Category: Theology

Meagre attempts to think God’s thoughts after him. Teaching old dogmas new tricks.

Too Much or Not Enough?


Too much or not enough? That is always the challenge when we look to church history, historical theology and the history of biblical interpretation. How much credence do we give to the reflections and conclusions of those who have gone before us. The Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck is really helpful :

The history of dogma and dogmatics is therefore to be regarded as a mighty attempt to appropriate the truth of God revealed in Christ and to fully understand the essence of Christianity. In evaluating that agelong dogmatic labor, people have erred both to the left and to the right and in turn been guilty both of overestimation and underestimation.[1]

So the trick is to find the right balance: not too much but not too little.  Part of this includes the humility to recognize that we aren’t the first people to look at theological questions. As Bavinck says:

Processing the content of Scripture dogmatically, however, is not just the work of one individual theologian, or of a particular church or school, but of the entire church throughout the ages, of the whole new humanity regenerated by Christ. [2]

How is your view of the biblical and theological conclusions of those believers who have gone before you? How much weight do you give to their opinions?

Too Much or Not Enough?

[1] Herman Bavinck, John Bolt, and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics: Prolegomena, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 116.

[2] Ibid. 116–117.

Canadian Christians: Dwarfs, Deadheads or Douglas Firs?

It’s really encouraging to see all of the good and godly resources that are available to Canadian Christians today.

Consider what a blessing it is to have Tim Challies writing and  resourcing us, assisting in the discipleship of Christians all over the world. There are new initiatives like The Gospel Coalition Canada getting off the ground that intend to help Canadian churches grow in depth and unity. Good publishers print more books than mere mortals can attempt to read.

But for all of our resources, when we look at ourselves with a properly Canadian self-criticism, we can see that we’re not really where we ought to be in spiritual maturity. Our churches could be so much sounder, our prayers could be more frequent, our witness could be more winsome and consistent and our thoughts of God more clear and honouring to Him.

As usual, JI Packer has crafted a perfect picture of the contrast between first, what we look like today, and second, what we could aspire to under God’s grace.

Dwarfs and Deadheads

First of all, Packer says that the contemporary church is so affected by affluence that it has been making, “dwarfs and deadheads of us all.” [1]

With gospel-centred this, and grace-based that, it is jolting to think that we’re not really very far along. It can sober us up to think that our misplaced priorities, worship of glass ‘screens’ and affluent anxieties have kept us stunted.  All of these God-centred resources are helpful, and we should praise God for the blessing of them. But we need to be careful about being too big for our britches. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4.6).

One of the graces which God gives, is the memory of faithful believers who have gone before us. The biblical summary of this practice is found in Hebrews 11 where the author reminds his readers of the example of believers who have gone before them. Their historical example is intended to be a ‘useable past’ to encourage renewed faith and obedience.

Redwoods

That was Packer’s second point in the contrast.  If we are dwarfs and deadheads, we need to look at some examples of folks who weren’t.  So Packer turned to the English Puritans. In doing so, he crafted one of the most picturesque descriptions of Christian maturity which has come down to us:

On a narrow strip of the northern California coastline grow the giant Redwoods, the biggest living things on earth. Some are over 360 feet tall, and some trunks are more than 60 feet round. They do not have much foliage for their size; all their strength is in those huge trunks, with foot-thick bark, that rise sheer for almost half their height before branching out. Some have actually been burned, but are still alive and growing. Many hundreds of years old, over a thousand in some cases, the Redwoods are (to use a much-cheapened word in its old, strict, strong sense) awesome. They dwarf you, making you feel your smallness as scarcely anything else does. Great numbers of Redwoods were thoughtlessly felled in California’s logging days, but more recently they have come to be appreciated and preserved, and Redwood parks are today invested with a kind of sanctity. A 33-mile road winding through Redwood groves is fittingly called the Avenue of the Giants.

California’s Redwoods make me think of England’s Puritans, another breed of giants who in our time have begun to be newly appreciated. Between 1550 and 1700 they too lived unfrilled lives in which, speaking spiritually, strong growth and resistance to fire and storm were what counted.

