PROPHESY COMING TO PASS

I clearly remember some of the prophecies of the eighties where we were warned that a, "...great shaking..." was to come to the Church.
The promise of such a shaking is now in full swing.
However, a causal look at the Church may suggest to us that we are indeed "shaken, but not stirred".
We may need to be stirred more before we can address the issues of the shaking.

THE SHAKING CRISIS

The shaking that we are all experiencing is of course the crisis of postmodernity.
For many this is a frightening experience where we are conscious that we are standing on the edge of history.

Some have not yet come to terms with a modern age, let alone a post modern age.
We feel sure about the past, but as we stand before an open century where history is waiting to be created, we are not sure about where we are to start or how we are to relate to this historical era, or how in fact a postmodern world relates to the church and the church to this world.

In the last few years this unsureness has come to be called the "...crises of late modernity." 1
David J. Bosch in his book Transforming Mission, talks about "The Contemporary Crisis". 2
Bosch explains that the church has experienced many crisis and paradigm shifts and "Each of them constituted the end of one world and the birth of another..." 3

The pain that the early 21st century church is conscious of in New Zealand, is its pain of grief as we let go the Old World. While at the same time we experience the birth pains of a new-century-church that we have not yet come to recognize.
All this is experienced in the full view of a radical changing world that will not stop to let us catch up.

THE CRISIS THAT HAS TO BE FACED

Peter Hodgson in his constructive theology suggests that the crisis, which flies in the face of the church and the world, is, THE ABSENCE OF GOD IN THE POSTMODERN WORLD. 4
This absence is the lack of the presence of God. But since we believe in the omnipresence of God, we may feel more comfortable with the crisis being described as the lack of the manifest presence of God.

One of the sources of this crisis that Hodgson gives, is that modern man has ".... Come of age, that it no longer needs God to solve its problems or satisfy its deepest longings. Thus God is both unknowable and unnecessary." 5

This conclusion, though hard to take, may be the explanation that we are looking for as we experience the lack of response of the world to the efforts of the church to evangelize.

Could one suggest that God manifested may be missing from the church and that is why His presence is not recognized in the world?

In the contemporary church we may have developed and fine tuned a great atmosphere, but God is absent? And in the historical church the world has difficulty in relating to church buildings let alone the religious forms inside?

FINDING NEW WAYS TO RELATE

The challenge for the church is to find out how to speak meaningfully of God's presence and action in the world. 7

The tension between what the church says God can do, and what He actually does and is to the world, calls for a fresh revelation of how we relate to the world (revelatory contextualization).
I would guess that the pain for such a transition might be too much for some and so much of a threat for others.

The failure of the church in certain areas to produce a positive result of God at work on national television deepens our crisis and embarrassment. Where gold dust and gold teeth was the best they could find and where medically certified healing is rare.

The temptation is to respond to the crisis by retreating back into fundamentalism and embrace old beliefs concerning the role of the church in the world. Where we can comfort ourselves with talk of revival.

However, the September 11th fall of the Trade Center Towers in New York, would tell us that fundamentalism in any religion will not be tolerated in the new world order.

And with the collapse of Enron in the United States signals a demand from this new generation for transparent dealings and accountability for stakeholders that belong to any institution, including the church and God, has now arrived (the gold dust/fillings did not cut it).

THE PRICE FOR A NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WORLD

In this new paradigm of the postmodern (we do not have a name for or how to characterize it fully) where relationship is the goal and accountability will be the price.

One can almost hear the paranoia of some narcissistic charismatic/ Pentecostal leaders who are already on borrowed time. However, the challenge is not just for the chosen few to make transition, but for all.

This journey of transition may take a number of years (dangers for campers) but for the few that have paid the price, they are finding the journey difficult and painful.
For some the price has been to leave long established and historical connections with movements or denominations as new paradigms of relationships are drawn up
For others is has been a new commitment to Christian education and qualifications, both in secular and church universities.
Churches may hemorrhage and misunderstanding could abound.
However, most will be moving towards that one revelation that will solve the crisis that we started with, where is the presence of God?

ACCOUNTABILITY ON ALL SIDES.

One of the reasons for the crisis is that this New World will demand God to be accountable. Promises not fulfilled may find God and His representatives in court for breech of contract (note the film, "The Man Who Sued God")

NEW EASTERS/PENTECOST POWER

The early church lived in a world very similar to our own.
God took the early Christians through transition from the old to the new, by the power of Easter and Pentecost.

I am sure that the world was in crisis then, as it is now, (the absent presence of God). But through the empowering of Easter's Resurrection and a personal encounter of the Holy Spirit the church and the world met in transforming relationship.

This same solution may be applied to our modern day crisis.
But the initiative for such a miraculous turn around must come from God? It is His presence after all, not ours?
Jesus is the Head of the Church and as such must take responsibility for such an absence?
The church is the representative of the Kingdom of God in the world and as Ambassadors of that Kingdom we can only present our credentials to the world as God empowers us.
The initiative must always start and finish with God?

If God receives the glory when all is well surely the price for such glory must be that He will take responsibility when things are not so hot?
Since the presence of God belongs to God, then only God can supply?
The Church will never be able to substitute His presence not matter how good the music department is!

The call for a new Easter power and a new manifest Pentecost rises and falls upon the One who can give it.
Like Gideon, it is time to ask, "Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about…?" Judges 6:13
If the church is not asking this question the world out of its need is!
The exciting future for the New Zealand church is that such a generation is in the church and is demanding such accountability from God.
Hopefully we are not only shaken but now stirred!

By Wayne Buchanan Dip. Bib. & Theo. Dip. Min.
Senior Leader Good News Church Manukau City (A/G)

REFERENCE INDEX

1. Peter C. Hodgson. Wind of the Spirit SCM Press Ltd 1994, page 61
2. David J. Bosch. Transforming Mission. Orbis Books New York. 1991,page 1
3. David J. Bosch op. cit., page 4.
4. Peter C. Hodgeson op. cit., page 63.
5. Peter C. Hodgeson op. cit.,page 62.
6. Peter C. Hodgeson op. cit., page 63.
7. Peter C. Hodgeson op. cit.,page 53.