This is a borrowed title for my article, which is a brief dissertation on a matter that has exercised my heart for some time, but not intended to be a critique of that to which the title originally belongs. For a while now I have subscribed through the Internet to what is called A/G Minister, which comes from the desk of the General Superintendent of the American Assemblies of God, Rev. Thomas E. Trask. He seeks to share a brief article on a regular weekly basis, to encourage pastors and leaders in their work for God. They are not intended to be deep, profound theological treatises, but what is simple and practical. I appreciate receiving them and reading them.
A recent message of Brother Trasks was related to what is called the Vision for Transformation process that is underway in the American AOG Fellowship. Apparently over a number of months, numerous meetings have been held that engaged thousands of local church, district, and national leadership in dialog about changes that are deemed necessary to increase the effectiveness of Assemblies of God ministries and programs on all levels. It appears also that internally, at Headquarters, they are examining how they can better align ministries, personnel, and resources to effectively serve the local church.
I am sure that prayerful reflection on where a Fellowship is at some eighty and more years on from its inception as a Pentecostal body, as to its continuing spiritual effectiveness, is worthy. With all denominational fellowships, classical Pentecostals not being excluded, there still exist many things that in the days of their infancy were deemed helpful and even essential to a sound foundation and structure as a Movement classical Pentecostals Fellowships, and there are many, never thought of themselves as denominations but Movements. There are many things that have remained part of the denominations fabric since its inception, and often any voice to have such removed has usually been viewed with suspicion, and even the advocates of change charged with being compromising or even apostate!
Seeking to evaluate where we are at as Pentecostals, and given there are certain concerns about some of the trends, I have given some thought to this, and I wish to mention a couple of things as a contribution to the present discussions:
1. We must not be afraid of change.
With regard to some to some traditional aspects of the Fellowship (and I speak as a credentialed AOG minister of over 50 years, in the UK and Australia), it is evident they have served their purpose, and if there is anything that is seen to be no longer fruitful, then it ought to be changed. By way of example, take any building. When it is being erected there is certain scaffolding deemed essential to its sound and secure construction, but when the building is complete, that scaffolding is removed. Those elements that are absolutely essential to the security and stability of the edifice are built in, so that anything extraneous needs to be removed, for such will become a hindrance to its use. I believe this applies in principle to our Fellowships. There are some things that were of value to the Fellowship in its initial establishment, but have long since served their purpose and need to be removed or at least modified so as to become of current usefulness.
Of course, when it comes to basic philosophy, and doctrine, and Statements of Faith, great care needs to be taken with suggested modification. This especially applies to the sphere of our Pentecostal distinctives. Today, sad to say, some leaders appear to be prepared to tamper with our established position for the sake of accommodation to those who whilst charismatic may not be in full agreement with our position on these. I would refer to the particular distinctive of the initial evidence of the baptism with the Holy Spirit being speaking with other tongues. Surely, this is what gave us reason as Pentecostals for becoming a separate fellowship of churches within Christendom, together with our belief in the place for and necessary function of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the Church today. Our Pentecostal forebears paid a high price in maintaining their uncompromising stand for this Biblical and powerful work of the Holy Spirit.
There is also a trend away from the established position worldwide amongst classical Pentecostal Fellowships in respect of the PRE-MILLENNIAL Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that it is Christ Himself, in His personal second coming in glory who will inaugurate the millennial kingdom on earth before the final judgment. The Church does not bring this kingdom in and hand it to Christ! Yet, again, there are some in our ranks who want to eliminate this from the Statement of Faith saying it is NOT fundamental to saving faith, and ought not to be included in any such Statement. But this again is an area where there is the tendency to want to accommodate those who are of kingdom-now, dominion theology, realised eschatology, and A-millennialist views, so that they can be granted credentials in our particular Pentecostal group! The idea is that we ought to be more inclusive and less exclusive, though this needs to be cautiously qualified. But let me move on
2. There is need to ask ourselves the question, WHY do we seek change?
Is it the case of change for change sake? Do we feel that we are not as relevant as we ought to be in our day and generation, and so conclude that we have to modify things in the church and in our ministries to become more acceptable? Do we have the idea that if we change our structures, streamline the Constitution, dismantle some of our systems, and even remove certain tenets from our Statement of Faith to please new elements within the Fellowship who are happier without them, that we will then be a more powerful force for God in the nation? It seems, from what I observe and hear, that some are thinking in these terms. Brother Trask says in the recent release from his desk, and I believe he is very sincere in his quest:
We are living in momentous times when the Church needs to be all it can be to advance the cause of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We face many challenges; and we face a powerful enemy
We must equip and release leadership and laity to accomplish what God has placed in their hearts to do. In order to do that, some obstacles must be removed that nearly 90 years of policies, processes, and procedures have placed in the way. We do not have the luxury of duplicating effort; instead we must streamline our programs and ministries to make them as effective as possible.
