Why Do We Need To Go To Church Twice?

Rev. Allan Quak. Trowel & Sword. September 1999

Preamble: Our world is changing; our world has changed. The same is true of the Church – our Church. A mere 25 years ago Rev. Allan Quack wrote passionately about the need for believers to attend church twice on Sundays. Today, in most churches, this is no longer even possible as the second service in many cases has passed into history; gone the way of the dodo. There could be a number of reasons for this: Perhaps attendance dropping so low Sessions deemed it no longer viable to conduct second services; perhaps ministers struggling with the task of preparing two sermons each week let alone one; or perhaps some churches simply got out of the habit following the Covid lockdowns. This article by Allan Quack may be the stimulus we need to reverse the trend of fewer services in our churches. If not, and the trend continues it may not be too long before some, or many churches close their doors for good.

Why Do We Need To Go To Church Twice?

It’s a question many children ask their parents and when we consider most churches have a high percentage of people who do not come to the evening service, it seems to be a question many parents are asking themselves.

Many reasons have been given to Session members for not coming to the second service, yet a common thread which seems to tie the reasons together is busyness. Our weeks are too busy to catch up with relatives which means Sunday is the only day we have. Work commitments make family life impossible during the week making Sunday the only day where we are not too busy to spend time together. The morning service wasn’t really that great so we use the rest of the day to be busy doing something else that feels more productive and exciting.

Perhaps here lies the problem. In this world of busyness our motto for life has become, “Don’t just stand there… do something”. We must produce, we must be active, we have to see results – and we have a tendency to apply these same criteria to worship. If worship falls short of the standard once on the Sunday what incentive do we have for coming twice?

The burden of this article is to encourage us to approach Sunday with a different motto. We need to move from being “don’t just stand there but do something” type people, to “don’t just do something but stand there” type people.

Let me propose a principle.

When you don’t know how to stop you’re headed for disaster. It’s a principle which applies to many areas of life but especially in your spiritual life. All of us need a spiritual time out. We know it. God knows it even more for, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done” (Gen.2:3).

God also knows we have a tendency to side-step the opportunities He gives to have rest, that is why, in the fourth commandment, we read, “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you” (Dt.5:12). Stopping and standing in the presence of God is good and necessary. Even Jesus modelled this principle. In Luke 4:16 we read, “On the Sabbath Day Jesus went into the synagogue, as was His custom…!” Maybe these words don’t seem so significant just yet but let’s think about the implications of them for a moment. As Jesus makes His way to the synagogue, try and picture His circumstances. It’s still fairly early in His ministry. In Luke 3:21-22 we read of Jesus’ baptism, which begins His formal ministry. Jesus knows He has been set apart by God to preach, teach, heal and restore. Jesus knows He has about three and a half years to make His way around the people of Israel with the message of the kingdom. Jesus knows that Satan is going to do his best to hinder the progress of the Gospel. Basically, as Jesus walks towards the synagogue, He has a full and busy agenda. If anyone had reason to justify not coming to the synagogue it was Jesus. He could easily have thought, “I’m too busy for this, there are more important things to do”.

But He doesn’t, instead He goes to the synagogue even though He knows He is going to be rejected. Now in this context we could say Jesus went to the synagogue because He was going to preach and, on this occasion, that is true. However the words “as was His custom” do not apply to the reading and preaching, they apply to the action of going to the synagogue – and all synagogues had morning and evening services (cf. Ps.92, especially the title and the first three verses). Jesus wouldn’t miss worship. In fact Jesus had this attitude right through His ministry.

Make the effort some time to read the latter portions of all the Gospels, especially the portions which deal with the last week before Jesus went to the cross. As you are reading see if you can find out what Jesus was doing on the Sabbath before He died. It may seem hard to believe but, in all four Gospels, you will not find one reference to Jesus doing anything on the Sabbath before He died. Admittedly it is an argument from silence but it does give weight to the consistency of Jesus’ attitude to worship. With the busiest week of His life ahead of Him it seems that Jesus had a very quiet Sabbath Day. In six days the salvation of God’s people would be placed on His shoulders as He bears the curse of the cross, yet it seems Jesus thought worship was more important than work. If Jesus took the time during the busiest week of His life to stop and just stand in God’s presence should we be tempted to think we can do any less?

Life is busy and has many demands. Work, sport, family, leisure, study, personal time, gardening, maintenance, church activities, special occasions – all these and much more are putting up their hand to claim a piece of our time.

And then comes Sunday.

During corporate worship we have a chance to sing praises, to be assured of our salvation, to hear God’s Word faithfully being preached and to communicate with our God. We are given the opportunity to encourage members who we haven’t seen for a while, and make a note to visit those who are not present. We fellowship as those who have one Lord, one hope, one faith. We stop and stand in God’s presence.

Corporate worship is able to give us so much yet, too often, we see Sunday as a catch-up day, or a convenient day to visit relatives and give the children quality time, or a great day to keep going with unfinished tasks. In other words we can have a tendency to see Sunday as a day to keep busy rather than a special opportunity to stop and worship and be spiritually refreshed. If this is an attitude you have developed remember there is no beatitude that says, “Blessed are the busy”. But there is a text in Hebrews 10:25 which says: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the day approaching.”

And that is exactly what Jesus was doing. By the time you have gotten to this point I would hope that you are becoming convinced of the importance of worship both in the morning and in the evening. But, if you need further encouragement let your focus come back to Jesus whose custom it was to go to the synagogue.

Just picture Jesus sitting in the synagogue looking around at the people who are there. What kind of people are they? When we look at other parts of Scripture we see that the synagogue worshippers were quite a mixed crowd. Jesus mentions some of them later in His ministry. In Matt.23:6 Jesus speaks about teachers of the law who love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogue. In Matt.6:2 Jesus calls us to be righteous without making a big fuss as the hypocrites do in the synagogues.

And the leader of the synagogue would not be a man well known for his eloquent teaching and charismatic personality – all of those people went to Jerusalem. It’s hardly a situation which sparks the spiritual imagination is it? Such circumstances could have allowed Jesus to have a negative attitude to worship. Wouldn’t Jesus be justified in thinking: “Why am I bothering to come? I’m tired of seeing leaders who are not thinking of the needs of the people but only about themselves. I’m tired of people who are nothing more than religious. They are just going through the motions but being far from God. And the man who stands up the front…? Well, I know much more than He does. He never teaches anything new. He’s not really that inspiring.” Jesus may have been justified to have these thoughts, but He never did – He continued to make it His custom to worship.

Perhaps we are not so keen on worship because of the type of people who gather there – people who turn us off. Perhaps we know of people who wear a “butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth” expression to church but who are hard employees or employers during the week. Maybe we feel people only take interest in us on Sunday because we happen to see them – but we never hear from them during the week. There have been times when we have stood on the edge of a circle but not gone further because we don’t fit into the clique.

At this point it is tempting to think, “Well, if that the sort of people we meet at church we might as well stay home”. However, at this point, we are given positive encouragement by the example of Jesus. Jesus could have concluded that He was better off staying home, but Jesus never did because the primary purpose of worship is not to meet one another (although this is a great benefit of corporate worship). Instead the primary purpose of worship is to come and meet God. Who is the God we come to worship? He never leaves us sitting on the edge of the crowd with His back to us. He is delighted that we have come to worship and He is disappointed when we are missing. God is the One who is saying to us during worship and through worship, “You don’t have to do anything except stand in My presence – let Me refresh you as you stop”

Are you convinced now that coming to worship twice should be a priority? Perhaps you’re still hesitating because you’re not happy with the style of service at your church. You have heard about the powerful singing at the Church of Christ and you find that missing in your own church. On a couple of occasions you have been to one of the weekly youth services at the local Presbyterian church and you wish your home church be more like that. You sometimes visit the church in town because they only sing the traditional hymns rather than the modern tunes, which are used at your church. Much could be said about this – a discussion on styles of worship is usually an emotive, passionate and personal subject. I just want to say that, if you look long and hard enough, someone will always be doing something different. If we focus on what is not happening at church, or how we would like it to be, we will always be disappointed. That principle applies when change isn’t quick enough – the principle also applies when the traditions of yesteryear are gone.

Let’s put our attention back on Jesus. He too must have had times when coming to the synagogue was a real disappointment. In the synagogue God was to be worshipped and the Word of God was to be explained. Of all people Jesus had experienced the fullness of worship. Jesus had seen the times when the 24 elders would gather around the throne of His Father and bow down to give the purest worship possible. Jesus had witnessed angels, hundreds, thousands, millions all harmoniously giving praise to God. How insignificant the worship of the synagogue must have seemed. People distracted. People not singing. People worshipping with their mouths but not their hearts. And how the leading of the service and reverence for the Word must have seemed to be a poor imitation of seeing the Father face to face. Knowing all His attributes. Knowing intimately His plan of salvation. Knowing the place of every person in that plan.

But despite the potential disappointment Jesus went to the synagogue as was His custom. He wasn’t there because the worship was overly inspiring and because the leader of the synagogue was a charismatic man. He worshipped because God promises to be with Jesus when Jesus sets aside this day to just stop and stand in God’s presence.

This promise of God is not just for Jesus, it is for all of us. God, who created us, knows how important it is for us to stop and stand in His presence. God provides for His people that they may be refreshed. Even when the Israelites were crossing the desert God made sure His people were given extra food on Friday so that they could be properly prepared for the Sabbath (cf. Ex.16:21-30). The Israelites knew the importance of stopping and standing in God’s presence. Jesus, who is divine, continues to model the need to stop from a busy schedule, and stand in awe of God. Can we, who have been privileged to know the fullness of salvation, justify doing anything less?

‘On the Sabbath Day Jesus went into the synagogue, as was His custom’. There are only two others things Jesus did out of custom: It was His custom to teach the crowds. Telling them about the kingdom of God and the blessing of renewal which God wants to give to His people (cf. Mk.10:1). And it was His custom to find solitary places to pray. Telling His Father all that was on His heart and asking His Father to walk with Him in His ministry (cf. Lk.22:39).

