Does Reformation Have a Model?

Phil Johnson compares the modern (and post-modern) evangelical church with the state of the medieval Catholic church just prior to the Reformation. His comments may not apply to every conservative church, but the warning needs to be heeded all the same. Sometimes worldly philosophy and mystical superstition creep in where you would least expect it. The former seems to be the case with the fad-driven churches so popular today. The latter with the rise of neo-medievalism.

I talk with pastors regularly who are burnt out from trying this, that, and the other thing to stir up their church to "vitality". None of it has made them the next Willow Creek or Redeemer. All of it has left them despairing. One church split later, they end up blaming someone in the church who didn't follow a necessary step or a group of people who wouldn't come on board with the program. What they fail to see is that problem was more likely their own greed, ceasing to be faithful to God's means, and lack of patience to wait on God's timing.

There is an unwritten code among many evangelical pastors that "new is better" and that "preaching is outmoded". This is nothing less than a lie of the Enemy. God's means of grace are the only way God has ever commanded us to accomplish his work. The irony is that these men want Reformation in their church. They sincerely want a revitalized ministry and each of these "fads" promise that very thing.

With so many models available to us, the question then becomes, "Does Reformation have a model?" We can't deny that the Bible presents us with a model for ministry. And Reformation, at its core, must be a "back to the Bible" movement. The difference, however, between obeying Scripture and following fad is a the difference between accepting a worldly business philosophy that demands we have a step by step program and simply applying the Biblical injunctions by faith.

Fads don't work because they are based on demographics, not on faith. When has God ever worked according to human wisdom? Moses? David? Jonah? Tim Keller has said consistently that you cannot copy what he has done at Redeemer in Manhattan. He is absolutely right. That is how God chose to work in that situation. If only men like Rick Warren would cease hoisting their "success" upon other churches and instead encourage other churches to "seek God's wisdom for their situation".

Church revitalization means getting back to the way it is supposed to be--recovering an Acts 2 kind of simplicity--not finding a new and better model. In this light, Iain Murray has a follow up volume to his Evangelicalism Divided entitled The Old Evangelicalism: Old Truths for a New Awakening. By "Old" he does not mean outmoded or outdated, but the way things are supposed to be.

I hope and pray that God will open the eyes of the church to return to its first love.