“Revolution” is such a polluted word anymore, what does it mean? Religions and institutions hijacked the word.

Returning to 'the ancient practices' of Medieval Christianity is Revolution?

“Revolution” now means returning to the Dark Ages—literally—returning to old, stone buildings, with chants, creepy incense, and suffocating rituals. Brian McLaren and others from Emergent Village, Inc. are marketing that dark, superstitious world as “Revolution”. It’s hugely-popular, and it’s anything but Revolution.

So “Revolution” means “conservative” now? It doesn’t make any sense, but they say it does. And they’re making big bucks selling it.

“Revolution” also means neomonasticism (“new monk-ism”)! But how is this possible? Perhaps monks were revolutionary 1,500 years ago, but isn’t monasticism a well-established institution today? Neomonasticism is merely an old institution refurbished somewhat:

Have you ever thought about becoming a monk or nun? What if you could  without shaving your head or swearing celibacy? People of all ages and  walks of life are engaging neomonasticism — living in community, sharing  all possessions, engaging in a rhythm of a worshipful life, launching out in  missional action. Neomonastic Web

Neomonasticism and 'Spiritual Disciplines' may be refreshing--but not Revolution.

So “Revolution” revives old institutions now? Usually Revolution burns down institutions, but in religious parlance it means returning to old institutions? So typical of religion to quash dissent and subdue creativity! They outlawed Revolution in the old days, but today they just hijack Revolution.

The new definitions of “Revolution” are bewildering and cloud the concept beyond usefulness. It means:

• A deeper spiritual life? (Advocates of Spiritual Disciplines somehow confuse spiritual refreshment with Revolution!)
• A cyber-church? (Is Revolution simply a different way to ‘do church’?)
• An Emerging church? (Revolution means investigation, conversation?)
• An artistic church with contemporary music? Perhaps this describes an art gallery, but it surely falls outside the definition of Revolution.

These may be “revolutionary” in the sense of “new and novel”, but the difference between Revolution and “revolutionary” is the difference between a Hydrogen bomb and a sparkler.

Disestablishment

One of the early Disestablishers

Ebenezer Erskine kindled fires in 1733 in Scotland, and flames spread to England, roared across America and toppled mighty institutions—slavery being the most infamous. This is Revolution, unambiguous and pure: as it spreads, slavery is quashed.

Real Revolution means Disestablishment.

The “Free” churches, as they call themselves, are derived from Ebenezer’s Disestablishment movement: Free Presbyterians, Free Methodists, Free Episcopalians, Evangelical Free, and a large variety of others. Disestablishment continues still today with the rise of non-denominational Christian groups.

All these groups underwent Disestablishment at different times:

Disestablishment – to deprive (an organization, especially a national Church) of its official status. —Oxford English Dictionary

Disestablishment started slowly, as it always does, with a few brave souls: Ebenezer and friends left what they called “the Established Church” of Scotland because the government seized the people’s power to choose their own leaders.  They saw The Establishment as the enemy of biblical Christianity:

When we say that the Church is ‘Established’ what is implied is that by an act of parliament it is declared to be the National Church, that it is intimately connected with the state and…enjoys a privileged position. Free Church of Scotland

For 50 years Disestablishment grew and filtered into England where they were called Disestablishmentarians. Their campaign to breakaway from The Establishment was called Disestablishmentarianism.

Those who fought to maintain The Establishment called themselves Antidisestablishmentarians, and their political movement was called Antidisestablishmentarianism.

Disestablishment hits the NY Times front page--200 years after it started!

Thus, the most-convoluted word in the English language describes Institutionalized Christianity—also known as The Establishment, or Antidisestablishmentarianism.

Is this a surprise?

The Come-Outers

A liberator who got tied up

When the movement jumped the Atlantic, Americans greatly-simplified it (as Americans do) and launched the Come-Outers. These Christians were hatched during the Second Great Awakening (of Charles Finney fame, another Scotsman). They detested slavery and the Church Institutions supporting slavery. The Come-Outers spawned radical abolitionists, a mix of Christians and secularists who took a leading role in dismantling slavery.

William Garrison was a famous Christian Come-Outer who led the movement in the spirit of the Jesus Revolution—non-violent, but with poignancy in his famous words:

I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – and I will be heard! —Garrison

They took their name Come-Outers from the Bible:

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, said the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. (2 Cor. 6:17 – Old King James Version)

What an appropriate description of Antidisestablishmentarianism! “Touch not the unclean thing!”

Garrison’s Extremism

But Garrison’s teachings became entangled with politics. He taught “the unclean thing” was any corrupt institution, not merely the spiritual counterfeits of God’s Kingdom. To “come out” meant disobeying the laws and cease supporting the morally-corrupt institutions of government, period.

Abolitionists once burned the Constitution, similar to this desecration.

Thus Garrison became one of the earliest Christian anarchists, and seemed extremely dangerous—even though he never actually was an anarchist, his words were threatening. By today’s standards his position was heroic, because he championed women’s rights and vigorously denounced any tolerance of slavery. (He also burned a copy of the U.S. Constitution at a rally like flag-burners in our era).

Most Come-Outers left Garrison’s extremism and organized radical abolitionist organizations that attracted more followers and brought Lincoln to power. Slavery was doomed, even if a bloody civil war remained to be fought.