Packer then summarized the appeal of this kind of maturity which the Puritans had:

As Redwoods attract the eye, because they overtop other trees, so the mature holiness and seasoned fortitude of the great Puritans shine before us as a kind of beacon light, overtopping the stature of the majority of Christians in most eras, and certainly so in this age of crushing urban collectivism, when Western Christians sometimes feel and often look like ants in an anthill and puppets on a string.

Douglas Firs

In Canadian churches we can pray that we would grow more like Redwoods and less like deadheads, as we seek to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our own needy generation. Maybe a Canadian way to think about this Puritan-like goal would be to swap the picture of Redwoods for Douglas Firs.

Just stop and imagine what it could be like if local churches in Canada were filled with people who were like spiritual Douglas Firs. Not one or two “Big Lonely Dougs” (like the tallest one in Port Renfrew), but a spiritual forest of godly people, with new and old growth climbing skyward. We know it will only happen if our churches send their roots deep, and we withstand many trials of wind and fire. But let us hope and pray that God would grow the church in Canada “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4.13).

[1] J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990), 11–12.

photo credit: 

Teaching the Nicene Creed At Dinner

Our table is like most. Three boys fidget. Their fingers dart toward their plates before prayers. Sitting still and waiting are two expectations that seem torturous to minds filled with Nerf wars and the next silly face. So we all laugh and we wait. I pray. Or my wife prays. Or we all pray. One prayer or five depending on how things are going.  We eat and talk and giggle and correct and are corrected and giggle and share.

After everyone except the slowpoke has finished their meal, with dirty plates still in front of them, we’ll take a few moments to return our thoughts toward the living God.  I will read a passage of Scripture, or we will work on some Bible memory. If we are learning a new passage, sometimes I will have one of the older boys read it for us. Then I will ask questions about the passage.

“What does ‘grace’ mean?” I’ll ask. 

One will respond and say something like, ‘I know what it means but I just don’t know how to describe it”.

So I always back up. “Is it a good thing or a bad thing?”

Kids always have good instincts on this. Even if they don’t understand a concept they can have great antennae for picking up positive or negative signals in words. From there we will talk about what ‘grace’ looks like in our family relationships (‘picking up your brother’s dirty plate, as well as your own when he left his behind’), and then on to some classic little definitions from our relationship with God (‘undeserved favour’).

In just a few minutes of back and forth questioning we have done just a little bit of what might be called catechesis. It’s not Cyril of Jerusalem, but its something. And even as I consider what others do in the church today, what we do isn’t what could be done, and certainly not what many others do so well, but it is a small bit that may contribute to a lot in our children’s lives over the weeks, months and years.

In the course of things, our youngest didn’t have a bible memory verse assigned from school, so we would work on the Nicene Creed with him. He’s five now and attempting to fit in with the order and discipline of kindergarten two days per week. Fidgeting, chatting, lounging and generally being a boy—that’s his learning style these days. But he is learning the Nicene Creed.

All that I do is make him recite the lines. The syntax of the Creed lends itself to short, structured phrases of immense importance. He’ll repeat after me, “begotten, not made.” After which I’ll ask him what does ‘begotten’ mean. Talk about diving into the deep end of the theological pool! At the very least I’ll tell him about the relationship between a father and a son, and how there is a picture in that of being begotten, yet “begotten, not made” is a great mystery. He is content to confess the Creed, to understand it in ways that he can, and to leave speculating in ways that he can’t. He knows enough to answer without heresy when asked, “Is Jesus created?”. Most of the time he can say, “No. He’s begotten, not made”.

We’ve used other resources like the New City Catechism. With its friendly app, the shortened version for children is included within the text of the longer version for adults. Our kids delight in reciting the shortened version and challenging us to recite the longer one. As my memory stumbles it’s a good time for some dessert of humble pie.

Added to the table talk is using a great bed time book. For the Nicene Creed, I am grateful for my friend Ian Clary who gave us, I Believe: The Nicene Creed. Published by Eerdmans the main benefit of this small blue board book is the illustrations from Pauline Baynes. She is best known for her work illustrating the Narnia books from CS Lewis and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The book itself is filled with imagery that looks like it comes from a medieval manuscript complete with creatures of fantasy beside gothic church architecture. Our ‘Creed book’ is on its third child and bound by layers of Scotch tape.