Teaching. Praying. Going to the synagogue. Only these three things were a custom for Jesus. They were given priority. He relished these times.

As we see Jesus sitting in the synagogue we are struck with an amazing truth. Of all people, Jesus has the most valid reasons not to take the opportunity to worship. He has the divine power to keep going. He has seen worship in its fullness. He is the greatest teacher there ever was. He is busy beyond our understanding. Jesus has every reason to be somewhere else, but He goes to the synagogue because He wants to be there. Worship was His custom. He would organise His week to be there, He even took time out from saving people from eternal wrath to be in corporate worship.

Why did Jesus have this attitude? It’s because it was an opportunity – a God-given opportunity – to stop. A time, not to do things, but to just stand in the presence of God and be refreshed. A time to have that rest which God built into creation right from the beginning. A time to listen to God rather than being too busy to shut God off. No excuses are offered. Jesus sees this as a non-negotiable response of faith. If that was the case for Jesus how much more should it be the case for us?

Allan Quak

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What Marriage Does Not Give

John Haartsen. Trowel & Sword, Jan/Feb 1985

Preamble: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15). This verse came to mind as I read through this article from John Haartsen on marriage breakdowns, particularly between Christian men and women. As in all of life’s experiences there is an enormous gap between knowing and doing. As John points out the simple statement that “Christ is the answer”, while true, is not the antidote for failed marriages, as a statistical analysis of broken marriages in Christian homes shows. It does however give a starting point of where to look for answers.

What Marriage Does Not Give

“Don’t expect from marriage that which you can only get from God.”

I heard this statement when John Smith was speaking at the Mt. Evelyn Reformed Church outreach mission. It reminded me of another statement from a leading secular marriage counsellor: “One of the main reasons for marriage breakdown is that people look for, and expect their marriage to fulfil their needs. When their needs are thus not met the marriage fails.” Now for the christian the answer for help and healing with the struggles, strains and breakdowns of the marriage relationship is, at first glance, obvious: Christ is the answer. I don’t think there is ever a truer word spoken. Yes, Christ is the answer to all our problems, also our relationship problems.

Yet, something is not quite clear. Why are there so many marriage hassles and breakdowns among christians? There are the obvious cases where the marriage is shattered, with the hurt and damage to all involved. Then there are the couples who are struggling and hurting, only known to close friends and maybe some relatives.

How surprised we would be if we could lift the cover and peep behind the facade of respectable christian marriages. Would we not discover a whole range of hurts, disappointments, conflicts and even indifference? Husbands and wives, who are to be as one, yet living miles apart emotionally and spiritually. Is the problem one of just plain disobedience, lack of faith or lack of understanding?

Probably we would find elements of all three and it would vary from case to case. Yet, I believe that lack of understanding is a major contributor. Lack of understanding God’s word, ourselves, our partner, and marriage itself. One wonders also if we as christians have failed to understand the extreme and destructive pressures which western society is bringing to bear on the marriage relationship.

The world around us shouts: “Find fulfilment for your needs, focus on yourself!” That’s nothing new; mankind has always focused on its own needs and unfortunately christians too, have been smitten with that same curse. So what’s different now? Well, I believe that the focus is now on a different area of our needs. It has progressed from attention on the physical needs, to our emotional needs.

Maybe we can have a quick look at what man’s basic needs are. Abraham Maslow’s classical needs hierarchy suggests that we have five basic needs and that the lowest one must be met before a person seeks to meet the next one. They are:

1.  Physical, e.g. food, water, shelter.

2.  Physical security, reasonable confidence that our physical needs will be supplied for in the foreseeable future.

3.  Love and security, to be wanted and appreciated.

4.  Purpose, to feel significant and worthwhile.

5.  Self-actualisation, to develop into a full, creative, self-expressing, giving person.

The christian knows from God’s word that Christ meets all these needs but the question is: do we really believe that? Let us spend a few moments looking at some well known Scripture verses to confirm the basis for our faith that Christ does indeed supply all our needs.

God has met our physical needs:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (food, clothing, shelter, etc.) will be given to you as well.” (Matt. 6:33).

God cares for tomorrow’s physical needs:

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow.” (Matt. 6:34); “Do not be anxious about anything; but in everything… present your requests to God… my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:6, 19).

God has met our need for love and security:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? … I am convinced that … nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:35, 39). “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners (at our worst; as only He can see us), Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8).

God has met our need for significance and purpose:

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21); “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph. 2:10)

Now it depends on the degree of our faith in these promises that frees us from a self-centred concern with our own needs, enabling us to move on to the higher need of self-actualising, the giving of ourselves without demanding returns, i.e. to focus on the needs of others. This need is so beautifully expressed in the mother-child relationship. In this need also we are not left to our own. Christ says clearly that our highest goal is to serve Him; we do that, by the giving of ourselves. This is my commandment, that you love one another. In Christ’s power we can do so; He gives us that power as a possession. All that remains for us is to reach out and possess that possession. But how does all this relate to the marriage and the breakdown of this relationship?

Let us have a look at the ladder of needs and see where we are at. The first one (food and shelter, etc. for today) is in our situation no problem, and we can also go to sleep knowing that our physical future looks reasonably secure. All these provisions are from God, but often taken for granted. Now we come to our problem areas, that of being appreciated, being secure emotionally and feeling significant. It is in these areas that many turn to their marriage to find fulfilment, instead of turning to Christ. It must be said, of course, that God did decree marriage for the partners to sustain and enrich each other and that includes supplying for each other’s emotional needs. The problem arises when marriage becomes a unit on its own, or even worse, two units on their own. Allow me to explain what mean.

The world teaches (sometimes subtly, sometimes boldly) that a marriage is two units, a man and a woman who form a union so as to derive personal benefits from their mutual involvement, or to say it simply, seeking to have one’s own needs met. Also, in many christian marriages this attitude is often present especially in the areas of security, appreciation and significance. Now everyone, including christians, must feel and be secure, must feel and be appreciated and must feel and be significant, if they are to be able to give of themselves. Here again, the degree of being able to give depends on the degree of these needs being met. But don’t look to receive from your marriage that which only God can give you.

An every day example.

The wife needs to feel secure and significant (though she is often unaware of that need). She looks for it in praise and affection from her husband. He should make her feel special. He has to understand her and appreciate her just as she is. She has her own fixed ideas as to how he should treat her and how he should be: like herself, affectionate, subjective, emotional, expressive, etc. But this particular husband can’t meet these demands. He is not affectionate, unemotional, objective, rational, and so down-right practical (you can turn these roles around, if you like). The husband too has his need for security and significance, and he tries to find it in the responses of his wife. She doesn’t understand the things he finds so difficult to share with her, she takes no interest in him as a person, she over-rules his decisions, etc. And so frustration sets in with resentment and confrontation.

Both or one of them feel more insignificant and insecure, their self-esteem deteriorates, they start attacking and destroying each other, themselves and their marriage, leading to bitterness and sometimes escape. Surely the couple in our example had every intention of having a sound christian marriage. Their intentions were good but their approach failed. For people, all have shortcomings and nobody steps into marriage as a blank page. We all have a past with an inherited and formed character affected by events remembered and forgotten.

No woman can ever completely fulfil a man, only Christ can. No man can ever completely fulfil a woman, only Christ can.

Our need for security demands that we are unconditionally loved, accepted and cared for, now and forever. No human can give such a security, but the christian knows that Christ can and does. He knows that Christ has seen him at his worst and still loves him to the point of giving His life so that he is perfect and secure with Him. That kind of love we can never lose. We are completely acceptable to Him, regardless of our behaviour. We are not under pressure to earn or keep His love. Our acceptability to God depends only on Christ’s acceptability to God. As christians we know that Christ loves us, really loves us just as we are; no conditions! He loves us so personally that He knows us by name and nothing can separate us from His love, nothing at all.

As these facts become a reality in our thinking we discover that Christ gives us that security and significance we crave for. He also gives us the ability to increase and improve in the purpose He has for us, to love, affirm and to give, starting with our partner. Instead of using our marriage to find that which only God can give us, we can start using our marriage to fulfil its true purpose, and that is to enrich, encourage, comfort, praise, guide, strengthen and delight the spouse God has given us. Wonderful things happen in a marriage when the focus is drawn away from ourselves and directed towards pleasing our spouse; when the negative destructive approach is replaced with a positive one.

It’s only when we give that we truly receive.

Yes, this is also true if only one of the couple implements this surrendering and giving. There is also the marriage which is a unit on its own, two people concentrating on each other’s needs, striving to become as one. This is a truly biblical concept and surely this is the way God intended it to be, as we can clearly see in Gen. 2, etc. It’s a rewarding marriage, yet nevertheless incomplete, because of the fall of man into sin. Before the fall into sin it was natural for man to serve God. But now we need a reference point outside of ourselves, namely Christ. We must direct our focus on serving Him, especially in and with our marriage.

So the christian marriage is like a triangle, two people directed towards a common goal and purpose, that of serving Christ and thus growing towards each other. Marriage is not primarily instituted by God to make two people happy but its prime purpose is to serve Christ within the concepts of our marriage. Only a marriage relationship which strives for that purpose, will have contented and secure people. So then, let us not expect from marriage that which only God can give us.

John Haartsen

We look forward to receiving feedback about any of our posts. We also encourage you to share our posts with family, friends and acquaintances; in fact anyone you think may appreciate and/or benefit from the knowledge and wisdom handed down to us from the past.   To view previous posts visit our website at www.tsrevisited.com

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Why Do The Churches In The West Decline?

Trowel & Sword. Dr. K. Runia. April 1971

Preamble: The decline of the Christian Church in the West has been the subject of many articles in Trowel and Sword as well as other Christian magazines and books over the years, both before and after this particular article by Dr. Runia. Despite his optimism that this decline, particularly in Reformed churches could be arrested by the preaching of “the Full Gospel”, today, 50+ years later, this decline has largely continued, to some extent at least driven on by the secularisation of the West resulting in blatantly anti-Christian policies, the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic, as well as the Islamisation of many countries due to an “open border” policy by their governments; factors which could not have been foreseen by Dr. Runia.