Garrison is a useful picture of the extremism of human-engineered Revolution mixed with beauty and genius of biblical Disestablishment.

On the negative side, he spurned the guidance of Jesus to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21) To use the Jesus people for the toppling human kingdoms (or to replace human government, as Garrison advocated) is to create a very Kosmos-entangled world. Christian political activism–even though it may be political dissent–is just as mistaken as Constantine’s effort to mold Christianity into a bureaucracy of the Roman Empire. Both extremes are abusing Body of Christ, which is intended for Disestablishment, not for building or refining The Establishment.

On the positive side, the beauty of the Jesus Revolution was evident in the work of the Come-Outers and their predecessors, because they unleashed sweet Disestablishment of the Established Church.

Garrison eloquently stated the beauty of Disestablishment near the end of his life. After witnessing the civil war, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th Amendment terminating slavery, he said with satisfaction:

“It is enough for me that every yoke is broken, and every bondman set free.” Garrison

Revolution is scary --Life Magazine 1969

Revolution impacts more people more quickly, more profoundly than any other social change. Revolution scares people.

But the Jesus Revolution isn’t scary. His Revolution strikes like lightening and sweeps across continents because people love it!

Wonder if Christianity could sweep across America and transform millions of lives and take center-stage and capture the attention and hearts of people everywhere?

Wonder if all this could change in five or six years?

Wonder if Christianity became so popular, your friends kept asking to hear more about it when they discover you’re a Christian?

Wonder if Christianity became so hot that when people convert, all their friends and family join because they too wanted to become Christians?

Wonder if you were at a bar with a few friends and your conversation sounded like this:

You: “I became a Christian last night,”

Friend: “I was just thinking about that myself…”

Another Friend: “What’s it like? I’ve always wondered about it…”

It used to be that way, once. Christians were:

…praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:47 (NASB)

…all the people had high regard for them. Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women. Acts 5:13-14 (NLT)

Victory creates joy. One of the great themes in Acts is the Revolutionary Joy of the early Christians, because  they were winners. In China they see this contagious joy today —when 100 million Chinese abandon atheism, defy the government and turn to Christianity, it only happens when people are having tremendously-exciting conversations about Christianity!

Christian Revolution is not scary, it’s contagious. Christians are the proud owners of the world’s first, most-successful and longest-lasting Revolution. Why would any Christian allow this prestigious position to be castigated and smeared by propaganda? “Christianity” is synonymous with “institutions” and “inhumanity” today.

Revolution never begins so contagiously, this is true. Until something clicks, there ain’t no lickety-split, and it’s a struggle.

Just because Revolution starts slow doesn’t make it a pipe-dream. The most unlikely people start Revolutions in the most unlikely places because Revolution is so very likely in the Kosmos: vast populations of utterly-bored, restless people feel enslaved and resent life in The Empire’s “clone army” (like “Star Wars”), just waiting to die. (Doesn’t Corporate America mold its employees into clone armies?)

People would love to fight for a cause, if they had a winning cause. Why are Christians so shy and embarrassed about The Cause? Because Christians are frightened by the Shock of Culture Shock, and it has a history. Read about it.

Yes! We’re up and running now, albeit a mite-bit wobbly.

NeoZine was dismantled and resurrected just in time for the academic year to begin, which means we can start working for students. This is an important burden for us at Xenos because our ministry is highly-attuned to students, and historically God keeps pushing us there.

Reaching students for Christ means fomenting Revolution, and always did. (Or reaching student-age, if not students.)

This is revolution: growth among young adults (80% converts).

Put another way: Revolution means reaching the non-religious, which means alienating the religious.

Put another way: the difference between non-religious and religious is the difference between a student-age mindset and an old-person-thing. This is an undeniable fact in Christian history, beginning with Jesus Christ and continuing with Paul’s work and every appearance of Christian Revolution since.

But let me first illustrate this point through a slice of Americana very near and dear to us.

The Birth of Body Life

Christian psychadelia - dig it.

Our roots sprang from the early days of  Campus Crusade for Christ. In 1963 Bill Bright, Crusade’s founder, sat in our living room making plans with my mother and others to launch this campus ministry at Ohio State University, the largest university in the world at the time.  This brought a parade of young Christian radicals like Hal Lindsay (before writing Late Great Planet Earth), Josh McDowell and other leaders from across the nation into our world. Some of them stayed and helped launch Bible studies that became Layman’s Challenge for Today, which launched an underground student paper called The Fish, which launched The Fish House, which became the first of hundreds of ministry houses planted around the OSU campus over time.

Then radical Christianity really exploded nationwide. Ray Stedman published the psychedelic booklet Body Life,  which became a handbook for the Jesus Freak Revolution and home church movements, and radical Christian communes like JPUSA in Chicago and Grace Haven Farm near Columbus.  Stedman was grieved by how few traditional churches welcomed young Jesus Freaks, a condition that still plagues Church Institutions today and raises new generations of disenfranchised youth. Fortunately, Stedman’s ministry in California put that little book into the public domain along with much of his prodigious scholarship to provide others with a biblical framework for building Body Life instead of Church Institutions.