Is this table talk of the Word of God and the theology of the Church a great model for others? Probably not. There are those who are able to have ‘family worship’ that is more complete or robust than what we do. But we pray and we try and we trust God to use this little table talk for his glory in the lives of our children.

photo credit: By Frederick George Cotman (1850 – 1920) (British) Born in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. Details of artist on Google Art Project [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Holy & Intense Activity: JI Packer’s Four Stage Sequence

With all of the dangers we face with being too busy (see DeYoung’s Crazy Busy), there can almost become a suspicion of intense activity as being a bit fleshly.

I remember once in a church how some people were criticizing an explosion of ministry activity by a zealous few. A wise farmer told me that everyone looks busy when you’re standing still.

We can still cast suspicion on those who are busy with the Lord’s work. It is helpful to have guidelines for what intense activity looks like when it maintains holiness as a priority.

JI Packer has great wisdom on this theme. In one section from Keep in Step With the Spirit, he outlines the four stages of activity according to what he calls “Augustinian holiness”.  He says:

“The activity Augustinian holiness teaching encourages is intense, as the careers of such prodigiously busy holy men as Augustine himself, Calvin, Whitefield, Spurgeon, and Kuyper show, but it is not in the least self-reliant in spirit.”

This is Packer’s “four stage sequence” for intense, holy activity

  1. First, as one who wants to do all the good you can, you observe what tasks, opportunities, and responsibilities face you.
  2. Second, you pray for help in these, acknowledging that without Christ you can do nothing—nothing fruitful, that is (John 15:5).
  3. Third, you go to work with a good will and a high heart, expecting to be helped as you asked to be.
  4. Fourth, you thank God for help given, ask pardon for your own failures en route, and request more help for the next task.

Packer concludes:

Augustinian holiness is hardworking holiness, based on endless repetitions of this sequence.” Keep in Step With the Spirit (Baker, 2005), 105

Questions to Consider:

  • Are you suspicious of those who seem to do a lot of good ministry?
  • Have you considered that God could expand your capacities according to opportunities and responsibilities? Have you seen God do this for you in the past?
  • Do you pray for help so that you don’t work in a Christ-less way?
  • Do you have expectancy that God will help you in the good activity?
  • Do you show gratitude to God for the things that you’ve accomplished, or repentance for what you’ve failed in, as well as prayer for further help?

Look in the Mirror

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1.22-25)

When there is only a cursory attention paid to God’s interpretation of things, then you will not remember God’s interpretation of things. The result is that you will be completely out of step with how to interpret things.

  • You can’t see life right.
  • You can’t see people right.
  • You can’t see your feelings right.
  • You can’t see your purpose right.
  • You forget what you are like, without Christ.

You forget. Because you are not taking care to look closely into the mirror. You are so unlike a teenager on Friday night— you’re not looking to see how things really look.

You can only know that through the mirror of the Word of God.

But when you do look intently at the Word, you find that it is gives clarity to you.

And when you get a clear view of yourself and all of life in this mirror, then you can have liberty.  The word becomes this law or principle of liberty. You are confident, because you have seen the way things really are in the Word. You are at liberty because you know what is true, what is not.

God promises that persevering in the Word in this way makes your “Word-ward” life lived in an outward way. This is evidence of grace. It is evidence of God’s blessing upon you. That is James’ beatitude here. “You will be ‘blessed’ in your doing’.

There is a blog run by a group of Australian Anglicans called the Sola Panel. It is a wordplay on the fact that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for God’s glory alone.  All of those ‘alones’ in Latin are the ‘Solas’. So they call it the Sola Panel.

But isn’t that what Christians do? They look into the Sola Panel of God’s Word and what do they see?  The blinding radiance of the Glory of God!

The heat, and brilliance and power and energy of God the Son is emblazoned before our eyes in the Word of God, the Scriptures, this great reflective mirror.

And when we gaze at it, something miraculous happens. We become a mirror. We become a reflector of the glory of God. And we join in the church with so many other reflectors so that we may cover the earth with Word of God, written, as Paul says, “not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.(2 Cor 3.3).

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2Cor3.18)

The Christian lives like a walking IPad with a constant streaming of God’s Word for all to see and read.

As Spurgeon said of John Bunyan, “this man is a living Bible! Prick him anywhere—his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God. I commend his example to you, beloved.”

