A GREATER CHURCH

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1938, Page 7

A GREATER CHURCH

CLAIMS OF CHRIST

MEETING A CHALLENGE

NEW METHODS

NEEDED

BAPTIST PRESIDENT'S

ADDRESS

Confidence that the challenge of the new order of society today would yet witness the rebirth of the Christian Church in greater spiritual power and vitality was expressed by Mr. F. W. Homer (Hawera), President of the Baptist Union of New Zealand, when addressing the annual assembly of the Union in the Vivian Street Baptist Church last evening on the subject, "The Church in a Changing World." Mr. Homer stressed the personal implications of Christian discipleship and the necessity for new and appropriate methods of church organisation to meet the needs of the world of today. "We meet in assembly this year under the shadow of world-wide turmoil and upheaval," said Mr. Homer. "Whithersoever we look we see restlessness and change. The world to which we were born no longer exists, the old order is passing before our eyes. But is the world into which we are, entering a better and nobler world? This is the quesltion that perplexes the minds of many to-' day. ... "And amid the change and decay which all around we see, what of the Christian Church? Can she remain unchanged? Yes and no. Her faith is in a God Who created a world of order and rules it in righteousness and justice; a God Who is the same yesterday, today, and for ever; a God Whose nature and Whose love for mankind were fully revealed in His Son, the man Christ Jesus, Who taught us that man was God's choicest creative work, created in God's spiritual image for His friendship and that man's noblest destiny is to be found as he achieves 'harmony with the mind and purpose of his Creator. Christ is still the Way, the Truth, and the Life for the nation as well as for the individual. He is the Way to God, the Revealer of God; H is the Way to Happiness and Peace; He is the Way to Life. UNCHANGING MESSAGE. "This is the unchanging message of the Christian/Church to the new world into which we are passing. 'And this is life eternal that they may know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent.' Many men today know a God but they do not know the only true God, because they do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is the duty of the Church, it is our duty, to discover ways and means of bringing them to, know Him. We must proclaim to. the world unflinchingly the whole Gospel, the,full message and teachings ;of Christ with all' their implications, social, economic, and, if-need be, international. "But our methods of proclamation, our ways and means of telling the new world of Christ's Gospel, those ways and means we have used for generations, will they suffice? Are they effectively reaching the world of men and women today? Are they transforming men's lives and permeating the social and economic order of society around us? "In the days of the early Christian Church when travel was slow and tedious and oft-times dangerous, when there were no printed Scriptures for circulation, when there were few church buildings and little church organisation, when preachers were few and largely untrained, the story of Jesus spread with amazing rapidity from lip to lip, from heart to heart, until it pervaded almost the whole of the then known world. ' "But today with all these facilities the Christian Church is largely static. We have peglected the lip-to-lip, heart-to-heart method of spreading Christ's Gospel and are relying on mass appeal, the appeal of our churches, our services, our missions, and we are failing sadly, our appeal is ignored. The people of this land are to be found everywhere today but in our churches. And are we not to read the lessons of the times and as members' of the Christian Church apply these lessons to ourselves? WHERE THE CHURCH HAS FAILED. "If we are not reaching the world with the message and teachings off Christ, then what is the reason?" continued Mr. Homer. "The reason, lam convinced, "is that the individual Christian today lacks the urge of the early Christian disciples, the urge to tell others of his faith, and I believe the cause of this failure is two-fold: Firstly, because the individual Christian has not caught Christ's vision of the needs of mankind and,, the willingness of God to help men in their need; secondly, because the organised Christian Church has very largely failed to inspire her members with this vision and to train and equip them to proclaim their faith in their daily lives. THE PERSONAL. ASPECT. "It must be frankly acknowledged that many of the finest characters in our churches find difficulty in expressing themselves to others regarding their spiritual experiences," Mr. Homer continued. "They will talk quite enthusiastically about their lodges and other social interests, the games they play, the books they read, and their hobbies, to say nothing of their political views, but concerning their Christian faith they feel a reticence and prefer to remain silent. Let us examine some of the reasons for this silence. I think that in the first instance under our present system of mass religious appeal, relatively few people are brought face to face with the personal aspect of Christian discipleship. They are believers in Christ but are not conscious of • that personal fellowship with Christ which leads them to commend Him to others. Religion to them is general rather than particular or. personal. Their whole approach to the Christian faith has been as members of a congregation. ... ESSENCE OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. "There are many Christian men who do not hold the evangelical conception of the Christian faith. Religion, they i say, is a man's own personal concern, but is it? The whole essence of the Christian faith is that Christ left the glory and endured the Cross to reveal His Father's love. His last words to His disciples were to tell-the world, tell every creature. No faith worth the name can be kept to ones-self. If it means anything to us at all, then we must share it with our neighbours. But the Christian Church has not realised the necessity of training her members to share their faith and the ordinary form of service certainly