Soon the spontaneous expansion of the church was underway, Jesus-Freak-style.  Student converts from the massive OSU population sustained the movement for decades.  In order to sound more adult-like, we changed the name from The Fish House to Xenos, but the new name was still so Jesus-Freakish.

The Vital Student World

Our first "facility" in Cleveland went up in flames...

We didn’t always realize Body Life was so bound to the student mindset, however. It was confusing because we carried it into Suburbia as we aged. The transitioning population was so large (more than 3,000 attending adults started having babies),  so radical Christian Body Life always seemed normative to us in Columbus even as we became paunchy, bald-headed radicals.

When we tried planting Xenos fellowships outside Columbus we became aware that it’s quite difficult to launch a Xenos fellowship among middle-aged people. We made that mistake in Cleveland, Cinci and Dayton, and discovered middle-aged America is Revolution-aversive. (Duh!) This is why Xenos grows best among student populations. Our success among the young is striking to traditional churches struggling with that age group.

"My brother is very old, but still radical..."

So why does Xenos thrive in student populations? The answer is simple: our growth comes from conversion growth, so only 20% of our growth comes from Christians transferring from other churches. It’s a sad fact that openness towards God in America rapidly shuts down as people enter careers and start building families. The researchers all agree that 90% of American Christians received Christ before college-age ends (around ages 23-25).

But an interesting phenomena breaks down those age barriers: older adults grow interested in Christ when their kids get interested. Especially when kids are suddenly behaving more sane and thoughtful, secular parents want to know more about Jesus Christ. And these adults raise interest among their peers. At times we’ve seen large numbers of middle-age and career-age people converting to Christianity.

It’s pretty cool, because lots of adults would love to hang with younger people if they were allowed to. In the typical sex-drugs-rock’n-roll world, adults are completely excluded (except drug dealers), but not so with Christian students (although they don’t like getting swamped with old farts, for obvious reasons).

Just Do It!

I just don’t get it: why be so dedicated to man-made traditions? What’s the benefit? If these be such magnificent traditions, as many Christians claim, surely God would have the foresight to institute them in the Bible, right? The conspicuous  absence of traditions and institutional blueprints in the Bible give us tremendous freedom–but it seems nobody wants the freedom He gives.

Here’s where traditions become slavery: dedication to man-made traditions even at the expense of alienating the youth.

What tradition could possible be so valuable? Rather than loosen the grip on traditions, the exact opposite is occuring, especially among those still embracing Calvin’s old “Reformed Theology” (Calvin was a champion of state-owned church institutions):

Here’s what Bono, Oprah, and the guru speakers on PBS won’t tell you: Jesus believed in organized religion and he founded an institution. – Todd Pruit

Their disengagement from “pop religion” is admirable, but unfortunately this embrace of Institutionalized Christianity is really “The Shock of Culture Shock” and merely strengthens the strongholds against a threatening culture. It’s a real losing strategy championed by American Christians for decades now.

Let’s use the NeoZine to set some people free!

Stetzer redefines the trends.

For those who think the American church scene is a disaster unfolding, “Think again!” Ed Stetzer says:

Christians seem to love bad information. Bad research goes far and wide…Young adults are abandoning the church! The sky is falling! …I think we’re living in a season of self-loathing right now.

Those claiming 88% are leaving the church “never to return” admitted the claims were educated guesses, Stetzer says.

Contrary to research claiming 4,000 churches closed and only 1,000 churches were planted, Stetzer says, “We think more churches were actually started last year than were closed.”

He cites U.S. Government statistics to back his claims:

According to surveys conducted between 1972 and 2006 by the General Social Survey, a biennial research project, church attendance among young people is higher than it was in the 1990s and no more than 10 percent below its peak in the early 1970s.

Church attendance increasing among younger generations? His graph is impressive:

The Millennials (Generation-Y) are more “Christian” than their predecessors (individuals 30 and older), Stetzer says: 

• More of them believe in the God of the Bible, the resurrection of Christ and the uniqueness of the Christian God.
• More are open to hear more about Christianity.
• Unchurched people in their 20s are closer to holding orthodox Christian beliefs. than their older counterparts.
• More say “there exists only one God, the one described in the Bible.”
• Their church attending has increased since 2000.

How is this possible? He defies research from Hine, (see “Steal This Book”) McDowell (see the NeoZine article), the Barna Group (see article), the Southern Baptists, and even secular researchers!

Stetzer is affiliated with LifeWay, a reputable research organization, and he’s a (visiting) professor at Trinity Seminary.

Shoot Me In the Head!

Stetzer also contradicts his own research organization!

Even more astonishing, he contradicts his own book!

College students, numbering approximately 16 million, are one of the most significant and unevangelized people groups in North America. The battle for the souls of collegians grows more desperate each year. Research indicates that more churches are closing every year than are being started, conversions to other religions and dropouts from Christianity are escalating, and it takes on average of 85 Christians working an entire year to produce one convert.

Tom Rainer, LifeWay’s president (and Stetzer’s boss) wrote a book subtitled, “Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts.” What will Stetzer say to his boss about the contradiction?

Then Stetzer shoots us in the head with out a bazooka!

“There is a turning against established Christianity [by the youth], who see it as a detriment to spirituality, not as a part of spirituality.”