So if we are confused by how things appear in our world, all it takes is another look in the mirror –the mirror of God’s Word.

The Gospel Coalition in Canada: A Generational Opportunity

In October I was invited to participate in a regional conference in Ontario. The theme was on revival and the expositions were very good, especially those given by Don Carson, the Canadian born scholar. The sponsoring group was The Gospel Coalition’s Ontario Chapter.

Now The Gospel Coalition (TGC) was formed in 2005 by Don Carson and New York City pastor Tim Keller as a modest plan to rally about 40 broadly Reformed pastors together in order to assist the church by leveraging resources for teaching and outreach.

Since then, TGC has had conferences and a significant web influence, as well as the beginnings of regional ‘chapters’. In Canada, groups in Ontario, Atlantic Canada and Quebec have started chapters of the US-based TGC.  Yet many Canadian church leaders felt that a separate national group was needed. So discussions began at the TGC Ontario conference to talk about forming The Gospel Coalition Canada.

I was privileged to be asked to participate in those discussions about TGC. I heard Don Carson tell about the history of TGC and how it has grown to have a great influence beyond the US. Carson said that the city with the highest amount of users for the TGC website came from Sydney, Australia! Yet Carson stated that TGC had never intended to be an international ministry. It was a US oriented para-church ministry. So what has happened in response is that groups from different countries have started TGC-like organizations with similar aims, but with complete control in their own hands, not the US group. TGC offered to generously share resources, and branding, but hoped that these other countries would develop their own ministry as they saw fit.

Australia was a test case for this (although Spanish and French speaking groups have begun as well). An Australian Council was established to form The Gospel Coalition Australia. For now, they use a ‘mirrored’ version of the US TGC site, but they are developing on their own, making decisions as they see fit for the Australian context.

So in Canada, there is the possibility of the same thing happening. In the October meeting in Ontario, it was decided among the assembled group that John Neufeld of Back to the Bible Canada, and John Mahaffey, Pastor of West Highland Baptist, Hamilton, would invite an initial council together to consider the TGC doctrinal statement and the prospect of establishing a para-church entity in Canada.

Unlike the US, Canada has very few para-church ministries that are theologically robust, yet unifying across denominations around the gospel. In the US, TGC is just one of many differing ‘Reformed evangelical’ constituencies, which can overlap with other sound ministries. Canada has none. And the evangelical denominations in Canada are losing any distinctiveness in being evangelical, while individual churches are finding more in kinship with churches outside of their denominations than in them. This is where a Gospel Coalition-type of ministry could be helpful in Canada.

I was asked to participate in the Ottawa meeting  last week with other Reformed evangelical pastors in order to establish The Gospel Coalition Canada. This is an immense privilege for me and it touches on a ministry burden that I have had since the early days of my Christian life. Canada needs sound gospel preaching, in sound gospel churches, populated by sound, gospel Christians.

The possibility of The Gospel Coalition Canada is in my view a generational opportunity in this country. It is my opinion that nearly all of the Canadian evangelical denominations will be ‘former’ evangelicals within a generation. This is already happening, so that the ‘coalitions’ of the past, whether Baptist, Mennonite,Reformed, Presbyterian, etc., will all become similar in structure, doctrine and practice to the United Church of Canada or the Anglican Church of Canada. These ‘churches’ are merely social agencies, or advocacy groups who are at best trafficking in the bare husk of confessional orthodoxy.

 

The Gospel Coalition Canada, is not another denomination. However as Dr. Carson made clear in October it is a para-church ministry. It simply comes alongside of the church and helps the church, because the church is the main thing. Nevertheless, such coalition building is desperately needed in Canada where so many churches and leaders feel isolated and unaware of others who may be likeminded. In response to this isolation, many pastors and churches have looked south to the US. They have even begun to develop ministry connections with US based ministries. The more North-South cooperation has happened, the less East-West assistance has occurred.

The Gospel Coalition Canada is an effort to change that.

It is an attempt to share in the ministry of the gospel together across a vast land that stretches from sea to sea to sea. It is a generational opportunity. And in the spiritual lostness of Canada’s great expanse may our prayer be that God  would graciously bless such efforts to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ today and until he returns in glory.

DeYoung on Catechisms

Catechisms have been around for a long time. Maybe so long you’ve forgotten they are around.

