The Next Great Reformation
Where the Church has been; where the Church is going next
If you were to take a broad strokes look at the history of Christianity and major movements that have shaped and changed it, you would notice that about every 500 years or so, there is a seismic shift that takes place. If this trend were to continue… well… we’re due.
Jesus, the Original Reformer
It all started with Jesus.
The fact of the matter is that no Christians would exist today if it weren’t for Jesus. The original followers of the path we are on today were disciples of a 1st century rabbi, who was crucified for his radical understanding of how one lives out faith.
Pages upon pages have been written regarding Jesus’ relationship to the religious establishment of his day. Certainly, we could add to those pages here, but I’ll give the short version.
As we read the Gospels, the most direct teachings of Jesus can be seen. One place that is particularly important is the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5–7.
In Matthew 5:17 (ESV), Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus was not about destroying the religious order of his days, but about calling them back to their roots.
There are several times in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus says, “You have heard it said” and then counters a verse or so later with, “but I say to you” (Mt 5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43). Jesus is not trying to contradict what the Old Testament is teaching here, but, rather, he is attempting to bring people back to the heart of what is going on.
The Law — that is, the Mosaic Law, the part of the Old Testament that we tend to skip over more than the rest of the Old Testament — was the covenant made between God and the Israelites. According to tradition (and the Old Testament), it was received by Moses while the Israelites were camped at Mount Sinai, shortly following the exodus from Egypt.
The problem with the Law, which is pointed out by Paul in his letter to the church at Rome, is that it is impossible to fulfill. In fact, Paul argues, the Law exists SO THAT we can see how impossible it is to live up to God’s standards.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day didn’t see things that way. In fact, they were so hellbent (if you’ll pardon the expression) on making sure that people strictly adhered to the letter of the Law that they surrounded it with a hedge of other rules and restrictions. If you didn’t break those, then you DEFINITELY would not break the Law of Moses.
The problem? It was too great a burden for the people to bear. The spiritual life became about a list of rules and regulations, and not about the covenant relationship that the people were to have with God.
And so, Jesus comes to fulfill the Law, and in doing so, releases the hold that it has on the people. In Jesus’ life, we see the fulfillment of the Law, and we see the difficulty of living in this way. What this does, of course, is rob the religious elite of the power they so desperately want to maintain. After all, once you are in power, it’s hard not to be any more. That desire continues to eat away at you, unless you are a person of grace and humility. Let’s face it, we don’t have too many leaders like that any more — if we had them in the first place.
What ends up happening in Jesus’ fulfillment of the Law is that a whole new sect pops up. At first, they are called people of the Way (Acts 9:22), and in Acts 11:26, they are called Christians (or, followers of Christ) in Antioch for the first time. I don’t believe Jesus ever set out to establish a new religion — most reformers don’t. What is the sense in exchanging one establishment for another? But, of course, that is what happened.
Initially, most outsiders saw Christians as a subset of the Jewish people, but eventually, they became their own sociological group, distinct and separate from their Jewish origins. And the first reformation took place.
Differently Orthodox
The next two major movements we see in the Christian Church are way more complicated and deeply theological than I want to get into in this space. So, here’s the super-short version.
In 451, the Council of Chalcedon was called by Emperor Marcian. It has come to be known as the fourth ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. There were some deep disagreements regarding the nature of Jesus, but eventually a position was decided. However, not everybody agreed with the newly “orthodox” position, and we see one of the first major schisms in the history of Christianity. Coptic Christianity, which still exists in today’s world, separated itself from the Catholic Church.
In 1054, we encounter another major schism in the Church. This one, known as the Great Schism, or the East-West Schism saw a separation that led to the formation of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
This separation had several roots — historical, theological, and ecclesial. Once again, it is more than I am willing to go into in this space, but the end result is the same. Another separation, more branches of Christianity who disagree about some highly technical matters.
“Here I Stand” — The Protestant Reformation
The next major movement in the Western branch of Christianity came in Germany in the 1500’s. A monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door on the church in Wittenburg. Little did he know what he had started.
Again, it is hard to boil down a significant movement like the Reformation into just a couple of paragraphs, but here’s the short version. Luther called out the Roman Catholic Church for several of its practices, the one that gets the most attention circled around indulgences.
