Re-Digging The Wells
In the Bible book of Genesis, chapter 26, there's a powerful story of one man's drive to recapture what his father had left him.
In the desert, Isaac unstopped the wells that had been dug by his father Abraham (Genesis 26:18). In the parched eastern deserts, wells were much more than holes-in-the-ground. They represented refreshment for the thirsty and, for many a traveler, life itself.
Isaac's next-door neighbours, the Philistines, had plugged up the wells - literally, 'hidden them from view' or 'kept them secret'. Isaac uncovered those deep wells of water and revealed them to a new generation.
The spiritual fathers of the European church left us with a powerful legacy. They dug some deep spiritual wells. In Acts 16, Paul was forbidden to go further into Asia; the Holy Spirit sent him west, into Europe.
For centuries since then, the history of world evangelism, church planting and serious, world-changing Christian outreach was the story of European Christianity. The world heard about Jesus because European Christians were willing to pray, sacrifice, preach and lay down their lives for the gospel.
We could easily include many European names in the Hebrews 11 list of honour: could easily insert names of European Christian leaders in roll of heroes of faith:
'And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Luther, Wesley, Muller, Roberts, Livingstone, Taylor, Studd and Carey, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of (spiritual) lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in (spiritual) battle and routed foreign armies.' (Heb. 11:32-34 - with some European additions!)
Yet today there are over 250,000 cities, towns and villages in Europe that have no Christian church. A century of materialism, humanism, rationalism, communism and socialism has covered over the wells left us by our fathers, robbing new generations of the incredible power of risk-taking, heroic Christian faith.
Today's Europe is like a thirsty spiritual desert. It's time to re-dig the wells!
Reconciliation
Our forefathers of faith were men and women who brought people together. Not through compromise, but through bringing the peace of Christ to troubled lives.
Today, the generations on which the future of the church will be based are alienated and fatherless. Time magazine asked a group of teenagers, "What would you want most if stranded on a desert island?" The biggest group (29%) said "my parents".
The young are even more, alienated and fatherless because they've been cut off from their true identity under God. Modern Babylon has stolen their real names - their identities under God - and replaced them with names of its own making (see Daniel 1).
People have gone from being children of God to the offspring of algae.
So, young people are open to the message of reconciliation we bring (2 Corinthians 5:18). Many of their greatest heroes are reconcilers - people like Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela. We must build contemporary churches that release reconciliation in and through people. We must re-dig the wells of reconciliation by:
1. Build 'access ramps' between church and community.
Living in a foreign land, I've observed that in any nation there are two groups of people. There are those who know they have a culture, an established way of looking at things, and those who don't. The former tend to be tolerant and patient toward outsiders, the latter do not.
We need to constantly review the way we 'do church', the way we style our public services - not to water down our message or remove the supernatural, but to explain the unusual to people for whom it is a foreign 'culture.'
2. Build covenants with other church leaders.
God is a covenant-maker and he honours covenants. A covenant is much more than a friendship. It is a friendship or partnership that has grown to such a level that two parties have made - implicitly or explicitly - a binding agreement to do what is in the other person's best interests even if it costs them dearly.
3. Build alliances for a common goal.
You cannot establish covenant with someone outside the faith, as this would mean being 'unequally yoked'. You can't allow people outside the faith to establish the direction of your life.
But you can build alliances with other leaders in the community. Abraham and Isaac formed alliances with tribal kings of their day. These were pacts set up for mutual protection, and without them these men of God would not have been able to pursue God's goals for their lives.
We need to form special relationships with groups outside of the church in order to achieve certain important goals that we could not hope to reach alone.
4. Teach people relational skills.
In our teaching - and in our lifestyle - we need to teach and model conflict resolution skills, empathy and forgiveness.
Many people in our 'just do it', self-first culture have never been taught how to get into the habit of forgiveness; how to line up their thinking and emotions with the word of God. These are skills they can learn, through sound, practical instruction and the inner work of the Spirit.
5. Pursue true excellence.
Nothing 'breeds' a spirit of reconciliation like an excellent heart. Excellence is a generosity of spirit that pushes us beyond what is normal, beyond what is expected. When we give beyond expectations, we take people by surprise and break down the Berlin Walls between people.
6. Preach the gospel.
Paul tells us that reconciliation is at the very heart of the gospel we proclaim.