But, WILL such structural change, and desirable modifications, produce the success it seems our leaders are seeking? I have never believed that structure produces life, but that life requires certain structure for its conservation. And then only the kind and measure of structure that is deemed sufficient and necessary for the purpose of conserving and guiding that life. The New Testament Church is an example of this. IF we sense we are lacking LIFE, you can be sure that structural change and programming will NOT produce it. Let us not be deceived.
The Church in Sardis is the eminent Biblical illustration of this, for to the eyes of all the churches and leaders round about they had the reputation of being a live church. (Revelation 3:1.) Our Lord draws attention to this reputation: Thou hast a name (reputation) that thou livest
But He did not stay at that, for HE was not in agreement with their assessment, based on what people saw outwardly in Sardis First Assembly. What was the message of our Lord to that Church?
AND ART DEAD!
My, what a shock this must have been to the pastor as he received the Lords correspondence from the apostle John. Surely, it must have had a worthy beginning, but NOW the Church in Sardis had belied its early promise. NOT from what appeared on the outside! Things seemed great. Their organization could not be faulted. Their services were pleasant, entertaining, and full of vitality. The Church was regarded by all as progressive, full of talent, and promoting excellent projects. Yet, whilst they were alive organizationally, and with it generationally, and relevant socially and religiously in our Lords eyes they were DEAD. Listen to our Lord: I have not found thy works perfect (complete) before God
They might have been boasting, Weve really made it! Jesus says Youve made NOTHING! Nothing counts in Gods eyes, where it all matters most. The reputation was false.
Keeping in mind the Sardis example, let me ask a few questions and proffer some considered answers.
I. WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES FOR TRUE LIFE IN THE CHURCH?
Is it the programs and new techniques we conceive? Is it the mode of worship we adopt, and the type of songs and music and drama we indulge? A recent leadership paper sent to me states, In recent times, much has been done to improve the quality of our music and presentation of our message
Hmmm! What are we really trying to say by this? Is not this simply a matter of aesthetics, attending to certain artistic Church performance and preference so as to secure good church services that might attract people to them and possibly amuse and appease the hostility of an unbelieving world? And does not that simply smart of the numbers game? Are we not falling into the trap of modernism when we shift our emphasis from the New Testament priorities to more pragmatic agendas? How deluded can we be, that the world wants the church to be relevant to it, and then it will embrace us and our message! In reality, the world expects the Church to be different. But more than that, JESUS told us to expect the worlds hatred and antagonism, and that it would do to His own what it did to Him. John 7:7. 15:18,19. 16:16-20,33. 17:13-16.
And underline in your Bibles, please preachers, the words of our Master whose example we should follow: For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth (listens) to My voice (John 18:37). What clarity of understating He had with reference to His divine mandate, coming into this sin-cursed world to give competent testimony to those things which He had seen and heard in the Fathers Presence respecting mans salvation. John 3:11,32. 8:28,38. 12:49. 17:8.
God save us from being taken in by the latest band-wagon of fads and notions of heretical and apostate men who have crept in unawares (with stealth and subtlety), who are themselves under condemnation (Jude 4). We are gravely in want of true discernment in these days! It is time we preachers resorted to the Fathers Presence, as Jesus did, to know what IS Truth, and what it is that HE would have us preach to this generation under judgment, remembering (as Donald Gee once said) that
a powerful pulpit is one of the greatest forces for spiritual revival.
Obviously, he was referring to a powerful preaching ministry of the Word. And that Word must be what our Heavenly Father prompts us, through the Holy Spirit, to bring to the attention of our respective flocks. Just as God said to Jonah, when commissioning him to go to Nineveh Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee (Jonah 3:2). And we have no other mandate. It must ever be the preaching that I bid thee. Just as the choice and call of the messenger is by Gods sovereignty, so is the message that we bear.
Now, returning to my earlier quote, when we talk of improving the quality of music
and presentation, where does the Holy Spirit come into all of that? Can we improve on HIM on His wisdom, on His Word, on His genius, on His power, or on His authority? The New Testament does not give me any hint that I can! Indeed, it throws me back and entirely upon HIM, upon HIS wisdom and authority not simply to have Him endorse MY agenda, but that he will reveal to me HIS agenda! It may well be that the First Assembly in Sardis had wonderful, attractive and appealing plans and programs, BUT they were accounted as DEAD by the Lord!