Depending on your background you may have grown up in a church that regularly used a catechism, such as the Heidelberg, the Westminster, or even Martin Luther’s. Maybe its time to revive the use of catechisms.

Kevin DeYoung wrote a book on using the Heidelberg Catechism today, called ‘The Good News We Almost Forgot“.

In an interview at First Things, he gave four good reasons for why you should use a catechism:

  1. It’s an intuitive way to learn about the faith. There’s almost a conversational element to reading through a catechism.
  2. When we use old confessions and catechisms were [sic] help teach our people that their faith is an old faith, shared by millions over many centuries. We also help them realize that other Christians have asked the same questions.
  3. Catechisms are ready made documents for Sunday school, new members classes, or even the occasional sermon.
  4. Catechisms guard us against faddishness and chronological snobbery.

The Gospel Coalition has sponsored a hybrid of the great, classic Reformed catechisms that they have put into an app and more. My family has been using it at home, and it is formatted in such a way that the kids can learn a shorter colour-coded version of each Q&A, but in the same thought flow as the longer version for adults.

College students in my church are using it too.

Its called New City Catechism. Get it. Use it. Grow.

Why You Should Attend the Calvary Grace Conference

One of the things that happens when you do something for a while is that you start to de-prioritize it. When life is busy, the things that used to be special become commonplace. As the old saying goes, ‘familiarity breeds contempt’.
 

Same Old, Same Old

 
That can happen at church very easily. The same preaching. The same singing. The same arrangement of people in the pews. What was special and precious becomes common and even forgettable. Same old, same old.
 

Your First Love

Now we know that the church is not a social club, so our enjoyment and prioritizing of the church is rooted in something much more important—our love for Jesus. If we lose our ‘first love’ (Rev 2.4), then we will certainly lose our love for the church. But as we grow in our love for Jesus, we will love what he loves— the congregation of smelly, stubborn sheep( cf. John 10.11).
 

Conferences as Intense Spiritual Opportunities

 
The same is even true for specific things like conferences. A conference is an opportunity to have intensive focus on God’s word and his ways in fellowship with other people. A conference can provide a special season of growing in the Lord. This is the reason that I have wanted Calvary Grace to host a conference. It adds an annual time of intense spiritual opportunity for spiritual growth.
 

Conferences as Services to the Church

 
But there is also another reason. Conferences give a host church the opportunity to minister to other Christians (and even non-Christians) who might not enjoy very many spiritual growth opportunities. It is a chance to meet other brothers and sisters in Christ. And it is a way to stoke each others’ spiritual fires through mutual listening, sharing and serving.
 

The Powerful Relevance of Holiness

 
Maybe you’re thinking that, ‘I’ve heard all of these speakers before. There’s nobody new’. Well that’s true. But the topic of Holiness is so critical for our generation, that the content of the messages will certainly be powerfully relevant to your Christian life. Don’t let familiarity lead to contempt. Rather let prayer lead to expectancy.
 

Please pray for this weekend’s conference.

 

Pray for the speakers: Amanda, Christel, Jeff, Paul, Terry, Gavin and myself.
 
Pray for the volunteers in childcare, greeting, sound, setup, book table and more.
 
Pray for the people who will attend; who may not get to hear good teaching on a regular basis, who are starving, looking to be fed.
 
Pray for our Holy God to be glorified in his Triune majesty.
 
Finally, support the Calvary Grace Conference with your presence.
 
Who knows how God will use you this weekend
http://www.calvarygrace.ca/cgc-winter-conference-holiness-the-refiners-fire-in-a-facebook-age

The Inner Work: Is Spirituality Squishy and Subjective?

As a result of mysticism and falsehood there can be an aversion to dealing with the inner workings of the heart. Yet the Scriptures speak of this inner work often, even as it affirms the reality of God’s truth that exists whether we have an inner connection to it or not. Spirituality isn’t merely squishy and subjective. True spirituality deals with truth.

So the psalmist can say that God gets enjoyment, even delight “in truth in the inward being” and he teaches ‘wisdom in the secret heart’ (Psalm 51). There is the concern on God’s part that what occurs in the heart resonates with what is true or real or right.