The Good News is that God is not angry with me any more (see Ephesians 2). We must watch over our own attitudes and preaching to be sure that what started in grace does not end in legalism.
Relevance
Heroes of faith like William Booth and the Wesley's believed that God wants to speak where people are listening. God wants to be where people least expect him to be, doing things that take people by surprise.
In our time, that will mean we must be involved with:
1. Media:
This is a wired generation. Media of all kinds exert incredible influence on our lives. The internet alone has forever changed the way we bank, the way we build relationships and the way we buy. It took 38 yrs for radio to attract its first 50 million listeners, but only four years for the Internet to attract 50 million users.
Where are the 'Net missionaries', the 'wired warriors' who will go into the world's chat rooms and build relationships in order to share Christ?
2. Arts
In the 1970s, the attendance at art galleries tripled. Art has influence because it speaks to the 'psyche', the intuitive part of us. That word is often translated in the New Testament as 'spirit'. For many people, art offers the closest they have come to a truly spiritual experience.
Unfortunately, much of the church has come to think of the arts as something 'out there', something others do which we don't like! As a result we've given up a powerful influence on people's thinking and a wonderful ally to preaching.
3. Sport
For many people in the western world, sport has taken the place of religion. People talk about it constantly, they give their money to it, they build their timetables around it, they try to model themselves after its stars and they try to learn life lessons from it.
But for those same people, coming to church would be a huge cross-cultural experience! We must find ways to communicate at a level they can understand.
We must unstop the wells of relevance.
Truth
In our times, people have started talking about a 'godless morality', a system of truth without a God. What was called 'wrong' not so long ago, is now called 'inappropriate'. Even scientists worry that we are losing our moral bearings in the face of new technologies.
We are finding out that when a society becomes de-moralized it becomes demoralized.
Truth has been replaced by things like pragmatism ("it's right because it works"), tolerance (which today really means "political correctness", trying not to offend anyone), and image. We've elevated celebrity over achievement. But in a world that is impressed by artiface, God still looks on the heart.
All these are based in relativism, which says that the highest good is to do what is right for you at the time. That's a shaky foundation for life, because it is built on incomplete human wisdom. Real truth is based in righteousness - the highest good is to be like God in your attitudes & actions. This is a solid foundation, because God's character doesn't change.
We need to show new generations that character is not just based on keeping rules. In fact, sometimes it takes a person of great character to break the rules. Character is based on living by the values on which the rules are based.
Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus saw beyond the regulations of the Law to the priorities that God was trying to show us through those laws. Jesus didn't come to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it, to make it possible for us to live by the standards behind the Law, standards based on God-like character!
Our generation needs to rediscover the wells of truth.
Pioneer Spirit
One of saddest things I see in my constant travels around Europe today is this: generations of Europeans have no taste for risk, no desire to pioneer anything!
Humanism says: why bother taking risks when there's nobody up there to reward me? Communism says: why bother when you can't enjoy the fruits of your labours? Socialism says: why bother when the state will do a better job anyway?
Socialistic thinking has robbed many young adults of their confidence in taking risks. It has made them believe that they can't do anything big or worthwhile without the sanction and support of some bureaucracy or other.
How do Christian leaders re-establish the wells of pioneering? We do it by:
1. Having a Vision that needs pioneers
We must attempt things that can't be done without pioneers - things like church planting, missions, street evangelism.
2. Preaching a message that Inspires pioneers
John F. Kennedy caught the spirit of a generation of young adults in the early 1960s, when he said: 'Ask not what country can do for you, ask what you can do for your coutnry.'
Then, when he formed Peace Corps, thousands of young people rushed to join up. He preached a message that inspired pioneers.
3. Building a structure that supports pioneers
'Releasing' people into ministry does not mean casting them out or cutting them off. It means giving them the benefit of ongoing relationship, support and accountability. We've let too many young pioneers suffer depression and burn-out because we've isolated them.
4. Having a lifestyle that's a model for pioneers
Colin Powell has said that, 'You have achieved excellence as a leader when people will follow you everywhere if only out of curiosity.' As leaders we need to ask ourselves: 'Are people inspired to follow us just to find out where I'll go next? What risks am I taking? Am I setting people's imaginations on fire by the way I live?'