fails to supply this need. It is not surprising therefore that the church membership today is largely a passive body and that our present system produces a prosaic type of Christian. "Youjoin the church, you attend service, you feel pleasantly comfortable in mind according as you liked the sermon and knew the tunes, you act deI cently during the week—you are a ! good Christian—a good churchman. L "The average man outside says he gets the same ' result without the trouble of attending church and giving up Sunday. Are our churches merely ! peaceful academies where we listen to | carefully-prepared discourses and return home saying: 'Mr. So. and So Was in good form today, he handled the | subject remarkably well?' Or are they bases for active service where men gather to be trained and equipped to fight the forces of paganism that threaten the world today? If this is to be the attitude of our churches, then it will mean a mobilisation of all our forces, a calling up of the rank and file. PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH. "And that leads me to ask the question: For what purpose does the Christian Church exist? And I think I may safely answer: As a rallying ground for the Christian people of a community, where they may meet for worship and fellowship. Where they may learn God's will as revealed in the Scriptures. But is this the end? Surely not—only the means to a greater end —that they may go forth to express their new life by word and by deed in the world around. To bring Christ's spirit, Christ's motives into their daily lives; to be in the world, yet not of _the world. This seems to me the clear teaching of the New Testament. This is the obvious purpose of the Christian Church. It is the fulfilment of this purpose that brings to the individual Christian, character and strength and, may I add, an intelligent conception of the Christian life. "But the Church today has largely forsaken this objective. She has reversed the process. Her focus is not outward but inward. She has staked her all on the clerical preaching ministry. She has largely ignored the importance and value of the witness of her lay members to those outside. It is exactly here that the average church today fails in her organisation. She will go to any length to attract people to her services, to her church life. She will organise institutes, literary and debating societies, and social and recreational clubs of every kind. But on the real vital task of leading those_people within her ranks to become active witnesses for. Christ, there is scarcely any organisation existing in our church life today. If our members are to confess their faith outside the Church, then they must first be given opportunity to confess it inside the Church. There should be greater freedom and flexibility in our church organisation, so that our members may be encouraged to more active participation in the spiritual life of the Church. How can we expect them to be vocal spiritually in the life outside when they are expected to be dumb in the spiritual life within the Church? Even our deacons' courts are devoted almost entirely to the material affairs of the Church and the spiritual development of her members is scarcely considered." Mr. Homer said that if the Church was to breathe a new spirit of liberty and of freedom, if she was to become the Church Militant, if her members were to take their full share in the witness of the Gospel to those outside, then new and appropriate methods of church organisation must be found which would foster and express that spirit. It was not easy for any minister or church to make the change alone —it would be better and wiser for the whole question to be considered by a committee and recommendations made which could be put into operation generally. When the world saw that the Church meant business, that her members were men of character ready to let their fellows know where they stood, and, if need be, to challenge men and women for Christ, then the world would begin to respect the Church. Some might be drawn to her, others might hate her, as the Master predicted, but the Church would move forward, and become a force in the life of the land, and a spiritual revival might break upon us.