Why Do The Churches In The West Decline?

While in the non-Western world the churches are growing, in some cases even at a rapid rate, most churches in the West show a falling membership. Let us first have a quick look at the growth of some churches in the non-Western world. I quote the following figures from an article in The Spectator, the official magazine of the Methodist Church in Victoria. “The Timor Evangelical Christian Church, autonomous since 1947, has grown from that date from a membership of 223,000 to more than 650,000. The Western Indonesia Protestant Church between 1953 and 1967 grew from 150,000 to 350,000 and the Minahasa Evangelical Christian Church from 335,000 to 500,000. Total membership of churches within the Indonesian Council of Churches has grown over this period from 2,550,000 to 4,600,000. Membership of various Methodist Churches in Africa has also expanded. From 1964 to 1969 the Church in Kenya grew from nearly 12,000 to over 17,000, in Ghana from 66,347 to 82,419 and in the Ivory Coast from 14,004 to 17,038.” One scholar predicts for Africa a church membership growth from the 97 million of 1970, to 146 million by 1980, 220 million by 1990, and 351 million by 2000.

In the Western world, however, the picture is quite different. The writer in The Spectator gives a rather gloomy picture of his own church. There are 16,000 fewer Sunday School students between 1966 and 1969. There is an obvious decline in church attendance. The church membership figures are 2000 down. Some people in his church say “that by the year 2000 ‘there will be only a husk or a shell’, ‘the church will have ceased to be’. His own final conclusion is: “For sure, the Australian picture doesn’t read too well”.

Situation in Britain.

This bleak prognosis is confirmed by reports from other Western countries. Last year the English author Kenneth Slack published the second edition of his book “The British Churches Today” (first published in 1961). In the preface to the new edition he tells us that he had to revise his book thoroughly. “‘Passage after passage of the book written in 1960 has seemed strangely optimistic and had to be excised. To write in 1969 is to be led to wonder whether at the end of another decade the whole institution of the Church will not have changed its shape so drastically as to demand not a further revision but a totally different book trying to account for what has happened. It is still possible to write of the British Churches today in the light of history: shortly the operation may assume more the character of archaeology burrowing beneath a collapsed edifice”.

On the next page he writes: “The habit of worship has declined sharply. The curious phenomenon whereby England and Wales had many areas where evening was regarded as the normal time for worship can no longer be observed. Since this was the time when many on the fringe of Christian commitment would venture into a service, this decline is significant as a reduction in opportunities of mission”.

The figures in the British Free Churches can fairly easily be assessed. Mr. Slack gives the following long term figures. The Baptists in England fell from 434,741 in 1906 to 285,000 in 1967. The Methodists at the union of Methodist bodies in 1932 numbered 838,019. In 1968 there were 651,139. Congregationalists in 1909 were 456,631 and in 1969 they were 180,000. Taking into account that since 1909 the population of England increased by 50%, the figures are very serious indeed. It is harder to assess the situation in the Church of England since this is a typical ‘national church’. But the author believes that the situation is rather desperate, as some of the following figures prove. In the ten years to 1966 the ratio of baptisms to population dropped by 15.1%. In the metropolitan area this figure was more than doubled. More significantly, the national ratio of confirmations (=professions of faith) has fallen by 32.2% in six years. Ordinations show a drop of 24.8% in the five years to 1968. In the same period the figure of those recommended for training for ordination has fallen by the staggering drop of 58.9%.

But why has the process of decline been accelerating at such a speed in the last ten years? Mr. Slack points to “the shaking of the theological foundations”, of which Honest to God was the public sign. In this book Bishop Robinson declared “that the old clothes with which the faith had been clad for centuries had dropped off in shreds and tatters. What everyone had been suspecting, but scarcely daring to confess, now became something to come clean about”. But not only the theological and ecclesiastical foundations were shaken, but the moral foundations as well. “The old proclaimed certainties began to crumble”. The 1966 report on ‘Sex and Morality’, prepared by a working party of the British Council of Churches showed that the ‘new morality’ “had invaded the minds of responsible groups appointed by official church bodies”.

What is the general reaction to this process? According to Mr. Slack there are mainly three attitudes among ministers and theologians. Some (especially conservative evangelicals, but also others) openly speak of apostasy. Others like Dr. M. Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, are increasingly accepting the new ferment. Others again greet all the ferment with joy. Among the great body church members there are mainly two reactions. Some greet the new developments with “a sense of of relief and liberation”. For many others there is “a sense of bewilderment”.

Importance for us.

So far we have simply followed the description of the situation by Mr. Slack. I believe that this description is important for us too, for in many ways the churches here in Australia and New Zealand go through the same process. It may not be as obvious as in Britain, but the same things are going on here. As we have already seen from the article in The Spectator the Methodist Church is suffering from these problems, and the same is true of all the other major churches.

Why?

The most important point, however, is not the mere description of the decline, but the question: Why is this happening? Undoubtedly this is a very complex problem and we should not oversimplify it. There are many factors, especially of a sociological nature. I am thinking of the increasing industrialisation and urbanisation, the greater mobility of the people, etc. There are also psychological and cultural factors. There is the fact of the increasing secularisation, with as one of its results that people have become much more honest about their church affiliation. They are no longer afraid to admit that they do not belong to any church at all.

Yet, from the point of view of the church itself, the main factor, I believe, is the fact that in many cases the church has lost its message. Mr. Slack mentions the book Honest to God. This book was and still is symptomatic of the kind of preaching that is being heard in many churches. Or take the theology of Dr. Hick which we discussed in the previous article. If this is the kind of message with which the church feeds its own members and confronts the world, is it any wonder that the interest of the people is sharply declining? Why should one go to church any longer? And of course, theology never stands on its own. Morality is based on it and it therefore follows suit. We see that in Honest to God, where Dr. Robinson advocated his brand of ‘situation ethics’, that is, an ethics of love without law. How much a changed theology influences ethics also appears from Dr. Hick’s article. At the end of the first article he writes: “Efficient contraception separates in principle sexual intercourse from the begetting of children and thus is said to remove a major reason for regarding pre- and extra- marital intercourse as morally bad”. 

Our own churches.

If our own churches will have a future, then there is only one possibility: We must preach the full Gospel! Less will not do. We have a message for the world of today only when we believe and preach the same Gospel that was proclaimed by the apostles. Naturally, we must bring it in a language that is not archaic but understandable to 20th century man. But it must be the same Gospel. And if this Gospel is alive in our own hearts and lives, I am sure that our churches will not decline but grow. It is interesting to see that evangelical congregations in England are generally holding their ground and even growing, in spite of the general decline, and it is the same all over the world. This is also the secret of the growth of the church in the non-Western countries. On the mission field the old and yet ever new Gospel is preached and the Lord blesses it. A church with this Gospel also has a word for the world. The world of today does not need new theories or philosophies, a la Hick or a la Robinson, but it needs the saving and redeeming power of the gospel of Christ. This is the only power that can transform persons and nations. Yes, it can transform even the structures which form the inner fabric of our society. This has happened in the past, when, for example, the institution of slavery was gradually broken down. It can still do the same. And the church can make a real contribution to the life of the nation and of the world at large, when it preaches this full Gospel of Jesus Christ as the Saviour AND Lord of the world.

K. RUNIA

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Evangelism In Reverse – Turning Men From Christ

Prof. T.L. Wilkinson. Trowel & Sword. April 1965

Preamble: How better to follow an article by Mrs. Olive Wilkinson, than with an article by her husband, Prof. Tom Wilkinson; a man of extremely dry humour and matching wit. In his inimitable way, “Prof Wilkie” tackles the issue of evangelism in a way that only he could dream up. While coming at the issue from the opposite direction of most, there is nevertheless more than an element of truth in his words. The attitudes expressed in his article are more common than we care to admit. There is more than an element of clique-ness in our churches, like the bible study leader who restricts membership to his study group, because he doesn’t want just anyone attending. Prof Wilkinson cites a number of examples.

Evangelism In Reverse – Turning Men From Christ

The following brethren are doing their best to make sure that we don’t spoil the Church by bringing others into it. After all, didn’t Jesus say “Go and drive men out into the highways and by-ways and hedges, and compel them to stay out”? (Very Much Revised Version).

Their view of Church membership is aptly summed up by the poet (?):

'We are God's chosen few, - All others will be damned,
There is no place for you, - We can't have Heaven crammed."

Our beloved (by himself) brother Bull-dozer is a fair sample. Bull-dozers are, of course, highly unsociable things. They don’t see the sense in stopping at the “Give Way” signs, but just charge on regardless. Anything lying in their path simply has no rights, but must get out of the way or be pushed over by sheer force. Big Brother Bull-dozer doesn’t believe in those old ideas of a gracious and kindly approach. Words like “Tact” “Gentleness” and “Courtesy” belong, in his opinion, to the pre-Bull-dozer era. Just watch this Big Brother in action. When he read his Bible he was in a hurry and didn’t see that word “not” in the chapter, but thought it said “Love is.. .Rude” Now he goes right ahead to put that into practice. He doesn’t worry about your feelings. If you have a sore toe, be sure he will jump on it. When he talks with you his words hit you like a boxer hitting a punching-ball. After all he isn’t trying to help you, but only to hit and hurt.

Another member of this brotherhood, is Mr. I-Know-It-All. He was born with a very large mouth and dexterous tongue, but unfortunately he was born without ears. (Some unkind people say “without brains also”). Being without ears is a real blessing to brother I-Know-It-All. It simply means that he never has to listen to anything that the other chap says, and that he never has to acknowledge that the other person could be right. So that simplifies things remarkably. It means that he himself is always right, and just can’t be wrong.

