Those of you who read our publication with frequency will recognize this topic to be outside of something we would normally speak about. However, as we head into the new year, we felt impressed to share.
Below you will find a list of 12 themes that we believe will characterize the church in 2021.
The Church, as we readily know, is not an entity as much as it is a body. It is not an organization as much as it is a bride. And it is of this body that is being prepared as a bride that we speak today.
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What themes will mark the Church in 2021? A list of 12.
Something incredibly small. Not in scale or total numbers across the globe, for we know this Church will be ‘too numerous to count,’ but rather it will be marked by a people forsaking our love for the reach of the platform to instead invest into the handful of those entrusted to us.
Starting first in the home. 2020 revealed to many of us the dysfunction of our homes, the dissatisfaction we feel with our lives there, and the general disorder we’ve allowed. As E.M. Bounds declared, “It is in the home that the revival must commence.” Islay Burns, in 1853, described the power of the home this way, “It [the family] is both a school, a kingdom, and a church. For several, and these the most precious years of our life, it stands to the child in the place of them all.” (Sanctity of Home) Revival will begin in the home in 2021 as families get their homes in order.
From Satisfaction. A familiar principle will be made real in 2021. He will satisfy, we will not thirst again. We will abide, that He may be all and in all. This will lead to a firm establishment of lasting contentment and deep satisfaction in Christ in all things. Everything going forward will be done from this place rather than in an attempt to get to this place.
Jesus only. To add something to what you already have does not require much, it is to replace which is the difficulty. In 2021, love for self will be replaced by death to self as we are shown that the Church is not a community we belong to or a moral code we ascribe to, but a lifestyle we pick up in exchange for our own. It will be a living out of Jesus only and not Jesus plus, as we begin to know the Lord as our ONLY portion, our ONLY provider, and our ONLY hope.
Holy and pure. The Church will come into a greater understanding of holiness and purity, which will require a seeing of sin as sin, and a willingness to call sin as sin, rather than to make excuses, accommodations or justifications. “Make room!” is the demand of the world, “Repent, repent, repent,” is the command of Christ five times over to the churches in Revelation. (2:5,16,22 3:3,19) The Church will again hear this call to repentance and will embrace it before it is too late.
Only two sides. From this newfound place of repentance, there will be a definite realization that there are only two sides and no neutral parties. The middle ground will erode and actual loyalties will be exposed - either for God against Satan or for Satan against God. The true Church will be made distinct by the great falling away and it will be made clear whether we are in fact reconciled to Him or opposed to His kingdom in rebellion.
Confrontation This realization that there are only two sides, will naturally lead to a confrontation. Not primarily against men, for we know that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it will be a confrontation with false comforts, idols, assurances and anything that sets itself up in the place of Christ, so that only what is true remains.
No man. No man is the head of the Church. Christ is the head. We are His body. No man will be able to boast and all boasting will be opposed by God, for He will not share His glory with another. The most powerful movings of God will be done in obscurity, with no fanfare, nameless and faceless, and absent of financial pleadings.
Revivals of old were not ushered in by great crowds coordinated in advance, with highly orchestrated planning and promotion. These are the ways of man, not the ways of the Lord.
Instead, “No workmen’s steel, no ponderous axes rung; Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung.” (Reginald Heber)
“It [true revival] is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed and human programs abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field.” (Arthur Wallis, 1956, In the Day of Thy Power)
Maturity. As our need for greater numbers, validation, promotion, and recognition are broken off, the Church will again value maturity over duplication. We will no longer hold tightly for fear of losing members nor insist on an exactness of the look, feel, leanings and persuasions of those we gather with. This change of focus will lead to an appreciation and love for the diversity of the body and an increase in the number we raise up to send away.
Scattering as much as it is gathering. This scattering, or sending away, will be done not from division, bitterness or disagreement but as a blessed departure, according to the Lord’s will, that this Gospel might be preached to all people, every tribe and tongue, unto to the ends of the earth.
Sought out by sinners. In days of old, even those who lived in iniquity knew where to go when an answer was absolutely needed - find the men and women of God. “The queen spoke, saying, ‘There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom…were found in him.” (Daniel 5:10-11)
E.M. Bounds shares, “Revivals begin when sinners seek the prayers of praying people,” and a few paragraphs later in his book, Prayer & Praying Men, “Christian men should be so given to prayer that they would have a wide reputation as praying men.” In 2021, the Church will again be sought out by sinners as we become known as a people of prayer, light, understanding and wisdom, so that it may be evident to all who is the one true God.
Eternity. It may strike you as strange at first, but one of the kindest, most gracious, revelations God can bring to a person is this: the end is near. This desire for a greater revelation of the end has been a constant prayer from men of God over the ages, perhaps most famously by Jonathan Edwards, “Oh God, stamp eternity on my eyeballs!” God will answer this prayer in 2021 as the Church is awakened to live continually with eternity’s values in view. This will dramatically impact both our worship and our witness.
As mentioned in our week’s previous letter, if there is one cry echoing through the chambers of my heart for this generation in which we live, it is this -
PURIFY, PURIFY, MAKE US CLEAN!
And so as you read this list, will you make it more than an intellectual exercise and join with me in this prayer, that a bride may be prepared, made ready, pure, spotless, shining, and clothed in fine white linen. We, the Church, are this bride. We must prepare, we must be made ready.
In love,
Derek