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A vision
ОглавлениеDo you know the feeling when other people want to put you in a box that you don’t fit into? I experience this from time to time. Furthermore, I often don’t feel understood because I’m from a different generation. We function differently, have different values, and our future plans look different. If you’re my age or younger, you’ve probably experienced this too.
Some time ago, someone wanted to instrumentalize me and told me that I should fit into a system, but I did not want to give myself into it. I respect and honor that person very much, so it did not pass me by without leaving a trace. It stirred me up and I was restless. Later in the day, I withdrew and asked the Holy Spirit what this was all about and if I was indeed on the wrong track.
Suddenly I found myself in a vision. I don’t know how that happened, but what I saw thrilled me:
I am in a city. This city is bombed and broken. The buildings are empty and some look like ruins. The streets are deserted and things are lying around everywhere. Debris of houses and junk are lying on the street. The ruins of the buildings make an inanimate and desolate impression. It doesn’t look like there are any people left in this city. Suddenly I am outside the city and there is a big army. This army is lined up in a clear order. Further back, I see a large, gloomy structure that is getting closer and closer. It looks like it is the enemy. As I approach the army, which is in battle order, I see how well equipped it is: everyone has good equipment and nice armor. It seems clear that everyone knows their exact place. However, one senses a fear emanating from these well-armed soldiers. The closer you get to these soldiers, the more you get the impression that they have never been in a battle before. Up front, in front of the battle lines, sits the king on a powerful horse. This king radiates enormous majesty. Among the soldiers, I sense that they have great reverence for this king. They do not know him but are simply his soldiers. The whole scene is like a movie. It is immediately clear to me that this king is Jesus.
Suddenly, a loud call from the king resounds. This call is suddenly everywhere and penetrates everything. It almost feels like an audible, all-pervading sonar. It is a call as if to awaken or evoke something. Indeed, something now moves everywhere in the rubble of the city. The city comes alive and here and there people come out. They run out of the city and move nimbly through the good-looking army. At first glance, these people have the appearance of vagrants. Some of them have only clothes-like fabrics wrapped around their bodies. On closer inspection, you can see their massive muscles. These are not vagrants, but well-trained men and women who have a determined look, as if they know how to go to war. Some of them are holding very rudimentary weapons, others have nothing at all. As they pass through the army to get to the front, it becomes clear that these people are outcasts. They are not let through kindly by the soldiers. The dislike is clearly expressed.
As they arrive at the front, they stand next to the king and greet him. They greet him like a friend and as if they are about to experience something familiar and adventurous together. They have respect for the king, but it appears that he is more their friend. It is obvious that the king and these outcasts have been successfully in battle together many times before. With these warriors, one does not sense fear, but rather a joy before battle. This group, which now stands in front of the battle lines of the handsome army, looks more like a horde of savages.
The difference and tension between these two groups is enormous, some look great from the outside but are afraid of fighting and do not know the king personally. The others, who look like outlaw tramps, are experienced in war and know the king personally. What could this mean?
For me it is clear in which direction this vision is to be interpreted. I think it also became clear to you that some represent the institutionally organized church that is well ordered and well armed. The others are wild outcasts who have no place in the system. However, these are the very ones who are ready for battle. A soldier follows orders that he may not even understand. A soldier doesn’t have much to lose, because there isn’t much at stake for him. A warrior, on the other hand, fights out of passion. A warrior puts everything into it. Therefore, he can either lose everything or win everything. The question is obvious: would you rather be a soldier or a warrior?
Join the warriors who stake everything on one chance and accept to be outcasts from time to time. But they live the incredible adventure! This book is a call to these warriors: stand up and join! It’s all or nothing!
Do you want to be part of this adventure and inspire more savages to join?
I am convinced that a change is needed for us to get back to this simple and radical life with Jesus. It needs a change if we are to win people for Jesus in the 21st century who will become mature followers. It takes a change in understanding what we see and live as a church. It takes a change in how we make disciples or that we make disciples at all. If we are to shape the future together and see a transformation of our countries, there is an urgent need for change. In this book, I make the case for radical change. But this change must happen now, because we are living in the midst of cultural upheaval, and we do not want to lose touch. Or would it even be possible to be ahead of time? Either way – it’s urgent. If we want to be relevant in the 21st century, we have to set out. After all, we have been living in the new century for more than 20 years.
I invite you to be part of this change. This change will affect our future. Change will come one way or another, but the question is whether we have any idea in which direction this change should go. There is a book called “You Don’t Have a Plan, That’s Why We’re Making One!” The authors4 outline 10 conditions on how they think to save the future. I think this is a good and somewhat cheeky approach by young people to wanting to change society. We may not have to save our future, but at least we have a vision of what it should look like. But if we don’t influence this and take active steps, we won’t end up there.