This “turning against established Christianity” is well-documented on his own Web site:

But look closely at his stats, and a clear picture emerges: no, Church Institutions are not growing, but something very exciting is underway!  More on this later!

M. Walker triggers alarms crossing the border--was it the shirt?

It was a memorable trip, by all accounts: The Meeting House in Toronto is one of the few Christian movements in North America where revolutionary Christians can feel at-home. (Even teenage revolutionaries!) Ten representatives of The Crossroads Project (the CBS) piled into two vans and crossed international borders (where a certain M. Walker appeared as a “wanted man” according to Homeland Security computers–but it was a different M. Walker, and “you wouldn’t want to be that guy,” the guard said).

The CBS invaded their third meeting at the crack of noon Sunday, and what an amazing world we walked into: techno-music echoed from speakers everywhere, and waves of people were coming and going. (Much like a Rolling Stones concert.) Arriving in-between “shifts” was like shopping the week before Christmas (when husbands usually begin shopping). But where was the irritation or impatience in this crowd? Answer: nowhere. They  were having such a blast, some people even stopped in the middle of traffic to gab with some passing soul! (American despise such inefficiencies!)

Undaunted by the clamor or crowds, CBS students swarmed into the book store to grab revolutionary paraphernalia like T-shirts and books. (We emptied their shelves of cool “Revolution” shirts, too!)

The flagship of Christian Revolution at the Meeting House was Bruxy Cavey’s book, The End of Religion. The book was first discussed in Andy Doman’s 2007 NeoZine article about the Meeting House before its publication, and some were dismayed with its close ties to Emergent Village evangelists like Brian McLaren. The Canadians were befuddled over the controversy, since Canadian Christians were backwoods-outsiders to the spiritual hubbub in America, they said (quoting loosely).  Yet the Christian Canooks we met were actually far-advanced over their Christian American cousins as innovators of Christian Revolution.

For example, regarding “Sacred Space”, Cavey writes:

[The Early Church] believed that the Spirit of God dwelled within this relational temple, the sanctuary-as-community, and their entire lives were alters upon which to offer sacrificial love to God and others…There is no holier ground than the space between you and me as we connect in honest, vulnerable, forgiving relationships. p.139

A great book for the Ecclessiology Seminar book review--click to read more.

So much of his book is a delightful reinforcement of The Revolution we describe at RevolutionaryJoy.org. He discusses “subversive symbols” and he calls “family values” simply “tribalism” (as we would!) because God never created the family to be as isolated as Christians sometimes make them.  He devotes a chapter to “Breaking the Rules,” because Jesus by nature is “the scandal” who threw the Jerusalem Temple into chaos. Jesus was striking at the “temple mentality” that says we have to go to God, rather than having God come to us.

Loving Revolutionaries

We met with Tim Day, the Senior Pastor, and Bruxy Cavey, the prominent teacher at the Meeting House, and both men impressed us with their loving-kindness. Bruxy, for example, allowed 10 CBS rowdies to invade a quiet luncheon with his family, parents, and guests from Messiah College (the college of their denomination). He was exhausted after preaching three times, but he left half of his steak meal unfinished in order to talk with us and answer questions. Tim was equally hard-pressed to run the Meeting House, but still took the time to sit down and talk with us.

A great brother (Bruxy: long-hair, center) surrounded by good brothers (take your pick).

But kindness doesn’t negate their hard-driving revolutionary edge (unlike the rather soft “revolution of dance” from the Emergent Village). These people are driven to penetrate Canada’s dark, spiritual desert with a Revolution, and they’re winning! Although less than 5% of Canadians attend Christian groups, the Meeting House is flourishing with almost 6,000 weekly attendees, and 40% of which is convert-growth, according to their latest research. If true, this puts the Meeting House far-ahead of any other church in North America for convert-growth, according to Columbus Xenos research.

Their balance as tough-but-loving revolutionaries is due to their close devotion to Jesus Christ, Bruxy said. The Meeting House is part of the Brethren In Christ denomination, which came from the River Brethren denomination, which came from the Mennonites, which came from the Anabaptists who rebelled against the tyranny of Calvin’s Reformed movement back in the 1600s. So their long history is aversive towards Church Institutions, and they promote the community of believers above whatever institutions they might leverage, much like Xenos. This alone makes The Meeting House a delightful and refreshing alternative to Church Institutions like “City-Within-a-City” championed by some.

It was amazing to find Bruxy & Co. employing sophisticated revolutionary tactics (not the crude political warfare so attractive to many U.S. Christians–read about the differences in Sins of the Past). Much like someone spreading revolution through persuasion, Bruxy kindly smiles while dismantling the folly of the opposition: “Listen friend, I love you, and by the way, you’re wrong,” is Bruxy’s approach.

Backtrack to Colossians 1, where God declares a Revolution:

“He rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.”

Now watch God’s genius unfold in a blueprint for raising more revolutionaries:

We have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience;  Colossians 1:9-11 (NASB)

What a breathtaking picture of spiritual power Paul describes! What a marvelous transformation from prisoner to inheritor, from a dark kingdom to one bathed in God’s light. Despite the broad scope of Revolutionary Change, the blueprint in Colossians 1 is so simple and practical, anyone can start a Revolution anywhere–without a budget!

