By Wayne Buchanan

How prepared is the New Generation?

WE ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF DISASTER

No matter how thankless the task may be or how unwelcome my invasion into your thoughts and opinions, I feel bound to record the view which I have formed as the result of some unpredictable historical events that have unfolded and will most likely continue to unfold in the next few years.

It is very necessary to make some review of the past in order to see the setting in which my view may sit.

Just as the sinking of the Titanic signalled the end of an Old World, the events of September 11, (9/11, the fall of the World Trade Centre Towers) have created the beginning of a new historical era where any talk of the end of the world with the victories of capitalism celebrated by democracy may be an illusion.

We must see these historical events as decisive turning points or at least a sudden shattering illumination by under whose light we may have to ask, is the church being made ready to embrace the horrors of human suffering that is about to fall upon Western Civilisation?

We are in the presence of a disaster that the church can no longer blind itself to. The disaster I am referring to is the deep experience of evil at the beginning of this new century by TERRORISM. And now every country is asking itself “WHOSE TURN WILL IT BE NEXT”?

Popular eschatology predicts that civilisation as we have known it will not last. Freedom will not survive. Peace will not be kept. We have to face the fact that the gathering global storm, the turbulent events of resent history, is preparing the world stage for the formidable anti-Christ system. Towards this epoch of history the church is moving steadily towards, it is a clash and a climax that cannot be delayed any longer.

WHAT IF WE CAN’T KEEP IT POSITIVE?

The foundational feature of the now new historical landscape of the early 21st century must be the World Trade Centre disaster. This event has changed the world and has completely separated us from the 20th century, and the world that had preceded this time.

Maybe for the first time, the church in the light of these events, could face the shamefulness of our inability to predict and prepare for the historical forces that are now at work in the world.

No matter how reluctant the church may be to face-up (or even grow up), I find it remarkable, almost astonishing, that the driving force to stop such an audit in the church is the fear that it may be seen as negative.

Negativity is now the new cultish word used to prevent any thinking person to speak out concerning the absence of insightful leadership, which can often be the case. Hopefully, at this time, the leadership of the church is conscious of world events and how those events have already impacted the church and will continue to do so?

It would appear in our new positive climate that any dear soul who would perceive the church and the world by another light other than that of popular political opinion, is clearly qualifying them self for severe disapproval.

The context of my view is not set upon any one person or movement of churches or denomination but is addressed to the church in general.

I submit therefore this open challenge, the possibility of an unprepared contemporary generation in the church that is about to be faced with personal, national and international suffering on an epic scale, including the possibility that it may well be this new generation called to arms to protect our civilisation. This responsibility cannot be that of the United States alone.

LEADERSHIP MUST NOT LOSE THE PLOT

If the war against terrorism breaks out into a global conflict, which it seems it certainly will sooner or later, no one can say how far it will spread or who will have it in their power not to be involved.

We have looked with awe and disbelief at the thousands that have already suffered by the first shots fired in this new war called terrorism. A new generation for the first time is shedding blood, no longer in far away countries on foreign battlefields but where they work, at their place of play, where they live and in time where they worship.

In a few short years, perhaps in a very few short months, we shall be confronted with fresh visions of brutality and murderous aggression. We are no longer spectators. As New Zealanders, we have just buried our first victim (Mark Parker, buried 31/Oct/2002) to terrorist attack.

The questions that beg an answer are

“Who are the Apostles with leadership ability in this coming hour of darkness”?

And "who are the prophets with a “Thus saith the Lord” to point us in the right direction in order for us to meet the human suffering that may be unleashed upon the world"? Has the time for the clear identification of these ministry gifts arrived?

THE CORPORATE CHURCH

I stagger at the shallowness of some of the concepts which are considered as Christian thought or theology in some church cultures. And in the light of unfolding events I ask, how will such teaching be able to sustain the church as we journey through the deep trials that lay ahead in the 21st century?

I fear that we may have deeply compromised and perhaps endangered a new generation that has now become use to a corporate church where the entrepreneurial leaders are the stakeholders.

Is it possible that important leaders are at feast in prosperity and that their stewardship might read like Belshazzar, the handwriting already on the wall?

