If you were to consider the call of a minister of the gospel, and you'll know why this is particularly apt for me right now, it is easy to imagine the role as one of preservation. We call the minister, and we ask that he or she keeps things as they are, that they take on a role of executive guardion of our local tradition, and that they always, regardless of its brevity or impact, protect what already exists. Yet the New Testament paints a very different picture.
Ministers of the Gospel are not conservationists; they are agents of the Spirit, ushering in the divine work of death and resurrection. This will be a hard swallow for many congregations across Scotland, hoping for a bit more of the same. Give what you always give, get what you always get. The Lord himself has called time on all of that, so i'm sorry to say.
Jesus Himself declared, didnt he: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” (John 12:24). This is not only the principle of His own life and ministry, but it is also the governing principle of the Church’s life in Him.
Death precedes life.
urrender precedes fruitfulness.
Crucifixion comes before resurrection.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a minister in the Church of Scotland (the national church apparently, steadfast in tradition and religion), so I have long understood the instinct to preserve. Thats actually now the modus operendi of the whole church now. Maintain a structure, maintain the finance, maintain the programme, maintain the buildings, maintain the identity of yesteryear. Keep going.
Some of it is rooted in goodness. We like stability, predictibility, and the security of what is known. But honestly, you are more tired of it that you know. Ministers are tired of it. Congregations are tired of it. Everyone is tired of the weighty task of maintainance. This is not the call.
The Spirit of God is not sent to maintain our preferred order. He is the Spirit that breaths life into dead bodies. He is the Spirit and power that filled the tomb. You know the song, 'Then came the morning, that sealed the promise, the buried body began to breathe...' Thats the work of the Spirit. It's resurrection power, and resurrection power cannot come before death.
If ministers and congregations cling only to preservation, they are risking offending the Spirit and resisting the very Lord they are called to serve. It's that serious.
At times, what we know as “our church” or even broader expressions of the Church must undergo death. This does not mean the body of Christ ceases to exist. Quite the contrary, for the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. That is truth right there. Rather, what it means is this: those the forms, those patterns, and even those cherished identities we have built can (and will) be led by God into the grave, so that He might raise them anew.
This is painful. It feels like loss, like failure, like uncertainty. No doubt about it. You can ask many people at Mossneuk, and they'll testify to this very clear truth. Yet, it is often in these very seasons of dying that the Lord is preparing His people for a greater expression of His life.
The Church is crucified with Christ, and so it must also be raised with Him. The Spirit leads us through death in order that the life of Jesus may be revealed in fuller glory.
Therefore, and this applies directly to myself, and anyone who preaches the true and whole Christ: ministers of the gospel are not called to be museum curators of past moves of God. They are midwives of resurrection, shepherds who lead their people through the valley of death into the pasture of new life. They are those who, by the HOLY SPIRIT ONLY, recognise when God is calling something to die and when He is breathing resurrection life into what He raises.
This means at times saying no to preservation in order to say yes to transformation. The church should expect this moving forward. There is no going back. It's like taking the lifeboat back to an already tilting and sinking titanic. It's over.
So it will definatly mean heartache, but it also means trusting that the Lord of the Church knows what He is doing with His Church. It means carrying the cross with Christ, so that together we may also share in His resurrection. As my friend Ruth Kennedy said to me once, 'The Lord loves His Church more than you do.' He knows what is best.
I simply say to you today that the future of the Church does not lie in conservation, but in crucifixion and resurrection. Ministers who understand this, must walk with courage, knowing that the seed must fall, the body must die, and the form must change, in order for life to come.
This is not a call to despair but to hope: the Spirit is faithful, the cross is not the end, and what God raises will always bear the likeness of His Son.
In all these things, be praying.