The Earless One isn’t hindered by any of those weak Christian ideas of trying to encourage other people to express themselves, or of trying to build them up with helpful words. No, his main aim is show you how good he can argue, and how much he knows . So he has made a close study of Wheelan the Wrecker at work on those old buildings; and now he applies those principles of demolition to people who differ from him. Like Nietzsche, the Earless One thinks that humility is a sign of weakness, and that the Super Man (Mr. I-Know-It-All) is the one who can make his Ego blaze like a Neon sign for all to see and admire. His favourite book? Dale Carnegie on “How to lose friends and make enemies”, His favourite text? Well that’s a bit more difficult. Perhaps this one: “He that humbles himself shall be humbled and he that exalts himself shall be exalted”, Maybe it is that text with all those “I” “Me” and”My’s” in it – look it up for yourself. You know this chap? Perhaps you have a photo of Him? No? Try looking hard in the mirror – any family likeness? 

T. L. WILKINSON

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The Roaring Forties – Or Are They?

Mrs. Olive M. Wilkinson. Trowel & Sword. Nov. 1972

Preamble: Mrs. Olive Wilkinson, wife of Rev. Tom Wilkinson, Professor at RTC, was a Gem. She was a woman of grace, poise and intelligence who often gave lectures on counselling and marriage guidance to students at the college. I still find it hard to comprehend that this was frowned upon by certain sections of the student body on the grounds that she was – “a woman”. That said, in this article she demonstrates a profound understanding of many of the stages we go through in life’s journey; particularly for those of us more advanced in years. Her message is clear. Never stop. Keep looking forward to the next challenge in life.

The Roaring Forties – Or Are They?

So you have come to the time of life when they look doubtful about your age when you apply for a new job and when your adolescents think you have no pearls of wisdom to utter. What a short jump it is, from being one of the progressive younger ones to being one of the senior citizens.

How do you feel about the increasing number of grey hairs, the extra pounds appearing in the wrong places, the tiredness that overtakes at the end of the day, the ravages of time which despite all our arts of concealment will show themselves, the twinges of envy aroused by the sight of the younger generation enjoying so many more opportunities? Depressing thoughts are they not? But that is only one side of the picture. It is still true that for the many who have eyes to see, life begins at forty! It was true for the man who lay at the side of the Pool of Bethesda and for the man who was healed by Peter and John at the Gate called Beautiful and for many of the prophets of the Old Testament. Despite our modern technological age with its emphasis on youth and new knowledge, it is true for us today, although we might well have to search for that beginning a little more strenuously than our forebears did.

Not long ago it was my privilege to talk with a woman of eighty-two, a quite famous American social worker who avowed that the most creative and productive time of her life began after menopause. Moreover, she was a lady who had never married and might easily have become tempted to indulge herself in self-pity. At the time I met her, she was chairman of an Inter-Faith committee which was rehabilitating negroes from the ghetto area of Boston in what had previously been an all white area on the outskirts of that city, an exciting and demanding enterprise for one much younger, let alone a lady of that age.

To arrive at middle age can mean many things. It can be a threat because of loss of youth, but to balance and outweigh this, it can be a time of rich fulfilment, a time when we can draw upon a wealth of experience, a time when the characteristic of always looking forward and planning for the future can be replaced by the full creative use of the present moment. This is the time when we become increasingly aware that right now is important and what we are at this point in time is what we have to use. We cannot be like the man who is always dreaming of his plans for the future, as the travel advertisement on TV depicts.

What do you see as the important and urgent tasks awaiting the middle-aged group of people? It would be good to hear from readers who have thought about this. I am sure this is a time for reviewing and consolidating, for throwing out the unimportant and for concentrating on the things at the centre of life.

Here are some of the personal tasks which I see await those of us in the forties plus. A primary task is to pass on the faith.

It is a sad thing to come across someone who, in middle life, is coasting along on the worn-out faith of his or her youth. As middle-aged folk we are the link between the generations and what we are now does affect the next generation. It is the apathy and smugness, sometimes the disillusionment of the middle-aged that the younger generation mistrusts and rebels against. Young folk know whether our faith has become a habit rather than a vital, living thing underlying all our attitudes.

Our God knows how much we fail but here in this time for reviewing the past in the challenge of the present we have the chance for a new start. The sadness and rebuffs of life have taught us some lessons and hopefully, we have, like the fruitful tree, been pruned of the useless wood of second rate values. Now is the time to set aside a time alone with God to study His Word, to pray and meditate, to read devotional literature and Christian biography. It is amazing how discipline in this matter can help focus our thinking and increase our availability to the prompting of God’s spirit. We do not have to rush into activity but seek the place of His appointment for us, quietly and patiently. One thing it will do for us is improve our ability to communicate the faith to those around us, perhaps not always verbally, but certainly in attitudes. It will help us to listen, to understand, to reach out in honesty and to share our thinking and experience with others, especially the younger generation. Our young people want to experience our integrity in the sharing of ourselves with them. Some years ago, I attended a discussion group after church when the older and younger members of the church were evenly divided into smaller groups and there shared their feelings about the problems of the so-called Generation Gap. Parents found it easier to listen to other parent’s children and children found it easier to listen to other people’s parents! It was a most successful venture. Perhaps we need more opportunities to know our young people so that we can talk to them as friends whom we value, and so that we can talk with them of the things of the Kingdom. But first, we need a genuine faith to share.

A second task is to discover creativity in new spheres 

In the normal course of life in Australia, up to the present time anyway, most women fulfil a nurturing feminine role of caring for husband and family until well into the forties. Inevitably, with the emptying of the nest, the mother has to find other things to interest her. We hear a lot about the “empty-nest” syndrome; the feelings of restlessness, depression and meaninglessness which accompany it. It may well be complicated by menopause, and a feeling of being on the downward path. What a sad picture! But it need not be so. Up until now, a woman’s creativity has largely been concerned with the home. Now she can seek new spheres in which to postpone, or to take up the training that she has been wanting to do. Married women can now apply for training for certain jobs with the Commonwealth Job-Training scheme. A Dutch-born lady I know, at 53, is doing a typing and secretarial course, and incidentally is learning a lot about spelling and sentence construction! Many women find that going to work provides new spheres of interest. It’s not the money that is so important, it’s the new surroundings and opportunities for self-expression that are paramount. Again, many women take up volunteer service with spastic and retarded children’s organisations or with church organisations. There are many service opportunities in the community. Unfortunately, the younger middle-aged women are often missing from these service groups. Of course, there should be a chance to have fun at tennis and whatever else appeals, but eventually it is the work or service activity that really provides the chance for creative, satisfying expression.

I hear you say that husbands sometimes do not like you going to work! That is a pity, for husbands need interesting wives, not languishing, frustrated ones. Have you read Dr. Hilliard’s “A Woman Doctor looks at Love and Life”? It’s a most refreshing and challenging book from the pen of a 60 year old, and gives a message of hope to the middle-aged woman.

Perhaps the middle-aged man feels a little threatened by his wife’s new interest in the outside world, just as he is approaching the crest or perhaps beginning to go over the top! For him strenuous activity is beginning to wane. On the other hand, the less aggressive side of his nature, hitherto not fully developed in the active world of events, may well get a chance to be shown. Here is the opportunity for him to become more interested in the area of ideas, of service and of long cherished hopes of pursuing hobbies. If retirement is to be successful and not a sudden anti-climax, this is the time for the men-folk to lay the foundation for the developing of the more passive side of their natures. Some men as well as their wives take up counselling training courses such as the Marriage Guidance Councils, Life Line or Citizens Advice Bureau offer.

It is a great temptation for the middle-aged to retire or withdraw from the active life of the church. One doesn’t have to lead the Youth Club anymore but the church suffers seriously from the middle age gap. What about that Bible study group where one gets a chance to be enriched? What about that prayer group cell…  or must one not mention such things; “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of!”

A third task is to renew one’s marriage, if one has not been doing it continuously!

Many modern behavioural writers are suggesting that with the increase in our life expectation we cannot expect to remain content for a period of 30 40 50 years, in one marriage! Middle-life, they say, is the time to start a new marriage! To the Christian, this proposition is not only laughable but impossible. Nonetheless, it contains a warning, and underlines the need for constant renewal of our marriage relationship. There are many different stages in our married life and the circumstances of each period bring variety into the relationship. Middle-life brings the status of grand-parenthood and this can be a time of shared learning, for it takes thought and application to be a good grand-parent and a good “in-law”! Even with these special tasks as a common interest and bond, there is a need to find new companionship and closeness. Some questions we might well ask of ourselves include: How much do I really know about the well-being of my mate? Are there some matters we never talk about? Do I make it difficult for him/her to talk about these? Have I helped or hindered the spiritual life of my partner? How can I show I care and am interested in all that he or she does? How much is our home open to others? What can we do together to rediscover each other?

Be of good courage! Middle age is important, for here we lay the foundation for a happy and fruitful retirement. Here, we lay the foundation for the bond that lies between grandparents and their adolescent grandchildren. It is a time of reviewing, of sorting out the gold from the dross and of making a new start, assured that God will open a way for us to serve and honour Him, for ultimately, at any age, true fulfilment comes through willing obedience in the place of His appointment.

OLIVE M. WILKINSON

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‘Reconstruction’ Or ‘Destruction’ Of The Christian Faith

Trowel & Sword. Prof. K. Runia. April 1971

Preamble: You have most likely heard the expression: “We live in a fast changing world so we must learn to change with it.” In many areas of our lives this is undoubtedly true. But can the same be said of our beliefs; our theology? We worship an unchanging God who has revealed Himself to us through unchanging scriptures. So why is it that so many want to change or re-interpret what has been known about God through the ages? Ahh, but “modern man” is much more knowledgeable and wiser in these “modern times” than previous generations. NEWSFLASH! Every generation from Adam onward thought of themselves as living in “modern times”. In this article written 50+ years ago, Dr. Runia addresses the issue of the “reconstruction” of Christian doctrines based on the “modern” thinking of the time.

‘Reconstruction’ Or ‘Destruction’ Of The Christian Faith

There is so much confusion in the theological world of today that ordinary church people often are baffled and perplexed and ask themselves: What in the world is going on and where is it all leading to? Recently I read one of the most honest and outspoken statements on modern theology I have seen for a long time. It appeared in an English theological journal and was from the pen of Dr. Hick, professor of systematic theology in the University of Birmingham. He wrote two articles under the heading: ‘The Reconstruction of Christian Belief’.

