we have been doing is almost entirely counterproductive spiritually.

Paradise 08 and True Revival: The Supremacy of Christ as Lord

For some months now a major gathering of young adults has been developing. This event, called Paradise '08, is nuique in a number of ways. I am not sure of everything about this event but I do believe young people should consider going and all of us should pray that God comes in power to refresh and bless these multitudes of young people who are coming from across America to worship. If you watch several of the videos you will be impressed I think. I watched several on You Tube this afternoon.

Visit the Web site at www.paradise08.com and you will find out much more. The site will open the whole day up clearly and give you a very good sense of what is going on. I encourage all of us to pray for Paradise '08. "Who knows, the Lord might relent and send mercy."

I have believed in true revival since 1970. I have seen it and been in it before. Often such a movement begins among college students. Could this be the next thing God is doing to bring people to Christ in North America? I have to say that I genuninely like the sound of this far more than most of the previous things that we have seen fly under the banner of revivalism.

Do Not Stress Community as an End in Itself

For thirty years or more I have talked about the need for community. I have also stated the obvious, i.e., community cannot happen in large church settings, at least not in most ordinary circumstances where we actually live day-in and day-out. I have, therefore, urged churches to seek community life in smaller settings, to pray for it, to cultivate it, to intentionally pursue it. I am convinced now that my emphasis was wrong. Let me explain.

Richard Rohr, the Catholic Franciscan spiritual writer, often provokes me. I disagree with him about a great deal, especially politically. But I read him precisely because he has a lot to say to me that I need to think about and then put into my life in appropriate ways. I am reading his book, Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go (Crossroad, revised edition 2003) this week in my morning devotional reading. Understand that Rohr has spent his life building community among lay people, first in Ohio and now in New Mexico. Writing about his own lay movement Rohr says: "We place no special emphasis on community in the formal sense or as an end in itself. It's a by-product of people heading in the same direction" (page 50). Man, that statement nailed it for me.

Church after church tries to make small group life happen, from the top down, and church after church has a program for formally creating and organizing community life. But rarely does it happen this way. I have noticed this much over the course of my lifetime of church-related ministry. Thus Richard Rohr voices what I have experienced. Real community is a "by-product" of a people who are "heading in the same direction." This means the problem in most settings is that people are not heading in the same direction. Our churches are collections of people heading in many directions and this makes the kind of community people hunger for impossible in most local churches.

What do I suggest practically? You will find community by not looking for it. Make it your purpose to know where you are heading and why. God will give you people (community) to go with you if you do not seek them (it). I will never again organize small groups for community. I may organize people for a special ministry or a study or to meet a particular need but never to create a community. It simply doesn't happen in this way. Rohr is plainly right. As I have met those few small groups that know anything about community at all they have never started out to be a community. It simply happened.

The Leadership Crisis and the Church

Is there really a crisis of confidence in leadership throughout America? Polls say there is and anecdotal evidence is abundant. The Center for Public Leadership/U.S. News survey says the rise in lack of confidence in America’s leadership is up 7% from last year. Nearly 80% of us believe the country will decline unless we get better leaders soon. The president’s numbers are very bad, but those for congress are much worse. And most people think that we are moving, as a nation, in a negative direction. When asked to compare things to twenty years ago most Americans believe that we are in far worse shape today.

When the type of leaders are separated by various categories it becomes even more interesting. The highest level of confidence is in military leaders, followed by medical leaders and then the Supreme Court. Religious leaders rank fourth and at the bottom of the fourteen categories listed are the media and entertainers. Both liberals and conservatives responded similarly to many of the same questions when it came to the question of confidence in leadership. 

First question: Does the Church, at least in general, have a high level of confidence in its leaders or does it reflect these cultural trends? I think it is the latter from what I’ve seen. It doesn't much matter what the theology is of the particular church either. (Sometimes the more rigid the theological position the more likely it is that the church as a social and spiritual system will break down.) Churches, except in places where huge personalities are the rule in some mega-churches, distrust their leadership in high numbers. This has led to an all-out crisis in most congregations, which I see almost every week in personal ways, and it leads many to change churches regularly because they do not support, or have confidence in, their pastor(s), elders, deacons or church council.

Second question: How do we fix this problem? A lot of simplistic solutions come to mind but in the end the only acceptable answer is to somehow restore confidence in the supremacy of Christ over all things. I expect this would come about only when churches are truly renewed by the Word and the Spirit in power. So long as we do not believe this is what is really needed then the problem will likely only grow worse. We are in deep trouble and most of us do not even know it. We are far more interested in self-help solutions, kids programs and new buildings than in making Christ supreme over the life of our congregation. Pastors who undertake an effort to lead churches in this direction are usually in for real opposition. The whole business is a lose-lose proposition unless the Holy Spirit intervenes. I have never seen such spiritual dullness and foolishness in thirty-five years of public ministry.