NeoZine

It filled hearts with joy everywhere it went.

The greatest difference between the Jesus Revolution and all the political revolutions in history is the presence of Joy. Everyone who joined the Jesus Revolution was amazed:

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.
1 Peter 1:8 (NASB)

This Joy is life-changing! People dropped their careers, opened their homes, threw their wealth into the air, and even the entrenched social divisions of the Roman empire crumbled:

You, the Gentiles were at that time separate from Christ, having no hope and without God in the world. He is our peace, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. Ephesians 2:11-15

When race divisions break down like that, it’s Revolution! An incautious, care-free spirit carried this Revolution, and it was Joy:

All the believers were united in heart and mind. They felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had!
Acts 4:32-33 (NLT)

It was revolutionary generosity, and they lived like a commune of Hippies. But where the Hippie experiment failed, this Revolution thrived.

How did the Christians do it? Their generosity was not a tax or religious law. It was spontaneous giving. It was “joy inexpressible” like Peter says, and never repeated like this anywhere else in history.

Revolutions are always bloody affairs, and revolutionaries smash enemies. Not so with the Jesus Revolution: those not joining The Revolution were treated kindly, so onlookers were thrilled by the movement of the Holy Spirit among God’s people. The Joy was contagious:

And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade…all the people had high regard for them.
Acts 5:12-13 (NLT)

Their Joy caused social upheaval. No tanks, guns, armies or bloody purges could ever do what God did when He pulled together such odd companions: joy and revolution.

What stirs this Joy? It is the Good News about Jesus Christ and the freedom he gives without cost to anyone. With Joy the Good News was proclaimed by the spiritual hosts of heaven at his birth:

“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people: a Savior, who is Christ the Lord…”

Then a real celebration of joy kicked-in:

And suddenly there appeared a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
Luke 2:10-14

It was not an exaggeration: the Good News was “a great joy for all the people” racing across the Roman empire. People reacted like this:

When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.  Acts 13:47-48a

This was not your average church Worship Service spreading so much Joy! Something is missing today, because “Church” is a somber, dark memory for a huge population in America who stopped going. Or if they attend, often it’s with dread fear and the congregants are impatient to leave.

Something is wrong today with the Revolution of Joy.

Where Have All the Gentiles Gone?

The passage above highlights the problem with the way we “Do Church” today — perhaps it should be titled, “The Way We Kill Joy Today.”

Where are “the Gentiles” today? There was a time, it says, “when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying God…” Today “The Gentiles” are nowhere near Christians on Sunday morning. They’re called the “Un-churched” now.

Where are "The Gentiles"?

More important, where are The Gentiles “rejoicing and glorifying God” today? It isn’t when the pastor or priest says, “Let’s Rise” and the singing starts, as commonly thought. “Rejoicing and glorifying God” came from the mouths of brand-new Christians or non-Christians in Acts 13. Those people were the “Un-churched” in Paul’s day, and how fortunate they were!

When The Gentiles start “glorifying God” it means Revolution is underway: strange and wonderful things happen.

They Don’t Fit!

The Gentiles simply don’t fit in Christian gatherings anymore. It’s a foreign and weird world for the Un-churched. Christians likewise feel uncomfortable around The Gentiles.

I made the mistake of bringing The Gentiles (baby, un-churched Christians) to a “Christian revival” by a nationally-known Christian speaker, and The Gentiles were conspicuous even in a large auditorium because they didn’t have gray hair. When everyone stood up to sing, I was horrified to see The Gentiles were boppin’, bellowing, shouting and shoving their fists in the air like crazies at a rock concert! I reached out to grab the kid, but I was arrested by another, sight: thousands across the auditorium standing prim and singing properly.

But Joy was missing.

Church is too much like Church.¹ This is why Church is losing today, and why it will continue to lose: new generations of Christian kids feel little or no loyalty to institutions, but institutions are the structures and bindings of Church. It is checkmate: institutions won’t flex, and the people won’t come.

Now please allow me to say what I might regret later: I’m glad Church is losing. By this I mean “Church” in the codified and institutionalized package developed over many centuries of authoritarian abuse.

Why would I say such a terrible thing? I don’t say it gleefully.

I want Church to lose because I know what Church would do to The Gentiles I brought into that auditorium: slowly and ponderously, their carefree Joy would be smothered by traditions and behavior modifications, and eventually monolithic institutions would bind their young spirits. So sad, because these traditions, behaviors and institutions define Church today, but they have no firm root in the Bible.

These are The Gentiles today.

Church means tradition. Church means institution. Church means oppression. Who can deny that Church was the instrument of torture, execution and bloody war for centuries?

Church is anti-revolution, because it is embedded in the Institutions of Man.

Church changed a Revolution of Joy into an institution of death, because Church is dying today.

But it doesn’t have to go this way.

Footnotes:

1. We use “Church” as a capitalized, specialized label in this series to designate manmade Institutions of the Church, not as a translation of ekklesia as we might normally see it used. See Radical Terms in the appendix for more. [↩]

Related posts:

1. Feelings of Joy
2. Revolution
3. Joy in a Joyless World