JC Ryle wrote of the ‘mathematical parallelism’ that righteousness demands. Any lack of conformity to that is sin. And this need for parallel conformity to the truth and righteousness of God must be realized in the heart.

So there is an inward work in the heart, but it is far from a mystical ‘inner journey’. It is also far from the self-evacuation and attempted emptying of thought or consciousness. What God requires is exactly the opposite. It is an inward turning of the heart, the affections and attentions, toward what is real and true. It is a constant recalculating of the equations to test and prove that all of the principles involved are in their correct place and proportion.

The inward work is heart work, but it is not undefined and subjective. It is the systematic testing of the inward soul against the revelatory clarity of the Word of God, which is the revelation of truth and righteousness. It is then, the souls conformity to the living embodiment of this truth, even God, the Son— Jesus Christ.

Any lack of conformity, as a criminal sin, must be atoned for. But that is where Jesus Christ offers right standing to sinners (conformity of righteousness), as well as punishment absorption, like a sponge, (atonement for nonconformity). He also gives the promise of making us conform through the powerful inner working of his Holy Spirit. Though it is the task of a lifetime, it has a promised result, full conformity- that we will be holy as he is holy (1 Peter 1.16).

 

If you are wanting to learn more about what it means to be holy in a crazy, unholy age, then join me at our annual Calvary Grace Conference February 5-6, Holiness: The Refiner’s Fire in a Facebook Age.

Soft Persecution will clear out the Lone Ranger Christians.

Spiritual But Not Religious?

If you’ve been around Evangelicals at all you know that they speak often about persecution in the West, and maybe not enough about persecution of Christians around the world. Sometimes church folks can be almost embarrassing in the way they complain about difficulties in the workplace or at school as if they are on par with the persecution faced by Middle Eastern Christian believers for example, who have lost homes, limbs and even loved ones.

 

But there is a growing sense of ‘soft’ persecution, of the type that is not physically hostile, but it is ideologically so. It is the institutional removal of Evangelicals from participation in the public square. It is a sort of a Western, secular-branded policy similar to the one in Muslim countries called, dhimmitude. Minorities such as Christians must pay extra tax, and be excluded from various aspects of civil society. Now it seems that Christians may be treated that way in the liberal West.

 

Having fundamentals of human identity as male and female cast off by the whims of state legislators is one institutional way of marginalizing Christians. It’s a soft persecution.

 

Now take the state of the Evangelical church right now in Canada. Many have described the practice of the ‘circulation of the sheep’. That is the idea of people who claim to follow Jesus yet are disconnected from a local church, circulating from one church to the next. Their spirituality is a private thing, and they see little need for committing to other Christians in any lasting and meaningful way.

 

So there is this phenomenon of the “Lone Ranger Christians”. It’s a Christianese term for professing Jesus followers who don’t get along with the church. Any church. Now I don’t like the term Lone Ranger Christian because it’s bad press for the Lone Ranger who was a great guy. But the problem with the Lone Ranger Christian is that they have already given the game away before a hint of soft persecution has touched them. Their faith is only a notion, not a confession. They follow Jesus only in convenience, not conscience. And the summons of Jesus to ‘take up the cross and follow me’ is viewed as a conditional suggestion not a command.

 

For years now, well-attended Evangelical churches have catered to the Lone Ranger Christian by softening the commands of Jesus, and amplifying the creature comforts of attendees. When asked, a person will say that one of the mega-churches is ‘their church’, but they are on the margins of its fluid communal life, slipping in and out like one more latte stop.

 

Thankfully, there has been a renewal happening in Canadian churches that sees historic Christianity as offering something more. The Christian gospel has stability in a world of flux as well as a sense of the supernatural in a society of cold-pressed materialism. What is noteworthy about this renewal is that many young people are proving to be the surprising examples of maturity for some in the older crowd. It is a strange juxtaposition to see a Millennial modelling ‘churchmanship’ for a Boomer.

 

Although it is unwelcome, there is no need to fear persecution. Even the soft stuff, though difficult, will have a purpose. As Christians are institutionally shamed and economically or politically marginalized, one thing is certain, nobody will be a Lone Ranger Christian anymore. There will only be the solid, identifiable church confessors, and the former Evangelicals who capitulate faster than you can say, “Hi Yo Silver, Away!”