Poop in the Brownies Part 2 or... Protestant Reformation Part 2

  I believe we are in a time of Reformation in the church right now.  It's either a second wave  of the original Protestant Reformation that started in 1517 A.D.-- an attempt to continue and to finish the work of Martin Luther, or it is a brand New Reformation.  Author and church historian, Phyllis Tickle recently observed that there seems to have been a major mid-course correction in the religious system every 500 years, and that-- sure enough, right on time, we are in one right now.  She says, "The only way to understand what is currently happening to us as twenty-first-century Christians in North America is first to understand that about every five hundred years the Church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale.  About every five hundred years the empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity, whatever they may be at the time, become an intolerable carapace that must be shattered in order that renewal and new growth may occur."

  I can see many indications that this is happening.  And I see many characteristics of the current movement that seem to be repetitions of earlier movements:

  1.  One of the major similarities is that, because the old system violently resists change, the reformers eventually find themselves ejected from the system, either willingly or not.   Look at the Protestant Reformation as an example.  Though Martin Luther posted his theses in the hopes of introducing needed change to the Catholic Church, he and his fellow reformers could not be accommodated by the church and were subsequently excommunicated.  The new movement could not function within the old system-- the new wine needed a new wineskin.  Yet the old wineskin, the Catholic Church continued on with little change.

  Look even further back to the time of Christ.  The Lord came and created an entirely new Way to replace the old, but the old system didn't cease to exist and continued to persecute His followers, who were dispersed across the known world.

And so it is in this present struggle.  The existing church paradigms will continue, though weakened and irrelevant, into the centuries to come, while rejecting any new reformation.

  2. A second trait of new revolutions is the return to authenticity.  Again, reviewing the Protestant Reformation, we see that Martin Luther's first insubordinate acts against the church were attempts to return the church to accurate interpretations of scripture and to orthodoxies that would be true to God's original plan.  They had gotten way off-track.

And so it is with the current revolution.  Present day reformers have identified inconsistencies and indiscretions in the church today, are confronting the hypocrisies, and are discovering truer, more honest ways of manifesting the original intentions of God.

  3.  Another modern similarity with the old revolutions is the violence that results when very solid institutions are challenged by new reformers. When people question the validity of well-established traditions, there is an inevitable backlash from those in leadership who see their authority being threatened.  It's happened many times in the past, and it's happening now.  Authority attempts to re-assert itself and quash the "rebellion" in no uncertain terms, and things get ugly, and there is abuse and there are casualties.  It's not surprising though, really.  JFK once said that "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable."

  So would-be reformers will do well to count the costs before signing up for a revolution.  Along with thousands of others, I found this to be true in my own recent attempt to bring about change within my own local church and denomination.  After a lifetime of service within those institutions, I did not expect to be shown the door, but it happened.

  It's okay.  My efforts to bring healthy change from within the system were always frustrated by the powers that be.  Not so now.  I am free to glory in the new wine and partner with my fellow revolutionaries on a quest to discover the new Way.  And it's fun!