{"id":7627,"date":"2019-11-26T14:23:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T18:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/?p=7627"},"modified":"2019-11-26T14:23:25","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T18:23:25","slug":"why-fading-civil-religion-is-good-news-for-church-renewal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/blog\/why-fading-civil-religion-is-good-news-for-church-renewal\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Fading Civil Religion is Good News for Church Renewal"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]\"\"<\/p>\n

THIS ARTICLE IS FROM
\nTHE GOSPEL COALITION<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”]

<\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]\u201cAre we following God?\u201d<\/p>\n

My husband put this question to me as we walked through our neighborhood. The dog tugged at her leash. On the one hand, it was a startling question, one that seemed to beg an obvious answer. Both of us practice the daily disciplines of prayer and Bible reading. Around the dinner table, our family\u2019s conversation turns to Scripture\u2019s wisdom. We attend church regularly, serving and financially giving to its mission; we speak freely of Christ to our irreligious neighbors and friends. I write Christian books, for goodness\u2019 sake<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Still, I shared my husband\u2019s doubts. Are we following God? We\u2019d married at 22, dreaming of the places we\u2019d go in response to the call of God. Many years later, in 2011, we moved to Toronto, North America\u2019s fourth-largest city and one of the most multicultural cities in the world. As I write, it\u2019s a city draped in rainbow flags, proud testament to the modern ethic of individual freedom, a city often openly hostile to the perceived bigotry of Christianity.<\/p>\n

My husband\u2019s question surfaced our fear that despite our commitment to seeing our city transformed by the gospel, Toronto is having its subtle way with us, conforming us to its desires (cf. 1 John 2:16). As we continued to talk, we were both sensing a need for the kind of renewal Mark Sayers writes about in his new book, Reappearing Church: The Hope for Renewal in the Rise of Our Post-Christian Culture<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]\n

Good News<\/h2>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Sayers, an Australian pastor and writer, begins by acknowledging the \u201cbrilliantly good news\u201d that cultural Christianity is eroding and secularism is on the rise. This isn\u2019t the moment for being anxious, he reassures. \u201cAre we punch drunk by the problems of our age, or do we see the opportunities before us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of fretting about increasing social isolation and mental illness, social fracturing and polarization, Christians can celebrate the luminous hope of the gospel for our historical moment. In other words, the cultural glass may be half-full, but the gospel has never brimmed with greater power. As the creeds of secularism prove fragile and unsatisfying, the church of Jesus Christ has the opportunity to live and proclaim a more compelling, more enduring story for such a time as this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the night is at its darkest, the dawn is on its way. We find ourselves again at such a moment.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]\n

Call to Repentance<\/h2>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Still, Sayers\u2019s optimism vis-\u00e0-vis the broader culture falters with regard to the present state of the evangelical church. Though it\u2019s a moment ripe for gospel renewal, and \u201cthe gaps between [the promises of secular progressivism] and reality are widening,\u201d Sayers laments that many evangelicals, enamored with the \u201cpseudo-Christianity of lifestyle enhancement,\u201d aren\u2019t positioned to seize it. As it turns out, we\u2019re not living the better, more enduring story of the gospel. Instead, the church is weakened by sin and stagnation, by heresy and religiosity. \u201cOver the last ten years, I have seen countless incredible kingdom initiatives suffer and fail as leaders and disciples, with hearts for God, fall into . . . all of the above.\u201d This is reason for Sayers\u2019s call to renewal, the climactic moment in a cycle repeated throughout human history. When faith stagnates, then declines, a remnant of God\u2019s people, in responsiveness to his Spirit, must seek a renewal of God\u2019s presence and power.<\/p>\n

Sayers cites this historical pattern of repentance, then renewal, as a reliable one\u2014like the 1904 movement that swept through Wales, which saw the conversion of nearly 100,000 people, after a small group of young people was challenged to make four commitments:[\/vc_column_text]

\n
    \n
  • \u201cYou must put away any unconfessed sin.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  • \u201cYou must put away any doubtful habit.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  • \u201cYou must obey the Spirit promptly.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  • \u201cYou must confess Christ publicly.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/div>[vc_column_text]\u201cWhen we cry out to [God], when we repent of the ways that we have ignored him and pursued our human-driven plans of renewal in our own strength, when we take a posture of contending for his kingdom to come with power\u2014we see that he moves.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]\n

    Paradox of Renewal<\/h2>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]To consider the story of Jonah is to consider the paradox of renewal. Did renewal come to the wicked city of Nineveh because the people, in their earnestness, repented in sackcloth and ashes? Or, did renewal come to the Ninevites because God, in his kindness, had sent his (however unwilling) prophet to walk the streets of the city, crying out, \u201cYet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown\u201d? In other words, is renewal ever possible apart from God\u2019s willing it?<\/p>\n

    While Sayers wants to insist on the responsibilities that lay at our feet when it comes to renewal, Sayers makes clear that renewal is nothing we can orchestrate. \u201cWe cannot create a program or campaign for renewal and revival. For in the history of the church, this has rarely if ever had success.\u201d Instead, \u201cwe cry out to God to change us, to start His renewal in our hearts.\u201d And this is the paradox of renewal, both that it doesn\u2019t depend upon our effort and also that it doesn\u2019t happen apart from it. In fact, this is the paradox of the whole of the Christian life, for as Paul writes in Philippians 2:13, \u201cit is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.\u201d God\u2019s willing makes us more willing, not less, and his work never make ours unnecessary.<\/p>\n

    To Sayers\u2019s larger point, what moves the needle of renewal is first and finally this: prayer. To pray is to practice the both\/and of faith. God\u2019s work, even the work of renewal, is never fully up to us\u2014but we get on our knees anyway. And this is what Sayers, his wife, and a group of Korean Christians are doing on a tour through John Wesley\u2019s bedroom in London as the book closes.<\/p>\n

    \u201cGod, do it again.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”padding-5-percent” column_padding_position=”top-bottom” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”]

    <\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” bottom_padding=”70″ overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/6″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”]
    \"\"<\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”5\/6″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]\n

    Jen Pollock Michel<\/strong>
    \nJen Pollock Michel lives in Toronto with her family. She\u2019s the author of Surprised by Paradox: The Promise of \u2018And\u2019 in an Either-or World<\/em> (IVP, 2019), Keeping Place: Reflections on the Meaning of Home<\/em> (IVP, 2017), and Teach Us to Want: Longing, Ambition and the Life of Faith<\/em> (IVP, 2014).<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”full_width_content” full_screen_row_position=”middle” equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle” bg_image=”7366″ bg_position=”center center” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” parallax_bg=”true” parallax_bg_speed=”medium” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”left-right” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/4″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][\/vc_column][vc_column centered_text=”true” column_padding=”padding-8-percent” column_padding_position=”top-bottom” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_custom_heading text=”Qu\u00e9bec needs prayer partners! Pray that God would send workers in the mission field.” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center|color:%23ffe933″ google_fonts=”font_family:Lato%3A100%2C100italic%2C300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic%2C900%2C900italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” link=”|||” el_class=”disabled”][\/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/4″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    [vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text] THIS ARTICLE IS FROM THE GOSPEL…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-shining-forth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7627"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7641,"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627\/revisions\/7641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionqc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}