LET'S TALK ABOUT RECYCLING

I hope you recycle. We do—newspapers, plastic, aluminum and glass. We try to recycle other things as well, such as used clothing, old furniture, books—we either give them away or call a ministry we can donate them to. Recycling is important and is a form of renewal to items we no longer want or need.

And recycling has been a part of church life for hundreds of years. Let me explain.

A powerful and new world missions thrust that began in the late 1700s under the leadership of William Carey, J. Hudson Taylor and others slowed down and lost much of its momentum in the late 1800s. The missionary emphasis was revived following the Second World War as thousands of Christian servicemen came home from overseas with a burden to share the Good News with millions who had never heard of Jesus Christ. These wonderful men and women had been exposed to the spiritual darkness in Europe, Asia and Africa and many returned with a burden to do something; hence, a renewed world missions emphasis resulted.

The Pentecostal outpouring that began in the early 1900s grew and spread exponentially for about thirty to thirty-five years and then seemed to lose a lot of its energy. In the late 1950s an Episcopal priest in Van Nuys, California, had an encounter with the Holy Spirit and began speaking and teaching about it. Suddenly the Holy Spirit movement was recycled to a whole new audience. The growth of the Pentecostal/Charismatic message took on dimensions that no one ever thought possible. There are some estimates now that fifty percent of the worldwide Christian Church is now Pentecostal/Charismatic in belief and practice, and it continues to grow.

Recycling also seems to happen in doctrinal emphasis. After decades of poor or inadequate teaching on faith, thirty or forty years ago a renewed emphasis on faith emerged in the Church and a whole new era was birthed. We could go on and on talking about various areas of the Church where emphasis or truth has fallen into disuse or been abandoned and suddenly a resurgence of what was neglected occurs.

It seems to me that recycling is healthy for the Church as it strives for maturity.

But let me add this word of caution. Not everything that gets recycled in the Church is good.  Some things that died in years past need to be left in the graveyard. They were not life-giving before and they are not now.

Let me illustrate what I mean.

In the early 1970s Carol and I were living with our very small children in Dallas. I was the crusade director for David Wilkerson and we conducted area-wide crusades throughout the U.S., Canada and western Europe. In the summer of 1973 a well-known Southern Baptist evangelist conducted a crusade at a stadium in Garland, Texas. I went to one of the evening services and I’m being honest when I tell you that I went to see how they did things. Frankly, I was impressed! I enjoyed the service, everything was well organized, there were several thousand in attendance, and the altar call was excellent.

 

One thing that the evangelist emphasized, however, really troubled me. He went to great lengths to emphasize, “The Church won’t tell you this, but serving Jesus is totally fun. It’s fun all the time.” 

I wondered how I had missed that in my study of Scripture! That emphasis was around for a few years and then seemed to disappear because, thankfully, saner minds had prevailed and corrected an erroneous emphasis. Scripture does not teach that serving Jesus is fun all the time. Scripture does teach that all believers can know the joy and peace of the Lord that sustains them in times of trouble, but it also says, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12, ESV).

The “Jesus is fun and exciting all the time” message is trying to make a comeback in portions of today’s Church. I’m seeing it advertised on some TV shows and in print messages. Not long ago I looked at the website of a church that was being planted in New York City and a part of their mission statement is “living life is meant to be fun!”

This is the negative side of recycling. I believe the Holy Spirit uses the recycling principle to assist the Church in staying healthy and on target. The enemy also uses the principle to try to perpetuate error and imbalance.

Is serving Jesus fun all the time? No! The Creator of the universe is far more interested in our growth and maturity than He is in our momentary feelings of elation. One of the attributes that Isaiah prophesied about the Messiah is that He would be known as “everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6). This is speaking of His fatherly nature. Every good father wants his children to grow up to be fully developed and mature and that means that at times discipline must take place. To take another approach is child abuse and it results in adults retaining the immaturity of children.