Our world says, "It can't be done" - God says, "all things possible to those who believe." The world says, 'it costs too much' - the Bible says, "my God will supply all my needs according to riches in glory." Many churches say, "it takes a long time" - God says, ''now is the accepted time, today is the day of salvation".
We need to re-dig the wells of pioneering.
Sacrifice
Hudson Taylor took the gospel to China. David Livingstone reached into the heart of Africa. They did it because they were willing to make sacrifices.
Sacrifice is a quality of all effective leadership. There can never be change without sacrifice on the part of the leader. There's a price to pay for real influence
Martin Luther King paid a heavy price. He was arrested and jailed several times. His house was bombed, and he was stoned and stabbed. Yet his influence continued to grow. One night in Memphis, he made a powerful speech:
'I don't know what will happen to me now… But it doesn't matter to me now… Like anybody else, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And H'es allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over and seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. We I'm happy tonight…I'm not fearing any man.'
The next day he was shot dead. He paid the ultimate price for his stand. But his sacrificial life gave his followers courage to fight on until they won.
There is no such thing as a cross-less Christianity. Jesus still says to us today: 'Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me'. We must re-dig the wells of sacrifice.
Faith
George Muller was a German minister living in Britain. He became a 'legend' by feeding hundreds of orphaned children every, plus his large staff, on nothing more than the power of prayer.
Though his needs were enormous, he never published a newsletter to raise money, or promoted his situation. He just prayed the money in! He said his goal was simple: he wanted his life to show that the God of the Bible is still able to do the marvellous works of the past in the present!
In Europe, people like to play it safe. They live by their conditioning because they've never seen their calling. They live for what they're trained for rather than what they're born for.
We need to re-dig the wells of faith!
Hebrews 11 tells us that heroes of faith are people who 'obtain promises'. They see that God's promises are the tangible commitments of a covenant-keeping God who can't lie. So they live as if those promises are already in place: they just have to be claimed, through obedience and bold action.
Prayer
Ludwig Von Zinzendorf started a youth prayer meeting that lasted for 100 years, and launched a missions movement, the Moravians, that touched the world. Evan Roberts birthed a revival that spread from his native Wales to the whole western world - and it started in his private prayer times.
We need to teach a generation how to pray with passion. God is a passionate Person. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says that he is looking for people whose hearts are in line with his, so that he can show his power in their lives.
We need to show a generation how to pray with focus. There are no question marks in the Lord's Prayer. It is a series of decisive requests based on what God has already promised.
We need to raise up prayer warriors who can pray with thanksgiving, always keeping things in perspective and coming to God with a right attitude of humility and love.
And we need to raise up people who can pray with determination. Isaiah 62:7 God tells us to give him 'no rest', to pray until we see his will fulfilled.
Generational Planning
All the great Christian leaders of our past have been people of generational thinking and planning. Wesley sowed himself into the younger men and women of his movement over a generation, and left behind the powerful Methodist movement. William Wilberforce, inspired by Wesley, worked over a whole generation to overthrow the practice of slavery. David Livingstone wrote in his diary, 'We are working for a glorious future we are not destined to see.'
In our 'Just do it', short-term culture, we need Christian leaders who model long-term planning and vision. Leaders who will invest resources in reaching a generation that is not their own. We should not simply run conferences, programs and events for our own peers.
If 90% all first-time commitments for Christ are made by teens and children, and over 60% of world is under 25, why do we spend so little of our resources on reaching the young? Even GenX, today's young adult population, is sadly left out in most church planning.
We must re-dig the wells of generation planning.
Leadership
The history of European Christianity, is the story of great leadership; of men and women who saw further over the horizon than peers and boldly inspired change in people around them.
They were people of both vision and strategy. They not only dreamed - they did!
In Europe, there is sometimes a fear of leadership. We like to keep everyone at the same level because when really prophetic leaders arise they challenge us out of our complacency and comfort. Real leaders set a powerful example, preach a costly message, pay a high price, and bring about great change.
Companies need leaders like this! Nations needs leaders like this! God's Kingdom needs leaders like this! We must re-establish the wells of leadership in Europe, before it is too late. It will be costly, it will be dangerous at times. But it will be something God will bless and use to change a continent!
It's time to re-dig the wells and recapture the influence our forefathers had!
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