Modern Copies

Revolution is a modern phenomena for the Kosmos, only about 150 years old. People may not realize it began with the American Revolution, and this is why Lincoln in the Gettysburg address said America was an experiment watched by the rest of the world. Then came the French Revolution, the Communist revolutions and many others, all massive, social upheavals, all very bloody and destructive.

Satan’s kingdom works this way: since it is a system, everyone must bow to the new boss, together. Did you know both Nazis and Communists won their revolutions as small majorities? People were never given a chance to decide.

When systems fall, it’s violent, and here is the weakness of the Kosmos: it’s a cold place where people don’t matter, where only systems matter, so Kosmos-revolutions merely replace one system with another. The Who sang about it decades ago: “Out with the old boss, and in with the new!”

This is why revolution in the Kosmos really isn’t revolution at all: changes occur, but the elite still dominate a vast population of slaves. The elite, in turn, are dominated by a greater evil, and it’s this pervasive, evil power that robs people of any purpose or dignity in their existence. “All we are is dust in the wind,” one song said, and it’s true in the Kosmos. Why would anyone profess allegiance to this realm brutality? The 1917 Communist Revolution depicts this chain-reaction of brutality. The Mensheveks were betrayed by the Bolsheveks, Trotsky was betray by Lenin, and everyone who came close to Stalin was betrayed. Amazingly, each new betrayal was a “surprise” to the victim.

The Critical Mass of Revolution

Jesus did  it different. He was truly the first to launch the concept of Revolution which others tried to copy, and it’s an ingenious approach. War is conquest by overwhelming power, but Revolution is the quest for liberty. That’s why it spreads so fast, without bullets. Before Jesus, nobody ever tried Revolution. Conquerors and Emporers cared little for what the general populace wanted, and kingdoms always expanded through sheer power.

Jesus was not interested in conquering the sick and dysfunctional Kosmos; he turned down the offer to have “all the kingdoms of the earth”, and he fled every attempt to put a crown on his head because he wasn’t interested in becoming “the new boss”. Jesus came to set people free, not dominate.

The Jesus Revolution really begins on the inside, in the heart, where the Holy Spirit enters with new, spiritual life. The Revolution works its way outward, upheaval erupting into upheaval, leaping from one person to another. Systems aren’t changed; they’re discarded. People touched by The Revolution grow bored with the Kosmos and its mundane rewards.

Fermi's crazy neuclear reactor--without a shield.

It is something like the Manhattan Project in Chicago during WWII, when scientists built the first atomic reactor right under a gym on the campus of Chicago University. The famous nuclear scientist Enrico Fermi laid a layer of carbon on top of a layer of uranium, layer upon layer, and with each layer the Geiger counter clicking nearby kept growing with annoying intensity.

Then came the great day when they laid the last layers of carbon-uranium: Fermi slowly removed the dampening rods, and a gallery of scientists and politicians held their breath, watching. Steadily the Geiger counter clicks intensified, then they roared! Those witnesses saw the “fuel of the stars” unleashed on earth for the first time.

They called it critical mass. Their patient layering of carbon-uranium produced a self-sustaining chain-reaction of splitting atoms. Energy from one splitting atom split nearby atoms, and on it went. (Some scientists, including Fermi, were a little worried the chain-reaction might run out of control, right beneath a gymnasium of innocent victims, right in the center of Chicago University! Oh well, “let’s do it anyway,” they said.)

The Christian version of critical mass was called The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church by Roland Allen almost 100 years ago, and the results are similar: the energy from one burst of Revolution triggers more bursts of Revolution in nearby areas. Today they call it a “Church Planting Movement”, but the principles are the same as what Paul described in Colossians: layer upon layer of God’s blueprint for Revolution creates a spontaneous, multiplying, cascading Revolution of Joy.

The progression in Col. 1

Radical Discipleship

Taken together, the progressive layers in Colossians 1 could be titled “Radical Discipleship” because they wrap around discipleship, as Jesus describes it in Matthew 28. These aren’t the only elements which come together in Revolution, nor do they exclude other vital aspects of the Ecclesia. But they are vital.

Church denominations argue and fight over so many mundane issues, and wars were fought over things like Communion and Baptism. But isn’t it cool how Paul missed all those things in his description of Revolution? Then consider this irony: very few of the layers Paul mentions receive the attention today they once received during the Apostolic era.

Filled with the knowledge of His will

This means learning God’s Word, which is “the sword of the spirit” (Eph. 6:11), and it makes a formidable weapon in the hands of prison escapees! Young Christians devour the Bible and memorize it gladly, if given some guidance. Even more amazing is the way young Christians will use the Bible when talking to their families and friends about their new spiritual life.

The most foundational need in any young Christian’s life is to be “Filled with a knowledge of His will,” and they need it before they become Christians too old to care anymore! This is the point where revolutionaries are hatched: after meeting Jesus, they’re trying to understand, “Hey, what happened to me?” They know Revolution is working in their hearts, but if they don’t understand it, they’ll never appreciate it or guard it carefully as they should.

What a responsibility it is to introduce someone to Jesus! It means undaunted love and concern, but it especially means teaching them “the knowledge of His will.” Without this, the young believer lacks the fiber of a revolutionary.

