The Bible Nerd

The above statement may be both offensive and stating the obvious.  I can still remember standing in a parking lot and talking to a former co-worker about his latest support raising campaign.  He told me that he used this line in his support presentation as to why he was working with Bible schools training missionaries.

I thought two things when I heard this.  First, I wondered whether this guy would ever raise funds with the ever so slightly, brash way of presenting his vision.  Second, he was right.  I don’t mean that God has an over supply of stupid missionaries, and since that quota has been reached, He has closed the door for now on accepting any new ones.  Nor would I imply that I am somehow in the “smart missionary” group looking down on someone else.  More, the bottom line is that in order to achieve full potential in missions or ministry or life for that matter, we have to be prepared and knowledgeable.  Passion and vision are great and necessary, but not enough.

Enter where we left off last time and the transition to the story of Josiah.  You may recall (if you actually read the last post, or are you here instead because you Google searched the word “stupid” and are here by accident?) that we left off with the last blog by putting our latte down, and pondering our response to this time in church history we find ourselves in.  Both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles spend quite a bit of time talking about the reign of the good king Josiah (2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chronicles 34-35).  Both accounts together tell us that from age 16 on, Josiah became a passionate follower of God.  He began then to truly “seek the God of David”.  At age 20, Josiah began to initiate a series of reforms over his nation, most of which focused on removing the influence of idolatry.  His reforms are so radical that they sweep out of his political kingdom of Judah and affect the land to his north that used to be under the control of Israel.    Of all the kings, only Josiah seems to measure up and exceed the standard of David in every way.

We could look at this story and see the value of passion and a sold out man for God (or person to be PC).  However, there is a key event which transforms Josiah personally as well as his revival.  At age 26, Josiah gave instructions to clean out the temple of God in Jerusalem.  While there, they find the “Book of the Law” which apparently had become lost.  This “Book of the Law” was what we think of as the Bible!  The “people of God” had lost the Bible.  We aren’t sure for how long, but when you look at Josiah’s father and grandfather, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think that it had been 70 years with no Biblical influence on the kings of Israel.

When the Book is read to Josiah, he tears and clothes in grief as he realizes that God’s judgment is coming down on his people.  He sees how far his people are still from obeying the law of God.  In fact, his reading of the Book prompts an even broader reform and time of purging listed in 2 Kings 23.  The list of things purged is a nightmare inducing list full of idolatry, even in the temple itself.  For all of Josiah’s passion and seeking of God, without the Book (the Bible), his passion wasn’t enough to change his nation or know truth.  He needed both passion and knowledge to affect a true change.

At this point, I turn to you and yell in a loud voice, “Will we be the generation of Josiah?”  Mainly, because that would look cool on a T-shirt, “The Josiah Generation”.  I can see the hats, bumper stickers, etc… until I get sued because I am sure someone has already trademarked this in the church.  So, if we want to see true change in our church, community, workplace, nation, and world, it will take more than our passion.  Or, does God really need more stupid missionaries?

Two topics already beaten to death? Check!  Pithy introduction sounding humble yet sarcastic?  Check!  One more thing to go on my list of “Things you have to do when first starting a cool, post modern, Bible blog”.  Convince everyone you have some amazing insight into the future of the church, thereby forcing them to read your blog to see how everything is going to happen?  Here we go.

No, I won’t be giving you the exact date of Jesus return, nor wax eloquently on war in the Middle East as Iran and the United States inch closer to a massive showdown.  Instead, I will attempt to combine some observations on the church globally with what I am seeing in Christian writing now.

1) Decline of Christianity in Europe:  This is no great revelation or secret.  Nominalism, Humanism, and the rise of immigrants bringing other religions have accumulated to greatly weaken Christendom in Europe.  Of course, it is way too early to sound the death toll, and there are many vibrant churches and ministries still there.  Yes, the Emerging Church movement has hit (mainly in England), as I will discuss below.  However, this weakening combined with the move of Christianity to the Global South (also see below), will effectively remove Europe from being in the driver’s seat of Christian theology that it has occupied for over a thousand years (nothing more on this below, in case you wondering).  From the Protestant Reformation to the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, church history and theology have seen the greatest influence coming from Europe.  What does the church look like when this is no longer true?

2) Rise of Christianity in the Global South: As Christianity declines in Europe (and possibly the US to follow??), it is on the rise in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.  In his works on the future of the church, Philip Jenkins predicts that by 2050, most of the world’s Christians will be from one of these three areas.  As such, he tells us we must then realize how that will radically change the way theology and the church look in the future.  The charismatic movement and a conservative leaning are just a few of these characteristics of the church of the Global South.  Unfortunately, a lower level of Biblical literacy and understanding of sound doctrine have also been trademarks of these churches.  What does it look like when the world’s top theologians are from the Global South?  when most missionaries are coming from there and targeting Europe?

3) The Emerging Church movement: from Brian McLaren to Mark Driscoll, this movement has challenged and discussed almost every major doctrine and practice of the church.  Yes, it is a Western movement at heart, and yes, it is mostly appealing right now to a very set demographic, but we have to acknowledge WHY it has gained so much traction.  The monoliths that we know as denominations are struggling not only in Europe, but in the USA as well.  Droves are fleeing the mainline denominations, and are finding homes in either the “Evangelical”, “Non Denominational”, or “Emerging” churches springing up everywhere.  This dissatisfaction with how older denominations are running their churches, combined with the Post Modern age we live in, is deconstructing and reconstructing the church.  Isn’t that the essence of a Reformation?

I put all these together and wonder if the church will look back at this time 100 years from now, and give it a cool name like “the New Reformation”.  Ok, so that is a lame name.  “Reformation Next (hasn’t that already been used?)” “Reforming the Reformation”,  or my favorite, “Reformation-o-rama”!  Anyway, I will leave it to someone else to name this thing, and slip into the oblivion of guys who said my mother’s favorite line, “I told you so”.  Tomorrow, we talk about Josiah and if we should actually do something with this information or just take a sip of our latte, and go, “Hmm….. interesting.”