My guess is that you and I have been surprised at the rapid loss of confidence in the institutions of the West. Daily we have reports of scandal in leadership, whether it’s political, ecclesiastical, social, and familial.
Why would anyone want to start a family, or serve in a public way as a public figure? Aren’t you just setting yourself up for crushing scrutiny, and peer pressure that creates powerful temptations to lie, cheat or steal?
With online mobbing and social media character assassinations, you would assume that all of us will develop some type of anxiety disorder like agoraphobia, the fear of places that are “unsafe with no easy way to escape”.
The result is that there is a self-censuring going on that is different than the self-control which aims to inhibit our fleshly passions. The self-censure is entirely based upon fear of man. It means we are afraid to speak words into the public square, or anywhere because there may be no way to say enough to defend those words from attack.
If you know that what you say might be swarmed, even if it is innocuous, you just won’t say it. You won’t say innocent things because they might be doomed to defeat. Even a tweet or Facebook post can be subject to the Two Minutes Hate.
So it’s clear. There is a cost to sticking your neck out.
So now I think we need to put the call out. We need Pioneers. Trailblazers. Companies of Adventurers.
We should actively encourage the next generation to try things, take a risk, and walk forward in wisdom and in faith.
I believe it is important to emphasize this with young people in the churches. They need to be encouraged to establish new institutions: marriages, families, churches, businesses, schools, and social organizations.
As it is now, many young people are too afraid to venture out into a relationship. Friendships are perilous. Marriage seems a lost cause. But they must be encouraged to pursue friendships and seek to bind themselves to someone from the opposite sex in a covenant under God. Their mutual joy, fruitfulness and worship is the true nucleus of new societies. Without it, whole civilizations simply die off in a generation or two.
This new pioneering spirit must be promoted among Christians in their relationship with the church. For many, there is a malaise when it comes to the church. They are finding many other things to fill up their time. The call of God on the Lord’s Day has been shoved to the periphery. The collective power of the church made up of committed members is a rare occurrence. This is due largely to the absence of supernatural community that has the power to bind diverse people together in unified purpose. This can only happen in common confession of “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:5-6).
There is thankfully a move toward church planting in the West that is attempting to keep this pioneering missionary spirit alive. We need this kind of hopeful, expectant approach to church extension and flourishing.
I think we should also encourage the coming generation with the hope that God can send revival in a profoundly free and sovereign way. He can make the hard hearts of the Twitterverse be surgically removed and replaced with hearts of flesh.
It can be easy to sit back in cynicism and lament. But we shouldn’t dwell on what is lacking. Instead, we should look out on the vistas of opportunity, the calling to which we have been called and seek new ways to be witnesses, martyroi (cf. Acts 1:8 Gr.).
Maybe we can all start by attempting to share the gospel. Bear witness to the gospel reign of Jesus Christ.
Speak up. Speak out. In love for our Saviour and love for the lost, let us think about new ventures for our words and witness.