Right at the beginning of the first article Dr. Hick mentions ten aspects of traditional theology which are, in the opinion of many theologians (including himself), either quite untenable or open to serious doubt. Dr. Hick speaks here of ‘traditional theology’. In reality most of these points are not a matter of ‘theology’, but of clear statements of the Bible itself! Here they follow:

1. There are divinely revealed truths (such as the doctrine of the Trinity, or of the two natures of Christ).

2. God created the physical universe out of nothing n years ago.

3. Man was originally brought into existence as a finitely perfect being, but rebelled against God, and the human condition has ever since been that of creatures who have fallen from grace.

4. Christ came to rescue man from his fallen plight, buying man’s (or some men’s) restoration to grace by his death on the cross.

5. Jesus was born of a virgin mother, without human paternity.

6. He performed miracles in which the regularities of the natural order were suspended by divine power.

7. His dead body rose from the grave and returned to earthly life.

8. All men must respond to God through Jesus Christ in order to be saved.

9. At death a person’s relationship to God is irrevocably fixed.

10. There are two human destinies, traditionally referred to under the symbols of heaven and hell.

This statement is very honest, even for a modern theologian. Most of them are still somewhat cautious, when it comes to a statement of what they no longer believe. Usually they say: We no longer believe it in the old traditional form, but we do believe it in a modern form. Dr. Hick is honest. He openly states: I can’t accept all these things any more.

In the first article he also tells us what he still believes with regard to Christ. “Jesus of Nazareth lived, taught and healed, died and then in some way encountered his followers after his death. In his presence people found themselves also in the presence of God and under the claim to love God and their neighbours”. Even today his person is remembered and “gives rise to a continuing faith-response”. That’s all. It is rather meagre, when one compares it, for instance, with the Apostles’ Creed, which itself is the shortest confession of the catholic (=universal) Christian faith. Dr. Hick’s own ‘creed’ would look somewhat like this:

I believe in God, but He is neither the Father in the trinitarian sense of the word, nor the Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus of Nazareth, but he (with a small letter!) is not the only begotten Son of God.
He performed no miracles (although he did heal a few people).
He suffered and was crucified, but his cross was not the atonement for the sin of the world.
He did not rise on the third day.
He is not the one name given under heaven by which we must be saved but he is one of the many religious leaders in whom we can see something of God.
I believe in the Spirit, but he is not God Himself, but only the power of God.
I believe in the forgiveness of sin and eternal life for all men.
If people do not find God in this life, they will have a second chance after life. At any rate, there is not something like hell.

It is obvious that hardly anything, if anything at all, is left of the Christian faith. 

What is behind it all?

Why does Dr. Hick reject all these aspects of the Christian faith? This is an important question, for it would reveal the deepest motives of the new theology. Of course, one can say: Well, it’s a matter of pure unbelief. I would agree with this. But even so the question remains: Why? Unbelief has its reasons too! In his articles Dr. Hick himself mentions the two main factors that in his opinion bring about the transformation of Christian thought.

(a) The first is contemporary scientific knowledge. Modern science has taught us that the universe and man himself are products of an evolutionary process, a process that can be explained without any recourse to God as the Maker. This does not mean that there is no God, but it does mean that our idea of God’s relationship to the world and to man must change. God did not create the world ‘out of nothing’, nor did He create man in this way, but He made us by way of the evolutionary process. Moreover, He made man as a completely free being who in the way of gradual development must become aware of God. It is along this way that morality and religion have developed.

(b) The second factor is the encounter with the other world religions. In our modern world we have left the religious isolationism of the past behind us and are in increasing contact with other religions. It is no longer possible to regard the Christian faith as the only true faith. All religions are aspects of the religious life of mankind, which is a dynamic continuum, in which from time to time certain major disturbances have set up new fields of force. Thus Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions have arisen. It is impossible to call any of them true or false. They are nothing else than expressions of the diversities of human types and temperaments and thought forms. The great task of today is not to promote just one of them, but to construct theologies based upon the fullness of man’s religious awareness. 

A swing-back to Liberalism.

It is clear that this whole new theology is a full-cycle return to the old, 19th century liberalism. Again the starting point is man’s own religious experience instead of God’s revelation.

This experience is on the one hand limited by the discoveries of modern science. When modern science tells us that the universe is autonomous, that is, ruled by its own laws, then we must reject the whole idea of miracles, including not only the miracles which Jesus Himself performed according to the Gospels, but also the miracles in his own life (the Incarnation itself, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection and the Ascension). This will always be the result when so-called ‘pure’ science becomes the yardstick of revelation. The Bible will be submitted to an endless process of reduction and the final result will be that nothing is left of the Christian faith, apart from a few generalities.

On the other hand, the human religious experience has to include ALL world religions. They are all, each in its own way, expressions of man’s religious experience. The differences can be explained largely on psychological grounds. People in the East happen to be different from those in the West. And even within each group there are differences. Some represent the more optimistic, once-born type; others represent the more pessimistic twice-born type. In other words, psychology determines the truth of religion and the result is an endless process of relativism. All religions are equally valid.

The two articles of Dr. Hick are quite revealing in their frankness. They are also flashing red lights. They show us what will happen, once we accept other standards next to the Bible. As soon as we do this, these other standards begin to dominate and after a while they ‘devour’ the Christian Gospel.

Dr. Hick gave his articles the title: ‘The Reconstruction of Christian Belief’. It would certainly have been more to the point if he had called them: ‘The Destruction of the Christian Faith’. For this is what really happens. In this kind of theology Jesus Christ, the Saviour, disappears in the thick, impenetrable fog of human scientism and relativism, and man is left to himself and to his own ideas.

K. RUNIA

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Sowing

John Westendorp. Trowel & Sword, June 2000

Preamble: “Make disciples….” What does this mean? What is our responsibility and how should we go about it? It sounds simple – just like the Nike add used to say: “Just do it”. But what does that really mean? In this article John sets out some of the “do’s” and “dont’s of sharing the gospel message. 

Sowing

Scripture often compares the Word of God to seed that is sown.  This month’s Forum 2000 study is on ‘sowing’ and Rev. Ben Aldridge has provided us with two good studies on this theme.  You’ll find in this month’s lift-out a study of what Paul has to say about sowing, watering and growth in 1 Corinthians 3 and another study on Jesus’ Parable of the Sower. This concept of ‘sowing’ brings home a fascinating truth of Scripture that I want to tease out a little further in these paragraphs.  This: the idea of the Word of God as seed, opens up that profound area of the divine and human interrelationship.

God’s Role

Paul makes abundantly clear that it is God who gives the growth.  That’s an obvious lesson but one which we haven’t always taken to heart.

I still recall when I planted my first veggie patch in our backyard.  I was real keen to see some results and in my youthful enthusiasm lacked patience.  I had planted butter beans and after some days I noticed the ground cracking where I had planted the beans.  The next morning the little loops of the bean shoots were just appearing above the soil so I thought I’d give the Lord a hand and free the beans so that they would grow more quickly.  By the end of the exercise several shoots had broken off and several more were damaged.  That was a good lesson.  There are some things I must leave for the Lord to do.

At a spiritual level we make the same mistake when we think that we need to convert people.  Parents can fall into that trap by badgering their unconverted children with ‘sermons’, exhortations and pressure for them to conform to a Christian way of life.  When there is no change we try harder and apply more pressure.  In the process damage is often done and our sons and daughters rebel against the faith of their parents.  There are some things we must leave for the Lord to do.

Churches can make a similar mistake when they develop sure-fire plans for making converts, or when the latest evangelistic program is touted as the be all and end all of evangelistic endeavour.  When we rigidly apply a certain outreach plan or some new ‘you-beaut’ evangelistic program, as if that in itself will bring about results, then we set ourselves up for failure.  There are some things we must leave for the Lord to do.

As Reformed people we know that only God can change lives.  Faith is a gift.  Conversion is the work of God’s Spirit.  Only He can give life to those who are spiritually dead.  The lesson is that the seed grows of itself.  Here is the miracle of the seed that somehow has new life within the kernel.  However, there is nothing I can do to bring about that life except to entrust that grain of seed to the earth.  I place it prayerfully in a carefully prepared seedbed and wait for God to do His life-giving miracle with the seed.  The remarkable thing is that in due course I am then also privileged to reap a harvest – God indeed gives the growth.

Our Responsibility

Paul also makes abundantly clear that while God gives the growth that does not free us from exercising our responsibility towards the seed.  He speaks of the human element in both the planting and the watering – there is a sowing but also a nurturing of the sown seed.

The beans I bought would never have sprouted in a thousand years if I had merely left them in the cupboard.  I had to place them in the soil.  But I had to do more than that.  I could have planted those beans under half a meter of dirt… or for that matter under a centimetre of hard clay.  Either way the outcome would have been: no harvest.  I needed both to prepare and maintain a garden bed.  It is God who gives the growth, but if I want a harvest then there are some crucial things that I have to do.

Again, some of us have often not learnt that lesson very well either.  Some of the sons and daughters of believers grow up in families where little personal attention is given to faith nurture.  Children are sent to Sunday School in the expectation that a weekly dose of Bible stories is enough for them to embrace the faith of their fathers and mothers.  Teenagers are dragged along to church in the belief that they will grow up Christianly by a process of osmosis.  In all this it is easy for parents to forget that there are some crucial things that they have to do.

As churches we can make the same mistake when we believe that our programs and activities will be a sufficient witness for the cause of Christ.  So we run a soup kitchen, and we join the ‘Jesus March’, we organise a carol evening and we run a men’s breakfast.  We do all that in the hope that people will notice that we are different, that our actions will indeed speak louder than our words.  In all that busyness it is easy to overlook that there are some crucial things we have to do.