Spiritual wisdom and understanding

This describes Radical Discipleship, which is rarely if ever mentioned in all the reconsidering “the way we do church” today. The Bible comes alive under Radical Discipleship because the “spiritual wisdom and understanding” of older believers helps the younger ones apply this knowledge in real-life situations.

Bible-learning alone grows academic and dry. To see the wisdom and understanding of God at work in the real world is called Revolution.

Jesus set it up so young believers don’t have to play spiritual mind-games with their lives, since older believers are around. Discipleship is the most-contagious way to spread The Revolution, and Jesus figured that one out! (Matt. 28:18)

“Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord”

Living like a revolutionary means without boundaries. This is precisely how Jesus Christ lived: “the foxes have holes, the birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” he said (Matt. 8:20). That’s downright radical. It’s too radical. How many Christians will give up their nests and holes in America?

The Revolution gets messy, and nests get trampled, and foxholes get invaded by new Christians and fellow-revolutionaries. This runs against the American Dream, which builds pretty boxes in a world of make-believe safety called Suburbia.

The streets of Suburbia are lined with little boxes sealed against the outside world. Christians should never live trapped in cages like that!

All the Bible’s ethics  revolve around loving others, including the “stranger” and those outside our narrow circle of family and friends. The American Dream is the breeding-ground of Tribalism, and The Jesus Revolution is a direct threat to this aspect of Americana. But Tribalism clearly is not walking “in a manner worthy of the Lord.”

“To please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work”

This means to “fight the good fight,” as Paul calls it (1Ti 1:18; 6:12; 2Ti 4:7). Everywhere in the New Testament, “to please Him” is tightly-coupled with “bearing fruit”, and “in every good work” means “let’s do something!”

Fruit-bearing requires the will to fight because we live in such a dark world and our flesh is so ravenous. Every gain is a supernatural feat, and it’s exhausting sometimes–but fulfilling. All worthy gains in life require a strong will to fight, we know this is true. So the stereotype of a passive and gentle Christian is especially hideous, because it smothers the will to fight and chokes spiritual fruit.

Fruit-bearing is such an overwhelming theme in the New Testament, it could fill volumes, but consider these small examples:

1 Corinthians 3:9 (NASB) For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” Matthew 9:37-38 (NLT)

Increasing in the knowledge of God

This again emphasizes the primary role Bible teaching played in The Jesus Revolution, and it’s the third time in Paul’s list. Why so much repitition? Quite simply, the core of it all is God transforming us “through the renewing of your minds,” as Paul said in Romans 12:1. Mental Transformation comes from truly knowing God’s Word.

This means becoming a Bible teacher. There really is no other way to know the Word of God in such intimate detail. Bible classes are extremely useful, as are so many other ways to study the Bible we might list here, but none of them compare to actually teaching the Word. Teaching it entails significant preparation, and it means living it, too. They say nobody learns more than the teacher at a Bible teaching, and I know it’s true.

It’s quite amazing to work with new, young Bible teachers, because it changes the way they talk. Suddenly they start engaging in spiritual conversations in a way they never did before, and they have something to contribute like never before. Most significantly, all the reminders, rebukes and exhortations in the world will never motivate a young Christian to study the Bible the way teaching it motivates. It’s the ultimate club: “don’t you have to teach next Thursday?”

All Christians should be able to teach the Bible effectively at some level. This sounds almost heretical in todays world of Church, but it’s a sound, biblical tenent. For example:

Hebrews 5:12 (NASB) For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Was that rebuke not addressed to his entire audience in general, and not just the teaching-elite?

Colossians 3:16 (NASB) Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

If we set aside the controversy of singing for now and simply consider that admonition to “let the word of Christ dwell within (i.e., among) you,” is he not calling for “admonishing one another” using God’s Word? And isn’t that precisely what we mean by Bible teaching?

Matthew 28:20 (NASB) teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The above passage comes from the Great Commission, which the last time I checked was addressed to all Christians, and not a special class of “disciple-makers.” (Does such a beast exist?)

2 Timothy 4:2 (NASB) preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

Some claim the passage above applies only to pastors and priests, but if so, are the rest of us exempt from the “reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and intsruction” clause? I know some hotheads who would love to such an interpretation! (They really hate the “great patience and instruction” clause–it’s so much easier to vomit feelings of disgust instead.)  All those activities must be couched in “instruction”, else we end up simply chewing each other out in a most ungodly and ineffective fashion. “Instruction” means “teaching”, in my vocabulary.

I could continue, but I won’t. I will say, however, that all the “one another” passages in the New Testament are couched in the same framework of “great patience and instruction” as the passage above, and if we don’t promote and develop Bible teaching competancy in the Ecclesia, then we cannot fulfill the scores of “one-another” passages either.

That may be the problem with Church today: the lack of “one-anothering” underway.

“But I can’t teach!” someone might cry out tearfully.

It’s simply untrue. We all teach others: older kids teach younger ones, parents teach kids, we teach new people at work, and in many other ways we are always teaching. Sometimes our teachings are less-than virtuous.

For Christians, the teaching topics change. And the audience expands as Christian character grows. It may not grow into a stadium-sized audience, or even a big one, or maybe not more than a few disciples, but at some level we should be teaching God’s Word to others, and do it with competence.

