Introduction
The good humor of God is seen in that He is always writing unexpected victories into the narrative. It is always a Jael crushing the king’s skull, a shepherd boy cutting off a giant’s head. Deliverance comes from the tongue-tied prophet and the virgin’s womb. And this is yet again the case when I consider the CREC. The Communion of Reformed and Evangelical Churches, which has grown remarkably in recent years, is still young, nimble, unpredictable. You can still type in CREC into the search engine and find other CRECs before our CREC. For example: The Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (no, I’m not making this up). Or, my favorite: the Council of Rural Electric Communicators (I thought, well, maybe that could be us). But we’re not only young. We are also a bit funky. We may be something like a sanctified Cave of Adullam. We’re like a baptized Golden Corral buffet. There’s a bit of everything on the menu, and the kids eat free. But, whatever we are, I’m convinced we’re a band of ministers storming the gates of hell with water pistols. And this is for the good, because this is how our Lord designs His greatest ambushes.
So our Lord uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. But there is also that moment where the plot reveals the twist. In every story there comes a time when the mystery is revealed. The unexpected can only be unexpected for so long before it becomes the expected. Someone in the crowd eventually says, “I think Rocky is going to win.” And, if you are Rocky, that is not the time to look at Adrian and say, “I think I’m going to win.” If you do that kind of thing, the Russian will eat your lunch. When the tide turns in your favor, you should swim harder.
I have only had the privilege of serving in this communion for approximately five years, and there are many brothers among us who have been running the race and throwing punches for a long time. My exhortation is simply that we not stop, and that we not stop particularly given the sea change. When the men storming hell with water guns start to put out a few fires, it is at that point that those men might be tempted to assume it was because they were such good shots. It is at that point they could become precious about their particular model, the Super Soaker 5000, as if the Lord couldn’t do it with buckets of water or mangled water hoses.
Paul said he did not swing to miss. He wasn’t shadowboxing. And my point is that you can throw hands well for a time and then just start pretending. You can put feet to pavement for a time, and when you start to look like you’re a contender, you can start to run aimlessly. So, first the good news. Then, the warning consisting of what I would do if I were the devil. And finally, the way to stay on track.
The Good News
The good news is that, in my humble estimation, the CREC is positioned to keep up the work of reformation in Protestant America in a unique way. We are at a “for such a time as this” moment.
America is historically Protestant. We are Protestant. America is historically covenantal and has let that covenantal crest over her hearth fade. We are a communion that buffs that covenantal crest to make it shine. America is hopelessly optimistic. Americans see every ominous projection possible, and I’m suspicious of this because we seem to like them. We eat bad news for breakfast. We brew the morning cup of coffee, watch the next wave of trouble come upon our shores, and say, “You know, I think I’ll start a new business. I’ll call it ‘Manifest Destiny.’” And we are a communion of postmillennial hustle. America has long gathered to hear the prophets call to repentance, from Whitfield and Wesley to Edwards and Billy Graham. And we are a communion that would still like a word with man in the public square. And, while America has a particular tradition, it has been willing to work broadly within that tradition to build. Men came looking for a better life and freedom to worship. But they did so, by and large, avoiding that sectarian separatism that marked the radical reformation. And here again, we are a communion that has standards but certainly has more options than any other Protestant denomination I know of.
Notice that this read concerning our future usefulness for the kingdom is not based on recent developments or breaking news as much as it is on certain doctrinal and cultural commitments that situate us within a tradition. Even more importantly, these doctrinal and cultural commitments are biblical, and they have been worked out by faithful men within our communion for some time. We have a real foothold.
But there is work to be done, for these doctrinal and cultural commitments are contested by the spirit of the age. And they are not contested by a singular foe but challenged, as it were, from several sides. We are in a time where you can be dumb in all sorts of ways. And this brings me to the warnings, or what I would do if I were the devil. How could I get this communion off of the track and onto the treadmill, or how could I get them to stop punching where it hurts and turn to shadowboxing?
If I Were the Devil
If I were the devil, I would turn our virtues into vices. An unguarded strength is a double weakness. And every one of these essentially reduces to getting too big for our ecclesiastical britches.
So in the first place, I would attempt to turn our postmillennial eschatology into a mere political frame while getting others to forgo that eschatology altogether. The indicators that I was successful would be that ministers would take the situation on the ground as setting the parameters for what could be done. They would not only see the valley of dry bones, which is essential. But they would let the dry bones and the dry bones alone determine their social imaginary. A sure sign that my plan was working would be that I’d get half of the ministers given to excessive planning and no prayer. And I’d get the other half praying in that manner James warned about. Get half forgetting to ask for the kingdom of heaven to come on earth and get the other half asking in double-minded fashion. James 1:6: “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
My second move would be to get these men to lay off the prophetic. And I would do this in two ways. I’d get some men to go the way of talking heads. I’d get them in extensive Twitter comment fights. I’d ensure that they forget the wisdom from the Apostle Paul: “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” I’d get the rest of them disillusioned with public proclamation altogether. The first must cast their pearls before swine and the second must cast no pearls at all. The key here is pride. Get some speaking from pride and get others not speaking from the same vice.
The third move of the enemy would be to corrupt our worship. This can be accomplished by getting some to believe that order and form don’t matter while getting others to think that order and form are all that matter. Get the latter to worship, but not by the Spirit, and get the former to worship by another spirit. I would want them all thinking that they were Elijah on Mount Carmel while ensuring that no prophets of Baal were harmed in their work. I would want them all like Elijah on Mount Carmel but insisting that no water be poured on the sacrifice because they were convinced that it wouldn’t work if water was on it. I would aim for sacred assemblies to abound while aiming for them to be of the fashion found in Amos: “I hate, I despise your feast days, And I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; For I will not hear the melody of thy viols.” The hallmark of success would be that there would be no judgment running down like waters, nor righteousness as a mighty stream.”
My final move would be to take a covenantal communion and turn it into a communion of another kind. The key is to get any church or communion of churches convinced that something other than grace from above binds them together. Get one insisting he follows Paul and another Apollos. Any mere man will do. Any secondary cause. Get them in the frame of mind that doesn’t trust God and use means but trusts means and uses God. Additionally, get as many as possible to forget what their covenantal communion is for. Get the dwarves to be for the dwarves and nothing else.
Staying in the Ring
This is how I would attempt to turn our virtues into vices, leaving us running without purpose and swinging without hitting anything. And what should we do to avoid that outcome? We should remember that God uses the foolishness of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the strong. Or, to use the language from Paul in our central passage, we should run to obtain the incorruptible crown, adding that we run toward that incorruptible crown in corruptible flesh. We are made of dirt, no sense in taking ourselves too seriously, no sense in relying on the flesh. The point is more spiritual than it is technical. You have no doubt known what it is like to have your preaching attended by the Holy Spirit. And you also know that this is pure gift. So will be our progress in this world as we aim for glory that is eternal.
That progress toward the incorruptible is made in the corruptible. It is the incarnate one who ascends. We have a great treasure, but we have it in jars of clay. Chesterton once said that angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. And this is good news for us, for the only thing lighter than a celestial body must be our dusty ones.