As Reformed people we understand that God has called us into partnership with Him.  We call that partnership a covenant.  In that partnership of grace He not only comes to us as our God but He also calls us to be His people to serve Him in this world.  As part of our mandate He has entrusted to us the work of outreach and evangelism, the task of missions and of sowing the seed.  In Romans 10 Paul stresses that faith comes by the hearing the Word.  But that is said in context of the million-dollar question: but how shall they hear without a preacher?  We need to busy ourselves with the sowing of the seed.  We need to do that carefully and thoughtfully so as to maximise the harvest.

Pentecost and Sowing

How then are we to conceive of these two sides coming together?  God gives the growth but we are called to plant and water.  Should we envisage that as a 50/50 partnership?  Half the responsibility is ours – the sowing and the preparation of the ground?  The other half is God’s responsibility – the giving of the growth.  I think that would be an oversimplification.  It’s more like a 100/100 partnership.

On the one hand it is all of God.  The seed of the Word is His.  He not only gives the growth but He also provides fertile soil – hearts that are receptive to the gospel.  He not only gives us opportunities to sow the seed but the very wisdom that is needed for wise sowing is a gift of His grace.

It seems appropriate that we deal with this theme of ‘sowing’ in the month in which we celebrate Pentecost – the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon the Church.  Significantly, we read of no evangelistic endeavours between Jesus’ resurrection and the feast of Pentecost.  The implementing of the Mission Mandate (Acts 1:8) had to wait for the empowering work of God’s Spirit.  Sowing is only possible with God’s enabling.  In stark contrast we suddenly have about 3000 converts on the day of Pentecost.

The recognition that the fruit of the gospel comes only at God’s initiative, at His time and through the working of His Spirit, ought to make us very prayerful about the sowing of the seed.  It will lead us to pray that the seed of the Word will sprout in the hearts of our children.  It will make us prayerful as churches for opportunities to sow the seed in the communities in which God has placed us.

The fact that the harvest of the gospel of Christ comes totally as a work of God is also a tremendously liberating reality.  I no longer need to be anxious whether my methods are effective.  I can be relaxed about the results knowing that God’s Word never returns to Him empty but that it always accomplishes the purpose for which He sends it out (Is.55:11).

At the same time we are also called to do our sowing task with total dedication.  Nor can we be content with some haphazard scattering of the seed.  I will always remember the man who regularly stood on the footpath outside our office in Melbourne during evening rush hour – Bible in hand, he thundered at the passing crowd, none of whom took the slightest notice.  Planting the seed is more than scattering a few throwaway gospel lines at an anonymous crowd.  It also means that I should indeed avail myself of the latest ‘you beaut’ evangelistic program – prayerfully and ensuring that both method and content are Biblically sound.  Planting takes a lot of care and effort and even after growth has begun the watering continues to be our responsibility.

Sowing is something we should all be involved in.  And we can do it!  To deny that is to deny the work of God’s Spirit in our lives.

John Westendorp

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What About The Pew Sitter (2)

Kieth V. Warren. Trowel & Sword. June 1981

Preamble: This is part two of last weeks article.

What About The Pew Sitter (2)

I read a story the other day of a theological student who had been asked to take a service somewhere. When he stepped into the pulpit a neatly lettered sign caught his eye. It was not just put there for him, the small wooden plaque was carefully screwed down. It must have been there for years.

On it were the words: “What are you trying to do to these people?”

That’s certainly a powerful question to face when a man is about to get up and preach. It really brings home the truth that preaching is an awesome task. For one thing: it asks of the preacher to give his very best. But what about the congregation? What is the input from their side?

Last month I suggested that people may have talked and written too often about poor preaching at the expense of focussing on poor listening.

One of the dearest wishes of a preacher must be: to bring God’s Word to a congregation which knows how to listen. And knows how to listen well. Listening obediently and responsively. Even aiming to become better listeners. Better partners in that beautiful and mysterious communication: the preaching of God’s Word.

How To Be A Good Listener

In our first article we looked at one suggestion that goes for good and effective listening.

It was: Have a truly Biblical outlook on preaching. It’s actually much more than a suggestion, for suggestions do still have a take-it-or-leave-it emphasis, and this one doesn’t! To have a proper Biblical understanding of what preaching is, would be an absolute must for every Christian, young and old. How vitally important for parents to teach their children that preaching is not some kind of spiritual entertainment, the congregation being the audience, and the minister the paid performer.

No, preaching is God’s gift to the church; by way of the gospel proclamation He does great things. And we regularly need to remind ourselves of this: Our minister is God’s ambassador. God has brought him to this congregation to tell us of Christ, to help us grow in grace. I may not expect to be pleasantly entertained; rather, I must praise God often for His wonderful gift to the church, His gift of preaching and a preacher. I must keenly expect the Holy Spirit to do great things through the sermons of this preacher. In my own life. In the lives of others.

The Holy Spirit

If you cannot produce that sort of mental attitude about preaching and preachers, it’s guaranteed you’re not a good listener. It’s impossible. For good listening begins with the mind, not with the ears. Sure, there’s much more, and we’ll look at some other aspects too. But first of all our thinking; that must be spot on! If it isn’t, if our thoughts about the place of preaching and about the function of the preacher are the wrong thoughts, there’s no doubt we will be poor listeners. Spiritually we will then impoverish ourselves, and our children. For our young people will very quickly take over much of our inability to handle properly this matter of preaching.

There’s something else too. The work of the Holy Spirit! What I mean is this: If we have a very ‘horizontal’ view of preaching, we do not give a rightful place to the Spirit of God. Not at all.

A ‘horizontal’ view of preaching means just that: horizontal. On the human level exclusively! Entertainment good or not so good. Being very concerned about calling a man who is a good preacher, while never realising that the work of the Holy Spirit is essential to make his preaching really good! Our confessional standards clearly emphasise that point. Says the Heidelberg Catechism: “Since then we are made partakers of Christ and all His benefits by faith only, from where does this faith come? From the Holy Spirit who works it in our hearts by the preaching of the holy gospel . . . ” (Q & A 65).

The Canons of Dort speak the same language: “What, therefore, neither the light of nature nor the law could do, that God performs by the operation of the Holy Spirit through the Word or ministry of reconciliation…” (III/IV, art. 6)  “….by His Word and Spirit He certainly and effectually renews them to repentance …” (V, art 7). 

Let me repeat it once more (it is so important). We must teach ourselves and our children that faithful preaching is used by God’s Spirit to lead to faith, to lead to spiritual growth.

But now we must hurry on to more suggestions. Do you feel the need to be a good listener, a better one? Read on. Suggestion number two:

Have A Foot In The Door

Don’t let go of any sermon, till you’ve got a foot in the door. The sermonic door, I mean.  In other words: whatever sermon you listen to, refuse to give it up. Refuse to allow that sermon to be a total waste. Even if it’s one of those days when things just don’t click between pew and pulpit, between you and the preacher. Mentally refuse to give up completely, and find at least one “foothold’ in that sermon. Then, to your amazement you will often find more!

What minister has not talked about his preaching with a few people in the congregation, eyeball to eyeball. And what minister has not heard from the kind lips of a parishioner: “Well, it was probably me.” Whenever there was a short-circuit in communication. Whenever much of it fell somehow flat. ‘Oh, it was probably me.’ The fault was with me, the listener.

May I suggest that the pew-sitter ought only to say that when it’s true. Do not say it out of kindness to your minister, for then your well-intended remark may do more harm than good. If it’s not you, but rather him, don’t twist the facts: there’s far too much at stake! But let’s assume that it was you. Suggestion number two says as much as: don’t let it be you, but find at least one relevant thing in this sermon. Listen keenly for the main point. Get a foot in the door. Mentally stay with that man in the pulpit till you can say: That is for me! That is for me! Right! I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed. In every sermon there must be a blessing for me.

I know the analogy is faulty, but I can’t help but think of Jacob wrestling with the heavenly warrior: ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’

If preaching is indeed God’s gracious way with people, then we may be sure that at least something of what is said is truly valuable. For me! For I set myself and say: ‘I am going to find that solid idea in this sermon.’ And the miracle is: if that’s our frame of mind, we will often find more than one solid idea. Maybe even three. Then we haven’t only got a foot in the door, but there’s much more involvement!

Maybe it’s comfort for you. For your family. Maybe a description of the glory of God that is lifting you up. Or an application that really fits your business life, or your marriage, or being single.

I am thinking now of a cute story I read ( or heard) long ago about a little old lady in Amsterdam, visited by her minister. It was still in the days of horse and cart and horse droppings in the streets were a common thing. The minister asked whether his sermons were helpful to her. A horse had just clippity-clopped by, and had felt the call of nature right in front of her house.’ Look’, she said, walking over to the window. See the sparrows going for it, to find at least one or two grains of wheat in it! Yes, your sermons are helpful!’

ANY DUST ON THE BIBLE?

Here’s suggestion number three: The better I know my Bible, the better sermon listener I will be. There’s little doubt about that. I suppose it can be checked out easily enough. Look around in any congregation, and it’s a fact that the people who shy away from Bible study groups, who spend far too many hours in front of the telly, who read no more Bible than the short bit after the evening meal, ah… they simply are not and cannot be good sermon listeners!

Care to think of a football match for a moment? Who are the people who can give expert comment on whether it was a good game, whether there was plenty of class, who were the outstanding players. Only those people who are well acquainted with the sport of football, who know the rules well, who know the variety of tactics and techniques, who once played themselves. Who makes for a good listener to the proclamation of the gospel?  Those who are well acquainted with the gospel. Who read the Bible and buy a good Christian book, and join a Bible study group.

And Then There’s The Body

Good listening can not be done without the use of energy. I read of an author describing as one of the characteristics of good listeners “increased heart action, faster circulation of the blood, and even slightly increased bodily temperature”. This author went on to say that the very word’ attention’ suggests a collection of tensions within the listener which are resolved only when the speaker’s message is communicated.

So the body is very much in the picture as regards good listening. If the preacher doesn’t have your attention, maybe the fault is with your own energy level. Possibly a late Saturday night? As a minister I have often been able to pick those who had been to the wedding breakfast the night before. Of course l had seen them there, and also from the pulpit it was quite plain they had been there!