II. WHAT WAS THE ANSWER TO SARDISS GREAT SPIRITUAL NEED?
It is found clearly stated in the first verse the very first words declared by our Lord: These things saith He that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars
That is how our Lord addresses this Church. Indeed, EVERY letter is structured in a similar way: first our Lord presents HIMSELF in some specific way to the Church, and it is not without significance that such a revelation (the details in the main taken from the vision of the glorified Son of man in chapter 1) addresses the Churches peculiar need. In other words, the answer to the prevailing reprovable spiritual condition of those Churches lay in CHRIST HIMSELF. He is not only the answer to the worlds need, but the only answer to the Churchs need too!
The interpretation of the symbolism is not difficult to perceive, for we know that there are not seven distinct Holy Spirits there is but ONE (Ephesians 4:4). Thus (i) there is reference to the seven-fold perfection of the one Blessed Holy Spirit; and (ii) the seven stars having reference to those messengers or spiritual overseers whom Christ has appointed over the churches (cf. 1:20). Their responsibility was to faithfully bring His message to the people. Thus the answer to the critical spiritual condition of the decadent Church in Sardis lay in the Spirit of God and the Word of God.
May I affirm my strong conviction that herein is the remedy for the present state of the Church, and in this alone the Spirit of God and the Word of God! Let us not be tempted to believe that certain new methodology will be more effective than the old tried and proven way of uncompromising, faithful, and anointing exposition of the Word. John MacArthur is right when he says, Spiritual and Biblical truth is not determined by testing what works and what doesnt
And hear what he goes on to say, for his words are so relevant in this age of increasing pragmatism:
We know from Scripture, for example, that the gospel often does not produce a positive response (1 Corinthians 1:22,23. 2:14). On the other hand, satanic lies and deception can be quite effective (Matthew 24:23,24. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4. Majority reaction is no test of validity (cf. Matthew 7:13,14), and prosperity is no measure of truthfulness (cf. Job 12:6). Pragmatism as a guiding philosophy of ministry is inherently flawed. Pragmatism as a test of truth is nothing short of satanic. (Ashamed of the Gospel, p.xiii)
III. WHAT IS IT THAT A DECADENT CHURCH IS REQUIRED TO DO?
It is not for us to speculate or to opinionate here. Its not concepts that we need but a revelation of the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). So let the Word of the Lord as conveyed to the church in Sardis tell us. Look at Revelation 2:2-3. I will briefly comment on five things they must do:
(a) They must wake up and stay awake! How dreadfully possible to be lulled into a false sense of spiritual vigour. That was Sardis. They had the impression by virtue of their progressiveness, and also particularly by reason of their reputation, their impressiveness, that everything was well in the Church. They were under a delusion though no one would dare suggest that! They needed rousing. Christs word to them was disturbing and stirring.
(b) They must strengthen the things that remain, but are about to die. There was evidently a nucleus of people within the church that were still remaining to true and faithful to the Gospel, a few names
which have not defiled their garments. That speaks volumes, really, for it implies that the main body of the assembly had become defiled, referring possibly to the lowering of moral and ethical standards in the church, as well as a departure from the purity of Truth.
(c) They must reflect afresh on HOW they had received the Word of God. The Church is called upon to remember to look back to former days, and the quality of their Christian commitment and devotion. Whilst the gross corruptions and idolatries of Pergamos and Thyatira were not evident in Sardis, there were other matters of equal offensiveness to God that had to be addressed; else they would know His sudden and swift judgment. And please note precisely what our Lord says they were to remember. It was NOT just what they had received in those earlier days of blessing and true life, though that must ever be seen as vitally important, but HOW they had received it.
There is always something fresh and beautifully attractive about the spiritual experience and expression of new converts. There is always something exciting about a newly planted church, as Gods people eagerly go about witnessing and bringing the attention of a community to the glorious Gospel of Christ. These believers at Sardis had evidently received Gods Word simply, gladly, warmly, and with eager desire to both know and do the will of God. In the first flush of their newly found faith in Christ there would have been such fervour and godly pursuit, and an eagerness to please Him. But things had become routine and predictable, and whilst outwardly they appeared to retain their spiritual vitality, in reality it was all a façade. There was liveliness in their activities but no life in the soul of the church. Its tragically possible to appear alive with appealing charismatic programs, and yet be destitute of that true spiritual life, that pulsating life of the Holy Spirit that does not depend on the program, neither is it related to it. Lets not get taken up with the WHAT but with the HOW, and see to it that it is in accord with what honours and pleases our Lord.
