Reformation brings us back to our foundation that we have in our Christian faith. But the question might be asked: Why do we need reformation? I would like to answer this question, by asking other questions.
First set of questions is dealing with our personal lives. Is our life in tune with what we profess to believe? Take our faith, or what we profess to believe. George Barna made waves by citing statistics “showing just 9% of all born again adults and just 7% of Protestants possess a biblical worldview.”
What is a biblical worldview? It includes a belief in absolute moral truth as defined by Scripture, as well as acceptance of six core biblical beliefs: the accuracy of biblical teaching, the sinless nature of Jesus, the literal existence of Satan, the omnipotence and omniscience of God, salvation by grace alone, and the personal responsibility to evangelize. Only 9% of all born again adults and 7% of Protestants believe this, according to researcher Frank Barna.
“The low percentage of Christians who have a biblical worldview is a direct reflection of the fact that half of our primary religious teachers and leaders do not have one,” Barna says.
In most of our homes in the West you will find a Bible or two and many will know some of its content, but very few know how to integrate its teaching into a coherent life style and be able to respond to the challenges and opportunities that come our way. Like Frank Barna said: “We’re often more concerned with survival amidst chaos than with experiencing truth and significance.” However, those that do operate from a biblical worldview will have widely different views on morality and the choices they make daily.
Reformation will bring our daily lives back to a biblical worldview.
Second set of questions that we need to ask ourselves is: Is our ‘ministry’ in tune with the Word of God? Before we answer this question let us ask some other questions about the ministry:
- Is it competition or completion? Do we find ourselves competing with other ministries rather than trying to see how we can complete them?
- Is it focused or fragmented? If we are not focused we will be fragmented. Do we see our purpose in the light of God’s Word so that we are focused on that only?
- Is it a relinquishing or what I call a ‘resisting’ ministry. So often we (the professionals) hang on to the work and do not know how to relinquish to those that have been prepared for the task. We see this with Jesus when He gave to His 12 disciples His task – when He ascended back to heaven.
- Is it reconciliation or alienation? We see in 2 Corinthians 5:18 that we have been given the message of reconciliation, but when we see the disunity in the church one wonders what happens to the power of this message.
- Is it the letter of the law or the Spirit of life? Is it rules and regulations or is it laying down biblical principles that we can govern ourselves by?
- Is our ministry about the movement of God or is it about the monument of man? Many movements and even denominations that start out as a movement of God, after one or two generations – become a monument of man.
These are questions that I ask myself when I read the Word of God and then look at the ministry that is taking place today. Reformation will bring us back to Christ’s ministry.
We will take up the third question regarding our culture in the next article.