Or family tension on Sunday morning before church. Like getting up too late. A fight who’s first in the bathroom. Burned toast, Junior wanting to wear thongs to church. Whatever it is, it means unnecessary expenditure of energy. The result is: poor listening, as a rule.

I don’t want to go all sentimental, and say: Ah, the old times were so much better. But it seems to be a fact that previous generations understood better than we do, what it means to prepare yourself for the Sunday, for the worship service, for listening to the sermon. Spiritual, mental, physical preparation. Already on the Saturday.

Now I’m sure that there are other suggestions. Possibly better ones to improve sermon listening. Feedback from the readers would be great!

I have given four suggestions:

1.  A Biblical understanding of the place of preaching in the church; 

2.  An all-out attempt to discover one or more relevant points;

3.  An increasing familiarity with Scriptural and spiritual matters; 

4.  A body-and-soul preparation: good Sunday listening starts on Saturday!

God’s people do have a theological responsibility for good listening. And in good listening God’s people have an opportunity for spiritual growth which comes to them in no other way!

KEITH V. WARREN

We look forward to receiving feedback about any of our posts. We also encourage you to share our posts with family, friends and acquaintances; in fact anyone you think may appreciate and/or benefit from the knowledge and wisdom handed down to us from the past.   To view previous posts visit our website at www.tsrevisited.com

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What About The Pew-Sitter?

Kieth v. Warren. Trowel & Sword. May 1981

Preamble: Forty-four years have passed since Kieth Warren wrote this, the first of two articles on preaching. Has anything changed? We can confidently predict that there will be many sitting in the pews today who would answer “NO” to this question. Perhaps after this article was written things did change – for a while. But unless we are constantly reminded of our shortcomings, old habits have a tendency to reappear. If it were not so preachers would soon find themselves out of a job. So where does the responsibility for good preaching lie? This is not an easy question to answer, and Kieth has some interesting suggestions to make in our quest for possible solutions.

What About The Pew-Sitter?

What About Preaching?

It’s in for a lot of criticism. There are plenty of books on preaching and on the whole the diagnosis of present-day preaching is a rather grim one. Preaching is labelled as boring, dull, uninteresting. It is outmoded and quite inefficient as a tool for communication, it is said. Is there any other situation in the world where people are to sit still for 20 minutes, even 30, and simply listen to a mediocre – or even worse speaker, without a break?

An article in ‘Time’ magazine (Dec. 31,1979) was a spokesman for many disgruntled church goers, when it stated in an article on preaching: ‘Many preachers devote far too little time to research, reading and writing in sermon preparation. As a result their poorly-constructed, poorly thought-out addresses wander from point to point, and the minds of the listeners wander too.’

Then there is the competition of so many other things, edging out the sermon, or at least making it much shorter: films in the service, testimonies, choirs, dialogues, even sacred dance. Yes, preaching has fallen upon hard times, there’s no doubt. It’s striking though that hardly any book on preaching mentions the responsibility of the listener. The average approach seems to be: if the preacher can’t deliver the goods, well, that’s the end of the matter. But is that so?

What I Want My Minister To Be.

Imagine that there was a questionnaire to be filled in. About ministers, and what people would think to be essential qualities for a minister. Wouldn’t most people put on top of the list: He must be a good preacher? And why not? After all, it may be expected of a preacher that he is able to preach, that he knows how to do it reasonably well. Imagine that a painter wouldn’t have the skill to paint properly; or that a doctor does not know how to doctor. What misfits they would be! It’s then even quite improper to call such a man a painter, or a doctor.

A preacher must know how to preach. If he doesn’t and if he can’t, he ought not to be a preacher. Surely there will then be other areas in God’s Kingdom where he is better suited to serve; but not as a preacher. Actually, he isn’t one then, even though he may still carry the label of ‘preacher.

Of course, some are more gifted preachers than others. As there are painters who are doing a better job, and doctors who are tops in diagnosing. But every student for the ministry ought to have this basic gift, and the home-congregation should recognise it before encouraging a man to further develop that gift and take up theological studies. If there is no gift, all the academic work and preaching-class practices will bear no fruit. Then the student will be frustrated, the professor will be frustrated, but what is worse: the Holy Spirit will be grieved, for we are then attempting to have a man use a gift which the Spirit has not given him.

Developing the gift of preaching and teaching is an important part of the training for the ministry, and it stands to reason that the congregations expect that such a task will be tackled faithfully and competently. The churches have every right to demand of their ministers that a big and genuine effort has been put in, to develop that preaching gift and to keep on developing it!

What I Want My Congregation To Be

And what may the minister expect from the congregation? For surely, it is not a one-way affair with all the expectations coming from the side of the pew. Has not the preacher the right to expect certain things from his congregation? Most definitely he has! What is it? This: That the congregation knows how to listen. And knows how to listen well. Listen obediently, responsively, creatively. And also work at it so as to become better listeners, better partners in that beautiful and mysterious communication – the preaching of God’s Word.

Is the congregation preparing for the sermon? The preacher is. And the preacher’s wife and children, indirectly: Be quiet dad is still working on his sermon. Are you having coffee with us, dear, or do you want it in the study? Wish I could watch ‘Four Corners’ tonight, but I can’t afford the time, not quite finished yet for tomorrow night. On the whole, there’s much preparation going into the sermon. From the preacher’s side. How much? Many, many hours. One rule of thumb is to spend an hour in the study for each minute in the pulpit. But I don’t think many preachers will manage that.

Back to the question: How does the congregation’s preparation compare with the preacher’s preparation? Maybe people have talked and written too often about poor preaching at the expense of focussing on poor listening. I suggest it will be too easy a way out to say that poor listening is only the result of poor preaching; if there would be good preaching, that would naturally result in good listening. To reason like that is not only too simplistic, but it also puts all the burden back on the preacher. It also shows up a basic misunderstanding about the process of communication as it is going on in preaching.

The Entire Congregation Has A Responsibility. 

Must we not say that preaching is the responsibility of the entire congregation? The congregation is fully involved, bringing to the hearing of each sermon their needs, their hopes, their sins, their joys. Again and again we need to hear the reconciling, encouraging, exhorting Word of God. We place it all in the searchlight of God’s Word: our brokenness, our relationships, our family, our fears. And as the preacher brings his resources to the pulpit, so the listeners bring their resources to the task of listening. These resources are shaped by years of experiences, wisdom, insights, all sorts of ups and downs, information, personal likes and dislikes; all these things colour and enrich what we hear.

Perhaps the expectations which the congregation brings along have as much to do with the effectiveness of the preaching as anything else. It’s not terribly difficult to convince oneself before setting off for church that the sermon will probably be dull (again!), uninspiring, or whatever. Now if that is the conviction we come to church with, then we will not be disappointed. Most certainly the sermon will turn out to be dull and uninspiring. But let’s then not forget that it was very likely caused mainly by our preconceived ideas. Because of our wrong attitude the sermon was killed before it was even born. Call it a kind of sermonic abortion; we gave that sermon no chance to live, so as to do miracles in our life!

Some Suggestions For Greater Involvement

To prepare for sermon involvement means more than the Sunday morning breakfast prayer for the preacher and the service. It means more than the ‘silent prayer’ in church; much more.

The first suggestion: Have a truly Biblical outlook on preaching. To become a better listener should begin in our mind, the way we think about preaching, preachers, sermons. When our thinking about all this is the right kind of thinking, the battle is half won! We must reflect deeply on the total meaning of preaching in the context of our Christian faith, commitment growth.

This is one of God’s gifts to the church: preaching. The proclamation ‘of Christ. It was His idea in the first place. This is the way to faith, to maturity: ‘…. faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ’ (Rom. 10:17).

‘It was he who gave… “some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (Eph. 4:11, 12)

Indeed, preaching is a means of grace. Even the kind of preaching that does not draw a ‘full house’. Even the kind of preaching that is but a faint reflection of Whitefield, Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones. There is of course never an excuse for poor preaching which is poor because it results from hasty and sloppy preparation, laziness, lack of conviction, an unspiritual attitude, and so on. No session, no congregation should be willing to put up with that kind of preaching, and no preacher who understands his high calling should fall into such sinful traps.

But what if the preacher is sincere and godly, and yet is not a 5-star proclaimer? What if the word’ spellbound’ is quite out of place when it comes to his delivery and the reaction to it? What if the ‘Amen’ is keenly welcomed and eagerly anticipated too often, by too many? What if it’s a reading service again? What then?

Remember that the mental attitude of the congregation is absolutely vital in this matter of preaching and listening. If I convince myself beforehand that it will be boring, boring it will be. But if I say to myself: Our preacher is only average. But he is God’s ambassador. God has brought him to this congregation to tell us of Christ to help us to grow. I may not expect to be pleasantly entertained, but I must thank God for His wonderful gift of preaching and a preacher. I must keenly expect the Holy Spirit to do great things through the sermons of this preacher. In my own life. In the lives of others.

It Depends So Much On How We Think

You see, it’s all in the mind. When our thoughts about the place of preaching and about the function of the preacher are the wrong ones, there’s no doubt we will be poor listeners. But what is worse then: we are impoverishing ourselves by not properly using this means of grace, the Word. We must teach ourselves and our children the truth that the proclamation of God’s Word is His way to faith, to spiritual growth.

Says John Calvin: ‘God breathes faith into us only by the instrument of his gospel… Although God’s power is not bound to outward means, he has nonetheless bound us to this ordinary manner of teaching… That we must hold to what we have quoted from Paul – that the Church is built up solely by outward preaching’ (Institutes IV.1.5)

Next month we will look at a few more suggestions so as to be better listeners. And I would very much appreciate suggestions from our readers. As for now: we must do more work on the way we think about these things. Yes, it is very much a matter of the mind. 