Today it’s abnormal to depend largely on Average-Christian-Joe for the Bible teaching ministry of the church. What a strange world we live in! Bible teaching was never relegated to an elite caste, like it is today in Church. Average people from all kinds of crazy backgrounds taught God’s Word–even uneducated fishermen! And slaves, too!

Something beautiful was lost somewhere in Church history: great Bible teachings.

Is it a coincidence the leader of The Revolution was merely a carpenter, or did God plan it that way? It seems planned. And because he was a carpenter, what scorn the religious elite heaped on him! In so many ways Jesus was inferior to their breeding and learning, or so they thought. That’s why, when this ignorant hick from Gallilee tied them up in knots, the elitists resorted to personal attack against his parentage (knowing Jesus had a father-issue):

“Where is your father?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” John 8:19

But the carpenter and (later) his gang of fishermen twisted the religious elite like pretzels, and the people loved it:

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law. Matthew 7:28-29

Revolutionaries may lack the pedigree and long string of letters after their names, but they will always confound the so-called experts. Why? Because revolutionaries know God’s Word through discipleship, not in a classroom, and not merely to pass the test and graduate; more important, revolutionaries love God’s Word in a contagious fashion very difficult to immitate in a seminary.

It surprises people to discover that average Christians often know more about the Bible than seminary graduates. I discovered this by surprise during my own seminary experience: I went into seminary already heavily-engaged as a Bible teacher at all levels of teaching in Xenos, Columbus, so I was fortunate enough to receive significant discipleship from my brother and other accomplished teachers. In one class, a liberal professor asserted with great confidence that “as we all know, Moses didn’t actually write the Pentateuch.” (The Pentateuch was the first five books of the Bible.) I knew better, so I raised my hand and we jousted briefly–very briefly, because he was quickly dumbfounded, and said so.

I knew this incident had nothing to do with any great scholarship on my part. It really bothered me to think he didn’t know the scriptures as well as I did, which really wasn’t saying much.

I understand it better today, after long acquaintance with various seminarians and seminaries. Most seminaries today emphasize learning the history of interpretation over learning the Bible. So if my argument with that professor had centered on something St. Anselm said in the Middle Ages, I would have been spanked badly. But when the conversation shifts to the Bible, most professors’ knowledge is spotty, at best. They might hold vast reseviors of knowledge about a specific Bible passage, but the chances are good they won’t know the rest of the Bible quite so well.

More important–and here’s where the modern seminary system is one big crash-and-burn disgrace today–seminary graduates are often trained in running Church business, like fund-raising, Worship Service technology, accounting practices and other management tasks unique to Church. But very little time is spent studying the Bible, by comparison.

Am I anti-seminary? No, not really, although I do believe it has significant issues. I learned quite a good deal in semianry, and I highly recommend it for advanced Bible training, because the professors in a solid Christian seminary are experts in their fields. Even when a professor’s expertise is narrow, it doesn’t matter: expertise is valuable.

I say all the above in order to dismiss the superstitious fear Christians have toward seminaries and seminarians: don’t be intimidated! If you do it the way Paul tells Timothy, you’ll probably end up with more advanced Bible knowledge than most seminary graduates:

2 Timothy 2:15 (NASB) Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

Strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might

God’s revolutionaries are protected, strengthened and infused with exceptional spiritual life. This is God’s promise:

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere…to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (NLT)

No wonder it’s a Revolution of Joy! To unleash the Holy Spirit in revolutionary discipleship, teaching, preaching, sharing and real jailbreaks–how can the World System make a competitive bid?

For the attaining of all steadfastness and patience: it is so very difficult to bribe a revolutionary, you know. All the stimulation or wealth or power in the World System could never match such a revolutionary life.

This is why the Institutions of the Church took away the joy of learning God’s Word from people like the Galilean fishermen Jesus loved worked with: revolutionaries caught up in the mystery and beauty of God’s Word, armed with the “gifts to his people” that Jesus gave, with hearts full of Joy, and who understand, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me,” (Gal. 2:20) — who can tame such radicals?

The Revolution should look like this:

They and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord there. Acts 15:35 (NLT)

The believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went. Acts 8:4 (NLT)

Friedrich Handle nailed it in “Messiah”:

The Lord gave the word;
great was the company of the preachers.
(Psalms 68:11)

Not Reformation.

Not Evolution.

It’s a Revolution in every sense of the word:

“A forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favor of a new system; a dramatic and wide-reaching change in the way something works or is organized or in people’s ideas about it.” Oxford English Dictionary

How else to describe the upheaval? Clearly its followers move from one kingdom into another, from one world to another:

Open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God…’
Jesus, in Acts 26:18 (NASB)

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, Colossians 1:13 (NASB)

Proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
1 Peter 2:9 (NASB)

Overthrow

If Revolution is “a forcible overthrow of a government,” then Christianity is a revolution, because overthrow is the goal, the target, and the outcome of The Way:

“Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
John 12:31-32 (NASB)

At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:10-11 (NASB)

For it is written, “As I live , says the Lord , every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
Romans 14:11-12 (NASB)

If Revolution is an “overthrow of a social order,” then Jesus spawned Revolution, because he turned the “social order” upside-down:

And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
John 9:39 (NASB)

“These men who have upset the world have come here also…and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar…”
Acts 17:6-7 (NASB)

“So the last shall be first, and the first last.”
Matthew 20:16

(Notice his amazing proclamation in Matthew 20:16 is immediately followed by the shocking revelation of his death and resurrection in 20:17-19. Death is the expected fate for a radical revolutionary, but could anyone make sense of his promise of resurrection?)