Greta Thunberg5 taught the older generations of the western world that there is a generation coming that is concerned about the future, as the book mentioned above also describes. Of course, we as the younger generation have to live in this world in the future. Obviously, she was not the only one who thought so, otherwise thousands of young people would not have gone to the streets to demonstrate during the Friday for Future. This Friday for Future movement says in relation to climate policy: We have to change something and we have to change it now.
There are no Greta’s in the churches to stand up and say that something needs to be changed. Either the Greta’s are not tolerated and silenced or they just leave without anyone noticing. Likewise a whole generation of young Christians leaves and loses their radical fire for Jesus. There would be another option: there is absolutely no one in the churches who sees that change is needed. But I don’t believe that. Which is why here in this book, like those authors mentioned above, I say: If you don’t have a plan for this change of how we’re going to reach people in the 21st century and how we’re going to live church, let’s make one.
Are you in? Do you want to be challenged and are you willing to accept the cost of change? Do you want to be part of a big change?
The secret is that YOU can BE the change. There will be no political action or grand strategy – it starts with you and me. Our lifestyle shows that we have a vision and a plan that goes with it.
Is such radical change realistic and possible? Yes it is. You will see.
From drilling and blasting
Imagine a big, almost insuperable mountain. You desperately want to get to the other side. But not only you, many people actually want to get to the other side comfortably. This route should become an important trade and transportation route. What do you do? You build a tunnel. In Switzerland we know this situation and we have some of these tunnels, many of them are railroad tunnels. Such a tunnel used to be built in the following way: Holes are drilled into the rock. The dynamite is put into these holes, which is finally detonated. This blasting creates a hole. Drilling and blasting is the way to the goal.6 That is exactly what we want to do in this book: Drill, charge and blast. Because the point is to know the rock of our culture precisely and to drill a hole in the right place to penetrate it. Then we put the Gospel into this hole and let the Holy Spirit ignite the whole thing.
Knowing the culture precisely and placing the power of the gospel in the right place has explosive power. Of course, you could also hollow out a rock just by drilling. That would be like dealing only with the culture. Or the dynamite could simply be placed on the rock and detonated until the whole mountain is blown away. This is also a method that some actually use. But this shows that there is not much understanding of the culture. The combination of the two has the explosive power and leads to the desired goal. New York pastor and author Timothy Keller7 calls this ‘active contextualization’.
This book will on the one hand, deal with what Jesus lived and said. On the other hand, our culture in which we live is going to be examined. Finally, I am going to ask how these two things “uncompromising life with Jesus” and the “world around us” go together. We will see how disciples can be made today who make disciples again, and how in the process, church emerges naturally. I have read so many books on how church should be built through numerous concepts and models. Some authors start with the biblical view of church and tell how it should be done. Others tell you from experience what works best. Keller correctly notes that somehow neither is entirely satisfactory and chooses a different path himself.8 In practice and in theory, there was a lot of discussion about how a church service could now become more appealing to outsiders. Some even go so far as to say that the church is primarily for others.9 For a long time I was confused, because in the Bible I read about a different kind of church. But what is it actually about? What are we supposed to do here on earth with our few given years?
I am going to give answers in this book that I have found in my studies. On the one hand, this book is an attempt to answer the big questions and explain them so that they can be understood. On the other hand, it is an invitation to you to become part of that answer and implement something today.
You are challenged to respond to the call of Jesus. This book is meant to stir you up and make you think and at the end I will challenge you to make a decision. But now let’s approach the subject step by step.
Todd White was addicted to drugs for over two decades until he finally met Jesus in 2004 and was set free. This is one of his first videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek8p3m9HdZ4 [March 25, 2021].
GotQuestions: “Andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross in Greece. After he had been cruelly flogged by seven soldiers, they attached his body to the cross by means of cords to prolong his agony. His followers related that when Andrew was led to the cross, he greeted it with these words: ‘Long have I striven and waited for this happy hour.’ The cross has been consecrated by the hanging body of Jesus.‘ He preached to his tormentors for two more days until he died.” Online at: https://www.gotquestions.org/apostles-die.html [March 25, 2021]
Der Jugendrat der Generationenstiftung (2020)
Greta Thunberg is a Swedish climate activist whose efforts have received worldwide attention.
Keller (2015:123)needs the comparison with tunneling in his book Center Church to describe active contextualization.
Keller (2015:9; 26)starts church building from the gospel and finally does not want to show a basis and an implementation with his book, but focuses on the attitude or the theological vision from which he builds the church.