These corporate leaders may have replaced ministry gifts (just look under the sheepskins to check them out) and have created a church culture where all necessities are provided, all anxieties tranquillised, all boredom amused and all searching questions distracted until out of mind.

But deep down in our terrified souls we know that the truth has long gone and we understand that some one forgot to tell this new generation that church growth is not a radiant eruption of entertainment.

But that the growth of the church is the growth of the kingdom of God within the heart of the believer, will most likely before this age is out, be expressed in loving not ones life unto death.

I will therefore ask the questions most unwelcome and unpopular.

Has the church been made ready for personal and universal suffering?

Not only the suffering of the saints, but are we ready with a biblical theology to embrace the suffering humanity that will surely turn to God and seek out salvation because of the fear that will stalk the hearts of people?

Or have we mismanaged the church that is losing its way in a plastic and stainless steel, whiter than white-wear, church culture whose members are mass-produced, numbered and programmed humanoids. Where the individual is a dying concept, where the human being is finished and lost to the vision of “Church Incorporated Ltd”.

Are we suppose to have hysteria over leadership where we are now an accessory to someone else’s success and numbers game?

THE DEEP NEED FOR REALITY

It would seem that we are in a constant state of pretence over how we really feel about it all. Before the new generation in the church turns into another script for a TV sermon let us realise that the only reality we have is the depth of our spirituality. And how deep is that spirituality, knowing that we are now closer to the end than the beginning? Where the end of the world now has definable features.

That is why we need to revaluate how the church is really turning out before we fall into a seedy drama where the people of the world will change channels on us.

There is a church culture that does not want pain or suffering, decay or death, however, such a church culture needs these things because they are the last contact of human reality the church will ever have with humanity. Without this human reality we have a shrinking nothingness that is supposed to be our soul. To remain within such a culture is to be spiritually destroyed, indifferent to suffering, and insensitive to joy.

All of life is reduced to the common rubble of materialism.

HOW TO AVOID THE DANGERS

In light of the danger and the disaster that assails the church, critical and sceptical acceptance of the latest fade or fade ministry is essential for the priest-hood of all believers.

Such discerning skills are the last lines of defence for a solitary person who is working out their own salvation and are the mark of true individuality and civic freedom, including intellectual integrity.

A CALL TO TAKE HEED

Can we blind ourselves to the great forces of change that have already taken place, and will take place in the world situation? Will we be able to see where these forces will place the church and its role and responsibility to a suffering humanity?

Are we ready to minister to a new generation that for the first time will have the horrors of war visited upon them or at least the inconvenience of comfort lost?

Should we Christian leaders be the helpless, silent, gagged, apparently consenting spectators of spiritual bankruptcy who may be accused by the new generation (when they finally figure it out) of the mismanagement of the gospel and the truths that were once delivered to us by our fathers?

Wisdom prepares. The more we are prepared and the better we know that we are prepared, the greater our chance will be to stick to the path of safety in an hour where Jesus Himself warned us:

“Take heed what you hear.

Take heed how you hear.

Take heed that you hear”.

So far as the church is concerned the responsibility of giving answers to questions that have been submitted must rest with those who have the undisputed control of the political affairs and leadership of the church?

CREATING A RESPONSE

It is now the future and not the past that demands our greatest attention.

If ever there was a time when Christians and Christian leadership should take the wise advice, (mentioned above) and should take counsel with one another, that time is now!

The new generation of the church in this century may be faced with the “Fires of persecution” that will bring purity of “The Faith”. They may come to understand how to hold love in endurance of suffering, develop hope of eternal life through praying for the quick return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is not the time for an over-generous enthusiasm for the sake of being positive. At great risk of criticism I suggest an air of sombre expectation bracing ourselves for more shocks that evil may have instore for us.

This is not compliance nor is it capitulation to evil. It is coming to terms with the clear intentions of terror manifested by its acts of terrorism.

We must not be tempted to over-believe in the face of the threats and insecurities in this time but create meaningful dialogue in the face of the experience of radical evil and learn to respond to it.

Together we have the possibility of moving towards a communicative rationality by resourcing ourselves with classical Christian tradition, reappropriated, renewed and re-enacted to meet this time of crisis.