Future History
By James L. Smyrl
Executive Pastor of Education at FBC, Jacksonville, Florida
www.loyalheartministries.com
If the return of our Lord occurs 1001 years from today, what will be the assessment on the church of today by historians in 3009? When Vines, Patterson, Rogers, Falwell, Criswell, and Graham are reduced to a few summation paragraphs in a tattered book, what will historians write about their perception of the church in 2008? We look back at the monastic times and ask, “How could godly men hide the gospel from the world?” We ponder scholastic days and ask, “Why did the reasoned study of scripture not produce the salvation of many souls?” We examine the days of awakening and revival and wonder, “Why did spiritual renewal not lead to hermeneutical integrity?” So, what questions may historians ask as they reflect on us?
They may ask, “How could the church in America have been so driven by numbers, yet disregard the 1.8 billion people in the world that had no access to the gospel?” They will see demographic studies that reveal America made up less than 5% of the world’s population, yet 95% of the western world’s Christian resources remained in America. With perplexed looks and indiscernible gazes, the historians of the future will ponder the ability of a church so consumed by stats, yet so oblivious to the one stat that should have mattered.
They may ask, “How could a people known as ‘people of the Book’ stray so far away from biblical ecclesiology in their organization?” No doubt the future historians will debate why corporate America set the standard for employee relations, budgeting processes, and ministry plans within the church. Conferences will convene with scholars presenting assumptive reasons for the limited view of biblical sufficiency evident in the church today. They will ponder how such dogmatic statements could resound from the pulpit, yet immediately go silent in the planning sessions. Future historians will wrestle with reconciling a church that prided itself on conservatism, yet modeled itself according to pragmatism.
They may ask, “How could ministers proclaim a gospel that leads to suffering, yet spend so many Kingdom dollars on making the gospel appeal to pagans?” Carefully preserved samples of ministry marketing campaigns will be on display in vacuum glass cases. Seminary students and future historians will parade by these displays in awe. Their curiosity will peak as they reflect on a church that claimed the power of the Word, but seemed to invest more in making it appealing than in simply proclaiming it. The historians of the future will look at the poverty statistics in our cities and the needs of missionaries around the world, and stand confounded at the line items earmarked for making the gospel pretty.
We still have time to answer their questions. There is still time to provide the future with a model of the church that is pure, undefiled, and a sweet offering to our Lord. Will it take a revival to make such a transition from a business and marketing-led church to a theology-led church? NO. We stand in need of another reformation. Revival will only stir the church to do more of the same. What is required is a reformation that rattles until the fault lines of our faithless foundations are torn in two, and all that remains is a pure gospel that is offensive to a lost world and singularly sufficient to change that world.
