The church's mission in 'a time of trouble'

 
If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!
Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering towards slaughter.
If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Proverbs 24:10-12, NIVUK

Over the past few years, huge amounts of time, prayer and effort have been expended by biblical faithful Anglican leaders in our region, contending for truth and resisting error especially on the issue of sexuality and marriage. This has been a “time of trouble” for the church, as the debates have revealed divisions over fundamental understanding of what the Christian faith is. And the weakness of some sections of the church has been revealed as they have faltered in the face of the threat.
 
Large swathes of society in the West, especially opinion formers and policy makers, have rejected the overarching narrative of biblical Christian faith, and have embraced other worldviews, for example, those associated with the ‘progressive’ left, or Islam, or far-right nationalism. Many leaders in the mainline churches such as Anglicanism, having lost confidence in the biblical teaching about sin, judgement and salvation in Christ and trying to be ‘relevant’ and respected by those in power, have embraced forms of secular ‘progressive’ ideology, dressed up with Christian themes, and presented this as ‘another gospel’. The celebration of same sex relationships in church services is not the problem itself, it’s a symptom of this attempt to synthesise Christianity with contemporary ideologies, to try to make the church acceptable to the world.
 
As the New Testament shows again and again, the effects of false teaching of all kinds are disastrous, and can’t be dealt with by polite discussion. Erroneous doctrine needs to be vigorously opposed, and the “whole counsel of God” re-stated again and again, not just in formula that were packaged for a previous era, but in ways that explain the difference between truth and lies in the contemporary context. Some will do this within churches that have been corrupted by false teaching, believing they can win back the institution, or at least protect a space for orthodoxy. Others will feel called to separate themselves from those in control of church institutions who have embraced heresy. Both approaches have pros and cons.
 
There have been many “times of trouble” facing the church over the past 2000 years. When this current crisis became fully apparent in global Anglicanism more than 20 years ago, what was needed was faithful leaders with strength, who did not falter in what was required. This was not something which only affected one part of the body: the symptoms of the insidious influence of Western secularism were most obvious in the Anglican churches of USA and Canada at the time, but would inevitably surface in other regions. Who would be sufficient for the task of contending for the truth?


 Gafcon new website

Homepage of new Gafcon website
 
In his wisdom the Lord brought together a partnership from east and west, north and south, to visibly demonstrate unity in the faith amid racial and cultural diversity, to re-state together the essentials of the Christian faith and the distinctives of its Anglican expression, to boldly and sacrificially oppose the wrong direction of the false teachers with their wealthy backers, and where necessary, to authorise new Anglican  jurisdictions based on biblical principles not compromised and worldly leaders. This partnership was called Gafcon.
 
In recognising and dealing with the “time of trouble”, defending the truth and opposing false teaching, Gafcon has not forgotten the main task of the Great Commission. The verse in Proverbs 24:11 reminds us of a strong motivation from preaching the gospel and making disciples of all nations – it’s because otherwise, people are on the road to death. This is true firstly in an unseen sense: that all are spiritually dead in their sins, no matter how outwardly successful and full of physical life, unless forgiven and made alive in Christ through his death and resurrection. But increasingly the idea of whole groups of people being “led away to death” as in the Proverb, becomes more visible, as millions of babies are aborted, laws are passed to enable “assisted dying”, and birth rates plummet, not to mention the appalling slaughter of wars across the world.
 
In the face of these sober realities, we have the message and the means to rescue and reverse this situation as the church preaches and demonstrates the light and eternal life that Christ gives. This happens through our evangelistic programmes, and the everyday personal witness of faithful Christians in homes, neighbourhoods and workplaces, and as Christians raise their voices, work and pray for life and peace in the public square.
 
According to the wisdom of God expressed in Proverbs, it is not an option to close our eyes and ears to the “time of trouble” in the wider church, in society and in the nations of the world. The Message translation puts v12 in a dynamic way:
If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,” will that get you off the hook?
Someone is watching you closely, you know—Someone not impressed with weak excuses.

 
One of the distinctives of Anglicanism around the world, as opposed to some other expressions of protestant faith, is that it is not “pietistic” – it does not say that the world outside the church is “none of my business”. While there are dangers in becoming too close to the ruling elites, evangelicals in Britain have sometimes in recent history gone the other way: focussing on pastoral support, personal discipleship and local church and shutting out the big-picture problems of the world, to the extent that when trouble starts to infiltrate every aspect of life, the church does not understand it and is not prepared to deal with it.
 
Muppets
 
An example of this is how the approval by bishops and Synod of the authorisation of prayers for same sex blessings came as a bolt from the blue for many Church of England evangelicals: “we knew nothing about this!”, when Gafcon and others had been saying for years that this was and continues to be the direction of travel for a denomination captured by the ideologies of culture. God who weighs the heart knows the true reasons for why so many have faltered in the face of the challenge. Time will tell whether faithful Anglicans who have only just realised we are in a “time of trouble” have done so too late.
 
Of course, there is no place for pride for those who have seen the time of trouble and have taken action. All of us falter in various ways; all need forgiveness daily, and  strength not from ourselves but from the Lord.
 
Meanwhile we can give thanks and pray for the partnerships of prayer and mutual support developing between strong and courageous leaders from the global Anglican church, and those in our region seeking to do the work of mission inside and outside the Canterbury structures.