9 minute read
The New Morality and Missions
While reading a news article in Life Magazine on February 24, 1958, a young pastor from the small town of Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, was touched by the story of members of the Mau Maus gang who were on trial for murder in New York City. He left his familiar surroundings and went to Brooklyn to attend their trial. When he attempted to speak to the judge, the young pastor was thrown out of the courtroom and his picture—holding up a Bible—was plastered on the cover of the New York Daily News. This unceremonious event during his attempt to reach the mission field of Brooklyn caused the Mau Maus gang to trust him; after all, he was a mutually disliked person by the law, just like them. Within a few short weeks, Pastor David Wilkerson had organized a citywide rally to reach the gangs of Brooklyn. In the first meeting, the notorious gang leader Nicky Cruz came forward and accepted Christ as his Savior. Wilkerson’s mission efforts led him to start evangelism events, street meetings, and various outreach activities to reach teens throughout the boroughs of New York City. This new ministry, which evolved into what is now known as Teen Challenge, provided help for those recovering from addictions, counseling, and training in practical life skills. It focused not only on Christian conversion, but also on Christian discipleship.1 The rest of the story is history.
One of the greatest principles of reconciling the world is found in the writings of Acts 13. In this one place, our mission to present Christ to the world is defined by reaching out to the rejected, the hated, the despised, and even those whom we or others may fear. It is a remarkable contrast to the norm that identifies both first and twenty-first century evangelism. The historian Luke succinctly sums it up for all of us in Acts 13:44-49:
On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. (NKJV)
Whether it be on the streets of Antioch in Pisidia or the streets of Brooklyn in New York, the challenge for God’s messengers is to turn to the Gentiles—the outcasts, the oppressed, the undesirables, and even the enemies of God. There is much to be learned by the church today about the mission and methods of men like the apostle Paul and Pastor David Wilkerson. Their “life-long ministry was to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the poor, addicted, and forgotten in society,” and they were “known for taking risks and making sacrifices to reach those trapped in harmful and evil circumstances.”2 Reconciling the world is a mission that will often cause you to come into disfavor, even among your closest friends and powerful groups that have their own preferences and agendas. For the apostle Paul, it meant separation from those Judaizers who opposed his methods and preaching. For Wilkerson, it led to a separation from his once beloved denomination. But neither man let go of their missional convictions that placed the needs of the lost above all else.
Confronting the “Metal-Covered Bible”
Several years before the pandemic that started in 2020, I read an interesting new book called UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. At the time, I thought their writing was on the cutting-edge of the new normalcy coming to evangelism, yet none of my peers in the ministry had recommended or even mentioned this book to me. But right inside the cover, glaring out at anyone who dared to read it, was a description of the coming apocalypse of a rising culture that was not only going to become an enemy to the gospel, but would also include a fast-growing majority of believers and unbelievers who were going to ignore pastors and churches after 2022.
One true story I read in UnChristian stayed with me for years. Kinnaman tells about entering a bookstore one day, and as he browsed the religious section, he noticed three young people, two guys and a girl, hanging out nearby. Their actions indicated they were not really looking for a Christian book, but one of the guys caught sight of a Bible with a metal cover on it. He turned and exclaimed to the others, “Look. It’s a Bible encased in metal!” The young woman replied, “Huh, what’s that for?” The guy responded, “How should I know? Maybe it’s supposed to be indestructible. Let’s see if it is.” He threw the Bible to the ground, badly damaging the book. They all laughed as one retorted, “I guess not!,” and they stuffed the broken remains back onto the bookshelf.3 For Kinneman, the unconcerned and untouched demeanor of these young people reveals the state of Christianity today and how even the Bible is no longer respected or revered.
The post-modern culture, especially in the aftermath of the recent pandemic, has left multitudes of believers, including ministers, unaware of the total disregard and disrespect many people have today for Christians, churches, pastors, and the Bible itself. Missiology will have to change quickly throughout the world as we grapple with ineffective traditional evangelism practices. Like Paul discovered in the first century, people are wholly given over to self-worship, idolatry, immorality, secularism, and individualism. One of my fellow ministers said to me recently, “If —— could just win this next election, things would completely change.” Then he said an even more incredible statement, “If the —— Party could just win the next election, we can save this nation.” It was then I realized how much the average Christian has lost reality with the real battle we are facing. The “new normalcy” we are facing will not be resolved by political solutions. Instead, “reconciling the world” is a mission that will often cause you to come into disfavor among your closest friends and even powerful groups who have their own biases and agendas.
The “metal-covered Bible” is not what we need to reconcile the world to Christ; rather, the new normalcy of missions will require godly men and women who will take the risk to enter into the gutters and halls of neighborhoods. We will have to make sacrifices of our time and comfortable lifestyles to reach those trapped in harmful and evil circumstances. Many of us will enter into new places where we have never been. Others will face sights they have never seen and sounds that will stun their ears. Yes, reconciliation is risky and requires us to learn new methods or new thinking to help this generation. In Acts 17, the man from Tarsus (Paul) was facing a new mosaic in the cultures and thinking of the people of Athens, ones he had never encountered before. Luke records this shift:
So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. (Acts 17:15–17)
Back around 2007, the book entitled The Next Christendom was recommended to me for a course I was taking at seminary. At first, it was very laborious to read, and it seemed a little far-fetched at times, but the longer I read it and meditated on some of the projections it made, it began to trouble my heart. I have found that in the 22 years since it was first written, the author’s predictions have come true. Reliable groups like Barna and the Pew Report concur with the author’s projections. In that volume, it foretold that the three greatest challenges to Christians and the mission of “reconciling people to Christ” would be the following: (1) the rise of secularism, (2) the spread of religious extremism (even among Pentecostals and Charismatics), and (3) the growing number of people who do not identify themselves as Christians or followers of the Bible.4
As we reinforce our passion to reach the lost, we must face the reality that reaching people will be more difficult than it has been in the past. However, with spiritual resolve, the Holy Spirit will help us to do the work if we are willing to change our strategies, overcome our fears of people who are different, and turn to God in prayer and faith that he will strengthen us in the new mission that lies before us
_______________________________
1. Betty Dunn, “Wilkerson Became a Fool for Christ in Public,” Christianity Today, May 3, 2010, https://www.christianity.com/ wiki/people/david-wilkerson.html.
2. Daniel Isaiah Joseph, “Why Did David Wilkerson Leave the Assemblies of God?,” Christianity FAQ, updated July 31, 2023, https://christianityfaq.com/why-did-david-wilkerson-leave-theassemblies-of-god-get-the-facts/.
3. David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity . . . and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007), 21.
4. Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (New York, NY: Oxford Press, 2002), 10–13.1. Betty Dunn, “Wilkerson Became a Fool for Christ in Public,” Christianity Today, May 3, 2010, https://www.christianity.com/ wiki/people/david-wilkerson.html.
