The Western
church is no longer center stage in modern culture, and as we are shunted aside
it seems reasonable to think that becoming more like the world will entice more
people into our buildings. Then I come upon Jesus’ words, “Blessed are those
who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Hold up, what?! Blessed are who? It might be a small stretch to equate
marginalization and persecution, but I am beginning to think that being pushed
out of mainstream culture could be the best thing that has happened to the body
of Christ today.
In his book The
Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch points to the church in two different times and
geographic areas, the early Christian body and the underground church in China.
Both of these groups of believers became vibrant and large communities during harsh
and unrelenting periods of persecution. Hirsch sees that “Persecution drove
both the early Christian movement and the Chinese church to discover their
truest nature as an apostolic people” and it “acted as a means to keep these
movements true to their faith and reliant on God.”
But how did these
communities turn persecution to power to promote the Kingdom of God? James calls
out from the Word, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials
of many kinds.” Think about that for a minute. This isn’t telling us to tolerate
trouble or to “grin and bear it”, but instead be joyful in it—have a deep,
indescribable emotion welling up in us whenever we face trials because of faith
in the Lord Jesus. What if, instead of pushing back as we are pushed aside or fearing
persecution for our faith, the Western church opened ourselves to the
possibility of being collectively JOYFUL? How much more would we be able to
point the way to the Kingdom of God if our joy in all situations shone through?
Something attracted millions of
converts in the early and Chinese churches. Maybe this joy in persecution promised
to us by our living Savior can be the way we truly live into our calling as a
missional and sent church. Maybe this strange joy from hardship can revitalize
us and help us be the instrument and foretaste of the Kingdom we were meant to
be for the world.
Kate
Curtis, I agree that there is definitely a cycle that takes place between missional and non-missional type churches. Based on that, I think that there is a time and a place for the modalic church, but right now (with the church becoming more marginalized and less a part of culture) I think that the focus of the church needs to be missional (sodalic).
In “the scattered and gathered church” the authors point out a cycle of modalities and sodalities within mission. We see that the grew in prosecution and eventually overtook the culture. But now that the christendom has come, what do they do? being in a post christendom culture, i would ask your thoughts on the cyclical interactions of church and culture.
This is such a wonderful thing to remember! We can get so caught up in the logistics, in doing the church right, in having the truest doctrine and actions that we forget the genuine joy of Jesus Christ. The church is called to be collectively joyful together, I love that! Persecution is inevitable and, as you said, should be welcomed because joy that surpasses all understanding is promised. It is this joy that makes christianity and the church so captivating.
Ashley, I love that! It’s encouraging to think that we must be doing something right if Satan is nervous enough to try to trip us up 🙂
For writings sake I like how you used so much scripture and Hirsch’s book to make your point, which is a really good point. I think the world tells us that we have to act accordingly to certain situations i.e. get mad when someone harms us, get anxious when our work load exceeds our time or become depressed in straining trials. And because those are true emotions those reactions seem to make sense. But when we actually look at the Bible, it says to rejoice in all those things. It’s a foreign concept to us but clearly it’s what God had in mind! On another note of being joyful in trial, I’ve had an experience when I was at a complete loss, and I realized that the only reason I would be experiencing that trial was because Satan had a plan for my life. And if Satan was coming after me, I must have been a threat to him. I truly rejoiced in that situation after realizing that!
I love this! I feel that it is so easy to see trials and tribulations as a possibility for growth but often also pair that with a bad or sorrowful attitude. How different it would be if we, as the Body of Christ allowed every part of our life, especially the struggle and persecution to be consumed in joy! This post challenges me in awesome ways! Thank you!
This is great! It is interesting that we stretch and twist the gospel to cater to the world’s ears when what captivated people about Christ was how different he was. I like what you said about becoming more like the world for attendance’s sake when it should be our joy that makes us unique instruments!