Indulgences were basically a pay-to-play scheme cooked up in order to bring in some extra cash. You buy and indulgence and your sin or the sin of one of your relatives gets taken off the ledger sheet. That’s a crude, short-sighted and incomplete way of looking at it, but you get the picture. Luther, like yourself at this very moment, thought that was pretty messed up.
When I was in college, I took a history course on the Reformation, and the professor on the very first day said something along the lines of, “We really shouldn’t call it the Reformation, but rather the Reformations. This was not a single, monolith movement, but rather a collection of movements that all occurred right around the same time.” It’s almost as if something… or someone… was moving in a powerful way at the time. Huh…
In the end, the Reformation(s) brought about a new era in theological thought. Not only do we see the rise of Protestantism, but we see a fractured Protestantism that eventually gives birth to movements like the Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists, and others. Turns out, Protestants liked the idea of separating themselves from those who think differently and continued to do so for centuries to follow.
In fact, in just about any town of more than 100 people, you’ll probably find no less than 435 denominations represented. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point. I served a church in a town of 600 people that had at least 7 churches in the immediate area, and none of them were the same denomination. Not everybody in town went to church, and not everybody in town went to a church that was in that town. It’s crazy.
There are Mainline, Evangelical, Holiness, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Penecostal denominations. Some of them self-identify as something else than what the sign outside the building says. Some of them think they are one, but are really another. Some of them got tossed into a blender, and would be considered interdenominational denominations. There’s even non-denominational denominations. Sure, they don’t call themselves denominations, but, let’s be honest here and call a tomato a tomato, regardless of how you want to pronounce it.
This is all the product of one German monk with a hammer, a nail and 95 Theses!
The Next Great Reformation
All this history leads us to today, and this question: what is the next Great Reformation?
If we look at the timeline, we are just about due. It’s been 500 years since the days of Luther and the rise of the Protestants. Though, these days, I’m not sure a majority of Protestants could tell you what they were protesting. There have been so many church/denominational splits in the last 500 years that it’s hard to really keep track. And, of course, for the average person, it doesn’t matter.
I always find it interesting how a person can church-hop from a Lutheran to a Presbyterian to a Free Methodist to an independent, non-denominational to a… well, you get the point. These are completely different theological frameworks, but very few people understand (or care) about that these days.
To that end, I don’t think the next Great Reformation is going to come in the form of denominationalism. For the most part, denominations are too clunky and unable to keep up with the rate of change in modern society. (And I say that as part of one of the major denominations in the United States.)
So, if it’s not about large group movements on a denominational level, what’s next?
Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians, you are not like him.
- Bara Dada, Indian philosopher
The focus for the next Great Reformation has to be Jesus — nothing more, nothing less. I know it would be easy to say that we are already focused on Jesus, but, in reality, we aren’t as much as we think we are.
Even in the non-denominational churches, there are a set of commonly shared beliefs (too many of which people claim to be THE biblical way), and if you don’t adhere to these specific beliefs, then you aren’t really a Christian.
For example, there are too many that think you have to be baptized via a particular mode. “If you want to be a part of the First Church of the Way Jesus Did Things Church, then you need to be baptized by us because the way you were baptized before doesn’t really count.”
Can somebody please tell me the number of times that Jesus baptizes a person in the Gospels, and exactly how he does it, including the wording that he uses? Let me save you the time: you can’t because Jesus doesn’t baptize anybody in the Gospels. Sure, the disciples did. Jesus himself was baptized in the Jordan River by his cousin John the Baptist (talk about on-the-nose naming!)
What is really going to change the face of the world, and bring about a major revival and a movement of the Holy Spirit is not going to be people bickering about the “right” way to do things. It’s going to be people who are intentionally living like Jesus.
People who demonstrate grace and forgiveness. People who decide to let go of the hatred and anger that mars much of the religious landscape. People who care about people more than they care about “right” theology.
Here’s the thing: I’m not necessarily advocating an “anything goes” attitude when it comes to theology. There do need to be standards, but let’s base those standards in the most generous interpretation of Jesus’ life that we can.
When the woman who was caught in adultery is brought before Jesus (and, yes, there are a ton of problems with this story that we won’t get into right now) what happens? Jesus shows her the grace and mercy that the crowd was unwilling to show. Now, he doesn’t just say, “Nah, you’re good. Go back to whatever (or whoever) you were doing.” He says, “Neither do I condemn you. Now, go and sin no more.”
