This is from Russell Moore who is Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Whenever
I start to get discouraged about the future of the church, I remember a
conversation I had a few years ago with evangelical theologian Carl F.
H. Henry on what would turn out to be his last visit to Southern
Seminary before his death.
Several of us were lamenting the miserable shape of the church, about
so much doctrinal vacuity, vapid preaching, non-existent discipleship.
We asked Dr. Henry if he saw any hope in the coming generation of
evangelicals.
And I will never forget his reply.
“Why, you speak as though Christianity were genetic,” he said. “Of
course, there is hope for the next generation of evangelicals. But the
leaders of the next generation might not be coming from the current
evangelical establishment. They are probably still pagans.”
“Who knew that Saul of Tarsus was to be the great apostle to the
Gentiles?” he asked us. “Who knew that God would raise up a C.S. Lewis, a
Charles Colson? They were unbelievers who, once saved by the grace of
God, were mighty warriors for the faith.”
Of course, the same principle applied to Henry himself. Who knew
that God would raise up a newspaperman from a nominally Lutheran family
to defend the Scriptures for generations of conservative evangelicals?
The next Jonathan Edwards might be the man driving in front of you
with the Darwin Fish bumper decal. The next Charles Wesley might be a
misogynist, profanity-spewing hip-hop artist right now.
The next Billy
Graham might be passed out drunk in a fraternity house right now. The
next Charles Spurgeon might be making posters for a Gay Pride March
right now. The next Mother Teresa might be managing an abortion clinic
right now.
But the Spirit of God can turn all that around. And seems to delight
to do so. The new birth doesn’t just transform lives, creating
repentance and faith; it also provides new leadership to the church, and
fulfills Jesus’ promise to gift his church with everything needed for
her onward march through space and time (Eph. 4:8-16).
After all, while Phillip was leading the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ, Saul of Tarsus was still a murderer.
Most of the church in any generation comes along through the slow,
patient discipleship of the next generation. But just to keep us from
thinking Christianity is evolutionary and “natural” (or, to use Dr.
Henry’s term “genetic”), Jesus shocks his church with leadership that
seems to come like a Big Bang out of nowhere.
Whenever I’m tempted to despair about the shape of American
Christianity, I’m reminded that Jesus never promised the triumph of the
American church; he promised the triumph of
the church. Most of
the church, in heaven and on earth, isn’t American. Maybe the hope of
the American church is right now in Nigeria or Laos or Indonesia.
Jesus will be King, and his church will flourish. And he’ll do it in
the way he chooses, by exalting the humble and humbling the exalted, and
by transforming cowards and thieves and murderers into the cornerstones
of his New City.
So relax.
And, be kind to that atheist in front of you on the highway, the one
who just shot you an obscene gesture. He might be the one who
evangelizes your grandchildren.