If Revolution is “a dramatic and wide-reaching change in the way something works” as the OED says, then Jesus and his followers certainly launched Revolution:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28 (NASB)

Those were radical, seditious words attacking the fabric of Roman (and local) society. Such notions of social, racial and gender equality were unmatched for almost 2,000 years, until the modern era which tried (unsuccessfully) to imitate the Jesus Revolution.

The Revolution Jesus started brought radical equality from the beginning. Galatians, the letter containing the quote above, is universally-acknowledged as an early snapshot of the most primitive Christianity, written before 50 AD. Christianity was an infant movement, yet embraced dangerous slogans like “neither slave nor free man.” How scandalous and subversive Christianity was to Roman civilization! Slavery was, after all, the economic muscle of the Empire, and slaves out-numbered freemen 2 to 1. If these “Called-Out Ones” (as they were known) championed equality, they were infiltrating the Empire with very dangerous ideas.

Far more scandalous was the worship and reverence these radicals held for their crucified leader: it meant they honored a criminal and dishonored Roman law, even if only in their hearts. And Paul rightly identifies the biggest hurdle to stumble potentially-interested outsiders was the revolutionary, disturbing nature of The Way:

But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a scandal and to Gentiles moronic, but to those who are “the called,” both Jews and Greeks, The Messiah is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:23-24

It meant those becoming Christians could also expect death, even crucifixion! Of course, this is precisely why Jesus warned potential followers:

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  Luke 14:27

He wasn’t trying to be mean. He was preparing them to be revolutionaries.

Radical

Yet even the OED gives a tame definition of the Radical Revolution Jesus brought: it was not “an overthrow…in favor of a new system” at all. His Radical Revolution is “anti-system”, not a “new system”. He introduced a radical redefinition of all the assumptions, activities and outcomes found in the world around. What human institution or government can still function by the principles of such a radical Revolution?

For example, here’s radical:

And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:21 (NLT)

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
Philippians 2:3 (NASB)

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;
Romans 12:10 (NASB)

Such words describe a flattening of the hierarchy, which shakes the pillars of all human systems. “The Called-Out Ones” were precisely that: a movement against institutional hierarchy.

There is a hierarchy, but it breaks the rules of good business practices.

Yet The Called-Out Ones are not anarchists; they operate by authority, but it is a simple, one-tiered level of authority:

Christ is also the head of the The Called-Out-Ones, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. Colossians 1:18 (NLT)

Holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. Colossians 2:19 (NASB)

Today the Federal Reserve is playing a critical role in rectifying our economic turmoil. I was employed at the Federal Reserve in Cleveland, and I know how complex the bureaucracy is that moves trillions of dollars around the world every day. Consider what might happen if the Chairman of the Federal Reserve issued an internal memo one day like this:

“Henceforth, all employees of the Federal Reserve are equally responsible to oversee the daily operations and monetary management of the Federal Reserve.”

Banks across the globe would collapse overnight!

Yet such a memo is written to The Called-Out Ones, which makes the Jesus Revolution so dangerous and anti-institutional:

“Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.” Matthew 23:10 (NASB)

“Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.” Matthew 23:9 (NASB)

With such a radical mandate, is it any wonder the Institutions of the Church have historically tortured, burned and killed The Called-Out Ones wherever they could be found? What a threat The Revolution poses to the powerful bureaucracies of “The Church”.

The Real Question

It is not “how do we do church?” Such a question assumes it’s only a matter of theopraxy in need of tuning — and perhaps there are times to fine-tune our practices. But not so today. Not with Christianity in steep decline. Not when we’re facing “The Last Christian Generation” as Josh McDowell predicts.

The real question is this: what happened to The Revolution? Is it so distant from our collective Christian memory that we can’t grasp it anymore? Or, perhaps more relevant, what are we doing as Christians in this country to kill The Revolution?

Is it possible American Christians are afraid of Radical Revolution? It is, after all, a stigma and a label often applied to hateful movements, like Communism. But it is fair to ask: why is it left to the hate-filled movements to call for revolution? Are not Christians already at odds with the World System? More important, would Karl Marx have made such progress if the name of “Christianity” was not so deeply-embedded in the oppressive regimes of the World System?

Issues Raised

For discussion and consideration:

1. How is it possible to reconcile “radical, seditious words attacking the fabric of Roman (and local) society” with “honor the king” in 1 Peter 2:17?
2. Do you see the close association between “willing to die” and “resurrection” in this revolution? (Read Matthew 20:17-19) What is that association, and how do we communicate this?
3. How do you reconcile Matthew 23:10 with Paul’s later writings which describe qualified leaders? (See 1 Tim. 3)
4. Does it make any practical difference at all wether Christianity is a “Revolution” or not? In other words, does it change the way you tell others about the Gospel?
5. Is there any difference between Christianity as a “Revolution” and Christianity as a “Spiritual War”? More to-the-point, how important is it to distinguish between “Revolution” and “War” in Christian ministry?