KEITH V. WARREN

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‘And A Little Child Shall Lead Them’

Mrs. Jean Sietzema-Dickson. Trowel & Sword. March 1992

 Preamble: How often do we stop and actually think about what we do in our worship services? Is attendance just a part of our weekly activities where we turn up, go through the same routine week after week and then go home again. Has it become a habit with which we have become comfortable but not really inspired? Do we have a sense of coming into the presence of Almighty God with thankfulness in our hearts for what He has done for us, and continues to do day after day? In this article Jean Sietsma-Dickson reflects on some of her own experiences in the worship service. To what extent are her experiences comparable to your own?

‘And A Little Child Shall Lead Them’

Scene1

Hands raised in the air, or clapping enthusiastically to the beat of the music, people crying in pain, people being prayed for. Was this a gathering of the Assemblies of God? No. Almost everybody there, belonged to one or another of the Reformed Churches of Australia. The setting was the Oasis (Mt.Evelyn, Victoria). I could hardly believe what I was experiencing! Was this the same denomination that I had joined almost thirty years ago where the most that people did in a church service was to sing lustily? They did not even know how to say ‘amen’ at the conclusion of a prayer. Here there were occasional interjections and a wholehearted ‘amen’ at the end.

***

Thirty years ago the Reformed Churches were small migrant groups who clung together fiercely. Church meetings could be rowdy affairs, as arguments reached their peak. A very different experience to the sedate Anglican meetings I had previously sat through. In some ways I found it exciting. But there were other ways in which I found Reformed worship unsatisfying.

For one thing there was no real quietness before the service started in which I could come into the presence of God and let my troubled, busy heart be stilled. People chattered all around me and, being a mimic, I gradually began to see the pre-service time as a chance to exchange greetings with my neighbour rather than take time out to prepare my heart, body and mind for worship of the Lord of heaven and earth.

Nowadays I have learned to seek that stillness elsewhere though I am still a (faithful) member of and worshipper in a Reformed church. To me, living in a world full of sound, quietness and stillness are essential ingredients of wholehearted worship.

In comparison Reformed worship generally is a busy business. The moment of silent prayer is rarely long enough to collect one’s wits, let alone focus one’s mind clearly on the majesty of the living God.

Who of us among Reformed families would come to the table at dinner time unwashed? And yet we think we can walk into the presence of God without a moment’s thought for confession! It is alright, we think, to leave that to the minister to lead us in the general prayer of confession. But who of us in that time really remembers the sins we have committed in the past week? I generally do not, and if I have confessed them along the way that is OK with God because He has then already put them in the rubbish basket. But there are times when we come to church burdened with unconfessed sins and if there is no stillness, no quiet, there is no time or space for God to speak to our hearts and draw us into the comfort of His presence so that we can make confession.

The reason that we so often live powerless, unsatisfying, unfulfilled lives is that we live in a perpetual state of guilt so that we believe ourselves unworthy to accept, appropriate and make use of the great blessings the Lord has in store for those who love Him. These blessings are never for ourselves alone but, like any biblical gift, are given for the building up of the body.

What was so good about the experience of worship that I mentioned at the beginning was that this was a time when there was time and space for full confession, for drawing closer to God, for being filled with His Spirit and His love. I came away feeling enriched, empowered for deeper service of God and my fellow human beings, believer or unbeliever. For the space of a few hours the barriers were down between us and God and between ourselves.

But my question is: What happens now? Can I maintain in my own life that sense of God’s nearness and love? Can I, by myself, find my way into the presence of the living God and go on worshipping Him and being filled by His Spirit? From past experience the answer is both yes and no. For a while I will remember this closeness, I will long for it and make time and space for it. But then, as in the parable, the cares and pleasures of the world will choke this new growth and I will find myself drifting away from that closeness, beginning to believe (again) that I can live for the Lord in my own strength.

Of course my mind knows this is not true. But my emotions can and do (sometimes) outweigh my thoughts. Not all of us have learned to let the Holy Spirit, rather than our minds, control our emotions. On the occasions when I have been willing to let the Spirit have control I have found that He can use my emotions like a musical instrument going up and down the scale in short sequence and enriching me in the process.

That was what happened last weekend. We sang our hearts out, we used our bodies to express our worship, we laughed together and we cared and cried for each other. And at the end we felt cleansed inside and out and invigorated. I believe that was the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. And I am thankful for that.

At the same time there is a niggling little voice that says but what did you learn? I learned that Reformed people (some of them anyway) can let the barriers down. As we heard one speaker mention Revelation 3:20 my mind went back over thirty years to the night I was converted at a crusade in St.Paul’s Cathedral. I was reminded of what I had learned that night, that Jesus loved me and wanted a place in my heart. It was surprising that I did not fly out of the cathedral that night. I am sure my feet hardly touched the street as I danced my way home and lived the next few months in a state of euphoria. The trouble was that the euphoria did not last. When it went so did my erroneous assurance that I could constantly walk in the Spirit.

It was many years later, when I had already been a member of the Reformed churches for some years, that it dawned on me what had happened. I had given my heart to the Lord that night. And the Lord had blessed me and hung onto me. But there had been many hiccups on my journey. Much of this was because, although I had faith in Jesus as Saviour and had given Him my heart, I had not realised He also wanted to have control of my mind. I had not bowed to Him as the Lord of heaven and earth. Part of the trouble was also that I was woefully ignorant about the Christian faith, and there was so little real teaching in the churches I attended that when, after seven years as a Christian, I was offered a place for a year at a theological college in England I grasped this opportunity as if my salvation really depended on knowledge.

I have never regretted that year. For someone who had done a very practical diploma in Occupational Therapy it gave me an opportunity to rub shoulders with graduate teachers and ordained ministers of the churches (the college, though run on Anglican lines, was interdenominational). For the first time in my life I was forced to think, to really question what I believed and why. Some of my rather facile pietism dropped away and I was left with more knowledge but also with a pride in it that did me no good at all. On the other hand I did at least now have an idea of what God said in His Word though I still (because I was an evolutionist) reserved judgement on certain parts.

It was not until I had been sitting under Reformed preaching for several years (and how I soaked up that preaching with joy and thankfulness) that, through a book by Henry Morris, I was brought face to face with the fact that the Bible really was true. Then I began to grow because I started submitting my mind to the Word of God.

***

Scene 2

Reformed Church of Dandenong. Farewell to Harry Burggraaf. A far from traditional service, imaginatively planned by the Revd Martin de Graaf was an occasion for joyful worship. Slides and a shared reading gave us a new view of the wonder of creation. Prayer with laying on of hands was offered up to encourage Harry and Henny as they started a new phase of their lives.

An orchestra of people from different Reformed churches provided lively music and the farewell speeches were brief and entertaining. It is happening in various places around the Reformed churches that people are learning that worship can be offered in different ways.

***

Scene 3

Reformed Church of Box Hill. Annual Friendship Club service for participants and their families and friends. An atmosphere of expectancy and excitement among those present was picked up and expanded by Harry Burggraaf and Joanne van Wageningen. Simple choruses were sung. Short readings were given by members of the Doveton club. Short simple prayers were offered. The Box Hill group staged a Nativity scene while Luke’s gospel was read. Good use was made of the overhead projector to illustrate the brief address as well as to project words for singing. People clapped and sang, raised their hands in the air, made other movements to express what was being sung about. And I, freed from the normal restraint I feel in Box Hill, was able to worship with heart and soul and mind and body and to come away refreshed and recharged for service. I have a distinct impression that this was partly because those able-bodied people who attended did so because we care about those who are not able to gain much from our traditional style worship. We came not seeking something for ourselves but ready to participate for the sake of others. And the Lord blessed our openness and our giving.

Please do not misunderstand me. I love the lusty singing of traditional Reformed worship. I revel in the beauty of a choral Eucharist in an Anglican church, I enjoy Gregorian chant and find it stills my soul. I am uplifted by some of the new Roman Catholic music I have heard. I think worship should be God honouring and, where possible, aesthetically pleasing but I am sure that the Lord would rather have a service that is a little ragged at the edges than one that is stylistically perfect and cold.

Now let us go back to the beginning. In Genesis God commanded Adam to care for the creation and develop it. Adam and Eve needed to use their bodies, minds and hearts if they were to do this effectively. We all know they blew it. But we are still called to that same sort of service. We are called to go on exploring and developing the creation God set us in. And to do this we need to use minds and hearts and bodies in His service. Reformed Churches have always been strong on emphasising the mind, on feeding the mind. 

Sadly, it has too often been only the mind that was fed while the body and heart were badly undernourished.

We have spent years running away from Pentecostalism because we saw the abuses of it and we did not want ‘to be like them’; but I believe that in doing so we have missed a very important part of the gospel. I do not want to see the Reformed Churches reduced to mindlessness. I trust I have made that abundantly clear. What I do long to see is a combination of the vision of Abraham Kuyper (who after all took great account of the work of the Holy Spirit and could not have done what he did unless the Spirit was leading him) allied with the Pentecostal fervour of not only the Assemblies of God, but at least some branches of mainline churches. I was considerably impressed recently to find that Christian Heritage College in Brisbane, which has pipped us to the post in setting up a Christian teacher training course, is supported generously by a Pentecostal type church.

I pray for the time when we can learn to put aside the prejudices that have held us back from enjoying the full gifts of the Spirit in our churches. In fact I pray that the Spirit who descended at the first Pentecost will fill the Reformed Churches of Australia so that they may be enabled to perform the leading function I fully believed they were called to play when I first joined as a member. Let us remember Christ’s own words, ‘Unless you become like this little child you will not see the kingdom of heaven.’ We have just rejoiced again in the Saviour’s birth. May we follow the child that was born in Bethlehem joyfully into the 21st century.

Jean Sietzema-Dickson

We look forward to receiving feedback about any of our posts. We also encourage you to share our posts with family, friends and acquaintances; in fact anyone you think may appreciate and/or benefit from the knowledge and wisdom handed down to us from the past.   To view previous posts visit our website at www.tsrevisited.com

Comment from last week – I so enjoyed reading this article! When I found out about this book, years ago, Keith and I really liked it. Probably also because Keith was involved in the Resistance movement, and could identify with so many” happenings”in the book. That year we decided to buy all our children ( all eleven) a copy for their birthdays!
Keep up the good work, I do so appreciate it!

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