Is it too late to get back to the future?

(This is the text of an article I was asked to write shortly after surrendering my credentials as a United Methodist Pastor this past June.  Those who had originally asked me to write it then chose not to publish it.  So, after "rediscovering it on my desktop" tonight, I decided to put it out here now.  This was written before I knew I would become a Nazarene pastor and is from a Methodist perspective.)

“Back to the Future”

There was a time, a time when most of our churches were not yet born, when young itinerant evangelists, after hearing the call, took to horseback with what little they possessed, and gave up everything in this world in order to follow Jesus.  Leaving the world behind them, they took personally the responsibility to share the gospel with anyone and everyone they encountered, and in so doing, they willingly risked their lives, day in and day out,  in order to be faithful to the unrelenting call of God.  Theirs was a calling to… “Preach the gospel and spread Scriptural Holiness over the land.”

These lives of reckless abandon to God resulted in no shortage of great stories of dramatic conversions, ultimate sacrifices, hard fought victories, and of the many and myriad triumphs of faith.  These were preachers of renown, known, like the first century followers of Jesus, as those who were turning the world upside down.  Phrases like “It’s so bad out tonight, there’s no one about except crows and Methodist preachers…” were coined as colloquial tributes to their tenacity.  An unbreakable tenacity that also resulted in extremely shortened average lifespans, calculated to be as low as 33 years by some estimates.

Where are those preachers today?  Where are the messengers who will vow with their lives to fiercely love God, and passionately live out that love though they are overwhelmingly surrounded by an increasingly pagan, and pre-Christian culture? (That’s right, I said “Pre-Christian”!)  Where are those itinerant evangelists who will commit their time to preaching the gospel to all whom they encounter in this brave new world of affluent apathy and technological idolatry?  Where are those pursuers of Jesus who no matter how much the world insists that culture overrides God’s Word, are willing to take up their crosses daily, deny themselves, and let their lives be devoted to the spreading of Scriptural holiness throughout the land?  Why does it seem that pastors today have lost not everything for the sake of the gospel, but instead, only their ability to throw caution to the wind, and consider everything to be loss (or dung), in order that they may simply gain Christ?

It was in an elective preaching class that I had at Asbury Theological Seminary with the late Dr. Ralph Lewis, author of the classic book “Inductive Preaching,” that I heard him make a statement that I have never forgotten.  He said, “The Patriarchs built their altars and pitched their tents as they followed God.  In the church today, we build our tents and pitch our altars as we follow the world.”  Reflecting on that statement, it seems as if it is possible that our goal in ministry has radically and tragically shifted from “leaving it all behind” in order to risk our lives for the “call” of God, to instead, trying desperately to “keep it all gathered up” in order to live out a “career,” strategically progressing up to the next guaranteed appointment, so that we may then live the rest of our comparatively long lives with a sufficient pension, that will continue to provide for us and our families until we can someday arrive safely at death.

It was the early circuit riders (though they literally had nothing, and truly risked everything) who were the ones that officially first put Methodism on the map.  And, it appears that it will be us, sitting in these “tents” that were built long before we got here, with wealth and assets literally at our fingertips, that will be those who will watch Methodism’s accelerated demise.  Unless…  Unless, that is, we turn right now.  Right now!  It is not now too late for the Holy Spirit to fall on us again, to move in us, and to move through us.  But, we have to be desperate.  We have to be desperate for God, for God’s will, God’s Word, and God’s plan.  We have to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and with a passionate, uncompromising love for Jesus. We must be filled with a love for Him that makes us willing to lay ourselves down, and be found by Him on the right side of Scripture, even as the world accuses us of being on the wrong side of history.  And, whether standing together or alone, if we will stand solely on the Word of God, as we rush headlong into the fray, God can and will use us to turn the tide.  Will we do it?  Will you?  Jesus said that the gates of Hell would not prevail against the Church, and I completely believe that.  But, the Church must be moved to attack the gates. 

That’s our job preachers, we must move the Church.  Everything rises and falls with leadership.  We cannot just sit here in these parishes that have become our world, as culture wins the day, the debate, the vote, again and again and again.  It’s time to rise up Church!  It’s time to boldly speak the truth in love, without apology, laying our lives, careers, and everything else on the line.  Are you willing to risk it all, or leave it all behind, in order to follow Jesus?  Are you ready for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, and all that He alone has in store for you?  Are you ready, willing, and able to get back to the Future God has for us as the Church?