(d) They must hold fast (obey) that truth. This follows, for those who have retained their spiritual life amidst that defilement, decadence and decay, the Lords faithful remnant, must see to it they are not infected like the others. That is an ever-present danger. It is always tragically sad to see a church that once glowed with Divine light and life and love, no longer the spiritual force it was, but whilst perpetuating the routines of service, it is devoid of God-glorifying vitality. Joseph Seiss says of the Church of Sardis,
(it) was a drooping plant and a dead carcass
it soon had more profession than vitality, and more boastfulness than purity of fruit.
And what we observe in a Church such as Sardis finds the same principles applying to us as to our personal Christian lives and ministries.
(e) They must repent. If we think that this is the hardest thing for sinners to do, on hearing and being challenged by the Gospel presented in its reality and authority, because of their inbred self-righteousness, then I think this is equally the hardest thing for pastors and Churches and backslidden believers to do. For repentance is primarily a change of mind, thus our coming into accord with what GOD reveals in His Word, and acting upon that with a change of attitude and direction. And its our repentance that enables God to forgive us. There is NO forgiveness, no recovery, no revival, and no vital Christianity if there is no repentance. Sardis needed to REPENT. They had fallen from grace. Their outward show might have bluffed their neighbours but not their Lord. The church was defiled; it had sinned, and needed cleansing.
The prescription for restoration is no different today! Let us stop glorying in our past, and boasting in our present image. Let us cease indulging in self-praise based on the idea that we are alive by virtue of our activities, programs, and the numbers of people we can attract through our church doors.
As I conclude these thoughts, let me go back to the communiqué of Brother Trask, who rightly says
Our efforts will be for naught if they are not bathed in prayer. Unless God breathes into us the breath of His Spirit, unless He canopies us with His presence, little will be accomplished. May God grant us wisdom, insight, and anointing. Through His power we are able to do what we cannot do in our own strength and wisdom. With His enabling, we will be all we can be to His glory and honour.
We might well concur with these expressions, but let us not simply SAY these things then lean to our own understanding, give in to the pressure of deluded peers who want to impose upon us their compelling new revelations, and often under the guise that it is getting back to Biblical and apostolic patterns but THEIR view of what those Biblical patterns and principles are! That urgently needed wisdom, insight, and anointing that Brother Trask refers to, does not come through some person going around with a special ministry of impartation, but by each of us getting down before God in the secret place and beseeching God to grant us His favour for such critical times, to reveal Himself and His ways to us through His sure Word. And added to this, seeking the Lord in the public prayer arena, where the Church is urged to come together TO PRAY. If we want REVIVAL, for that is what we are in need of: a genuine Holy Ghost Revival; then we must recognise that it will not come by re-programming, re-structuring, re-vamping sterile notions, but by REPENTING, RE-EVALUATING, AND FREQUENTLY REVISITING TO THE PLACE OF PRAYER.
In another recent article on this website I quoted from a message by Rev. Gene Jackson, which he has graciously permitted me to publish on this website. You will find that message in the Leaders page do read it. But let me quote from it again, as it relates to the point I am making here:
The address where we meet Him will be forever unchanged. It is an altar of prayer! If we dont pray until we get right with God, forget the reorganization. We have Power-point in our computers to enable us to get fancy in our singing and current in our preaching. But, let me tell you, if you dont have power in your soul, Power-point in your projector is not going to be worth a hoot. The dearth we are feeling in our Fellowship has nothing to do with organization or being current (whatever on earth that is). Our dearth is in the soul.
Sadly the altar of prayer is generally neglected in so many of the churches today. They have all kinds of events on their weekly calendar except prayer meetings! The great business of PRAYER is wilfully neglected. Whilst people may not forget the place where the sermon is to be preached, they forget the place where the prayer meeting should be held!
And another sad observation of mine in recent times is that even in the rare prayer meetings, WHERE IS THAT BURDENED PRAYING? There is often a great amount of singing but little outpouring of hearts in burdened, passionate, sustained, and truly intercessory prayer. Gods people have lost the art of praying, if I can express it in such terms without being misunderstood. How we need to inquire again of our Lord, as did the disciples, Lord, teach us to pray
Hosea 10:12. Zechariah 10:1.
from: http://www.aeronmorgan.org
_________________ SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
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