The problem the Church has had, especially in today’s society, is that it wants to spend more time defining what Jesus means by “sin” instead of reflecting on the grace and mercy that is shown. So, we come up with these lists — the To Don’t lists of sins, and what is most interesting is that these lists usually exclude our pet sins while pointing out the ones we struggle with the least.
It’s a whole lot easier to tell somebody what they shouldn’t be doing, instead of forcing ourselves to look inward. And that’s why the Church is in major need of the next Great Reformation. I think there is a lot of good in today’s Church, but when the method drowns out the message, we have to stop and reevaluate some things.
So, my simple list for what needs to happen in the next Great Reformation
- The next Great Reformation will have more focus on the message and person of Jesus; and, consequently, less focus on tribalism (i.e. — you have to believe the way I do, or you’re not really a Christian). Look, denominations have their place. The problems come when people put the denomination ahead of the teachings of Christ. To go back on a previous example, a denomination that demands you be baptized into “their” church is already demonstrating a lack of understanding about who the major player is when it comes to baptism. Hint: it’s not the denomination. Honestly, this is one of the reasons I appreciate the United Methodist Church. You want to be immersed? Great! We can make that happen. You want to get sprinkled while wearing your nice clothes? Sure thing! The focus is not the method, but the change that Christ has brought into your life, and the public profession of faith that ensues. I may be a United Methodist pastor, but I can work with the Disciples of Christ pastor/church down the road, or the UCC pastor/church across town, or the Luther… well, let’s not get carried away (kidding!)
- The next Great Reformation will have an appropriate connection/disconnection from the political system: too many people have walked away from the Church in the last 3 years because the blind following people of faith have had to a figurehead who constantly contradicts the teachings of Christ, all while claiming to be the morally superior party. This needs to stop. A friend of mine on the Facebook (that’s what they call it these days, right? THE Facebook?) posted the meme where Obama is talking to Jesus about Trump overturning all his policies, and Jesus says, “That’s why I sent him.” I about barfed. You see, the assumption in this meme is that Jesus was absolutely shut out of the United States for 8 years while Obama was President. Because, get this, apparently Jesus is too weak to actually work through the opposing political party. It’s the dumbest thing I have seen in a long time, and I’ve seen some stupid crap lately! The truth is that no political party has a corner on the religious marketplace. Republicans have some of it right. Democrats have some of it right. Libertarians have some of it right. The Rent Is Too Damn High Party… well, they… do… something… (moving on…)
- The next Great Reformation will see less focus on “me”, more focus on “kingdom”: too many church splits have happened because there is too much of a “me” focus in today’s churches. People don’t get things the way they prefer, and so, they try to find a smaller pond to be the big fish in. The pastor changes something that five people don’t like, depending on the ecclesial structure, he/she gets fired and the next sucker steps into the pulpit. If churches truly want to make a difference, they will start focusing on the message of the kingdom of heaven and stop focusing on trying to build personal kingdoms. (And, yes, I know that there are some who are turned off by my use of the term “kingdom”. I get it, I’m not woke enough to use “kin-dom”. Neither was Jesus. He used a term that was relevant to his time and culture. I use it in that same spirit.)
- The next Great Reformation will see less of a focus on gathering for a once a week worship event, and more focus on connection and spiritual growth. Right now, the major focus for the local church is what happens on Sunday morning (or whatever time the primary worship event takes place). Trust me, as a pastor, the majority of my time is spent on the Sunday morning experience. But, what happens when we do this? We don’t spend the necessary time developing people spiritually. Sure, the worship experience helps, but it’s a starting point, not the whole enchilada. The next Great Reformation will be about micro-experiences more than putting on a show. And, frankly, I’m not 100% sure how to do that because it’s not the model I was trained in.
Here’s the deal: I’m not a futurist. These are just some thoughts I’ve been having as I have reflected on the future of the Church. I could be way off. I could be reading the situation completely wrong. But I do feel like something big has to happen. Something significant is on the horizon. In 500 years, people will be looking back at this generation to see the spark that created a revolution in the Church, of that I am convinced.
So, what do you think? What will the future hold for the Church? What will Church look like in 25, 50, 100 years? What changes does the Church need to make now in order to get to that ideal future? I’m interested in hearing your thoughts in the comments below!
