By David Ryser
You
cannot spend your way out of a recession or borrow your way out of debt. (Daniel Hannan).
When I saw this quote, I was
stunned because the statement was made by a politician. My mental equilibrium was restored only after
I discovered that Mr. Hannan is not an American politician.
It is self-evident to some people that
a nation cannot spend itself into prosperity.
Many such obvious statements could be coined. For example:
You cannot drink yourself into a cure for alcoholism.
Or how about this one? You cannot religion yourself to God.
I’ve had friends who have left the
professional ministry. They’re usually
happy to be out of the religion business, but have to work through some hurts
and disappointments they’ve picked up along the way. And they don’t realize how much of their troubles
were self-inflicted. Typically, they’re
not ready to hear about it for a long time.
Because we are friends, we talk about it when the time is right.
So, let’s take a look at how a
Jesus-loving church leader can be his/her (and the Kingdom’s) worst enemy.
In Mark 2:22 (cf. Luke 5:37, 38),
Jesus tells us that new wine cannot be put into old wineskins. If new wine is put into an old wineskin, the
fermenting wine will cause the wineskin to burst. The wine will be wasted, and the wineskin
will be destroyed.
And so it is with churches.
Much is made of the subject of the
new wine in sermons...along with mention of the old wineskin. Usually, and incorrectly, the use of the term
“old wineskin” is in reference to Judaism.
All of this talk about new wine and old wineskins is particularly
noteworthy when we consider that the two scriptures mentioned earlier are the
only verses in the entire New Testament that speak of new wine and old wineskins
at all--and they are referencing the same teaching.
So Jesus possibly spoke about the
new wine and the old wineskins only once.
Reading these verses in context, I
have become convinced that when Jesus speaks of the new wine, He is talking
simultaneously about powerful moves of the Holy Spirit in our time as well as
the people affected by this outpouring.
He’s talking about us! He’s
speaking about what happens when God’s Spirit is poured into people…and what
happens when those people grapple with incorporating this move of God into a
religious system that is not able to contain either the move of God or the
people of God who are filled to overflowing with His Spirit.
When God pours out His Spirit (His
presence and His power) onto His people, one of three things usually happens. And all of them end badly.
First, religious people may accept neither
what God is doing nor those who have been impacted by it. They prefer the old and the familiar
ways. When Jesus speaks about the new
wine and the need for new wineskins to contain it (Luke 5:37, 38), He goes on
to say (in verse 39) that people do not immediately acquire a taste for the new
wine. They declare that the old wine is good enough. They can reject the new wine. They hold on to the old religious ways for any
number of reasons: out of a love for
tradition, a preference for the old and comfortable way of doing things (no
matter how perverted and unbiblical), to maintain their standing or position in
the church, etc. They will reject an
obvious move of God in favor of the old wineskin.
I have seen this happen on more
than one occasion. Once it occurred in a
church I was pastoring. It’s why I don’t
pastor anymore.
Second, the church leadership might
try to preserve both the new thing God is doing and the old religious church
system, methods, and programs. Trying to
please everyone, they end up pleasing no one…including God. The pressure of the old straining against the
new will eventually come to the breaking point, and the church explodes--and is
destroyed along with what God was trying to do.
And the new move of God, and the
people who went for it, are usually blamed for the church’s demise.
Third, and perhaps most common, the
church leadership may see that the new move of God is straining the church’s
religious structure (and threatening their power). If something is not done soon, the church
will be destroyed. But they want to
retain the new wine as well. So they try
to co-opt the move of God by tinkering with their church system in an effort to
accommodate God’s outpouring without substantively changing the church
“wineskin.” They bleed off just enough
of the new wine (such as by adding closely-supervised “small groups” to simulate
church as an organism rather than just an organization; or by simply dampening,
or even removing, those “troublemakers” who are contending for the move of God)
so that the remainder can be contained within the old religious system.
Over time, the new wine resembles
the old wine. The church services might
be more exuberant, but God is nowhere to be found.
When we do this, we usually just
end up where we began. It’s
different. It’s exciting. It’s fun.
It makes us feel good. We’re
moving fast…we’re making good time…but the road we’re on doesn’t go anywhere.
Just ask my ex-pastor friends. When God began to move, they initiated a few
changes to accommodate Him. But they
simply would not give up their role as “the sage on the stage” and were unable,
or unwilling, to let God take control of the church service.
Including their beloved sermon.
We would be well-advised to follow
the biblical model for responding to what God is doing. We should embrace it…totally and fully. We need to allow God’s Spirit and power to
transform us…first. Having received a transformation
of heart, we then can go about the business of changing how we do things. We should receive, and become, the new wine.
And then we should seek God about
the new wineskin to hold the new wine.
So when God moves in a new way (new
to us, anyhow), we need a new way of doing things as well. How we “do church” must change…radically
change. But transformation of our heart
should precede a change of methodology.
If not, we will change what we do without experiencing a transformation
of what we are. This is always a grave
error.
If we do not experience a
transformation of our heart before we change what we do, we will find that we’ve
done nothing except discovered a new way to do an old thing.
And then both what we had, and what
we could have had, will be lost.
Responses to this article are
welcomed. You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com
