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VIEWPOINT
Renewal: The hype, the hope and the reality

Len Hjalmarson

After completing two years at MB Biblical Seminary in Fresno in 1990, my wife and I joined the Vineyard Church in 1994, the year that the renewal broke out in the Toronto Vineyard. It wasn’t long before hundreds of churches in Canada, and hundreds of thousands of believers worldwide were strongly impacted. Many learned to enjoy God more, many were converted, and many deepened their love for Christ. These were the best results of the renewal.

Yet the good things shouldn’t blind us to the problems raised by this renewal. Recently, I read an old article which suggested that unusual spiritual experiences are like super rich food: wonderful for the taste buds, but dangerous when they become regular fare. The truth is that one can feast on calorie rich foods and starve to death while getting fat.

We left the renewal movement last year because we felt that there was an unbiblical emphasis there. Where certain gifts are exalted above others, biblical foundations are eroded. “When the sky is the limit, it’s easy to neglect foundations,” wrote Jimmy Long in Generating Hope.

Two years ago, as I read Jimmy Long, I was shocked as the Lord showed me how renewal, while giving new strength to the church, was at the same time threatening to erode the biblical foundations of love and community. It appears that the renewal I was a part of has touched but not transformed the church.

Twelve problems with the renewal movement

While many have been inwardly renewed, the new wine has not been allowed to reshape our wineskin for church and ministry. Many have been deeply touched but find no way to express that new life. We need new models of leadership and ministry, but many leaders fear change. While many people have been renewed, too few are being discipled. Many have been touched by the Lord, but they have not been vitally connected to other believers, grounded in the Word and involved in ministry. Many believers come back to the well again and again, not recognizing that the focus has become “What can I get?” rather than “What can I give?”. We have neglected the foundation of discipleship. The renewal movement feeds into the Western cult of personality. Popular speakers are billed in advance, listing their achievements, titles and publications. We need to measure by the measure that Jesus advocates: “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your slave.” Instead of accepting every invitation, leaders should be equipping others to go and encouraging local churches to develop their own people. Professionalism and specialization have created ministry models that encourage passivity and dependence, with a few leaders “doing ministry” to the many. We disempower the laity, and then wonder why believers are slow to take initiative. Jean Vanier comments that “we have to create structures which encourage everyone to participate, and especially the shy people. Those who have the most light to shed often dare not show it. . . . They do not recognize their own gift . . . perhaps because others haven’t recognized it either.” Centralization of ministry limits diversity. Those constantly on the platform become the model for ministry, impacting our willingness to release other gifts and other styles of ministry. Furthermore, leaders tend to affirm those like them. When only a few leaders are empowered to lead, they tend to build an empire in their own image, limiting the freedom of other gifts and styles. In emphasizing gifts over character, we become performance driven and push people toward burnout. At the same time, we fail to recognize the importance of trials and testing as part of the normal Christian life. Years ago, Michael Green described this danger as being “infatuated with a theology of the Spirit while neglecting a theology of the Cross”. In emphasizing spectacular gifts, the relational (community building) gifts and gifts of wisdom are sadly neglected. Prophetic and miraculous gifts have been exalted beyond their importance while other balancing gifts are less visible. We have often merchandised the gospel, using renewal as a means to build personal popularity. Every popular teacher has a tape ministry. While this isn’t always wrong, it becomes very difficult to draw the line between ministry and profit and ego motives, and many fall into a snare. Equally dangerous, we value information more than formation, as believers increase their knowledge without increasing their obedience. Renewal and God’s work are often hyped. We put the spotlight on unusual activities of God, instead of holding up everyday acts of love as the normal means of the gospel. All believers can love their neighbour, be a listening ear and offer a voice of compassion. Not every believer has a prophetic or healing ministry, and Paul cautions us that it is the “weaker gifts” which are the most needful (1 Corinthians 12:22). We have moved from Christianity as lifestyle to event-driven and project-driven Christianity. Rick Joyner warns that “Modern advertising has conditioned people to respond to hype and self-promotion more than to the Holy Spirit or to the truth. Many ministries have learned to use these techniques to draw people to their projects. They work, and the people come. However, with each such distraction the people are left even emptier than before. One of the basic reasons for the lukewarmness in which so many Christians are now trapped is that they are worn out going from one project, or high place, to the next.” Renewal tends to relegate spirituality to mountaintop experiences while neglecting the spirituality of the ordinary. Yet 99% of our lives as believers are lived in the everyday world in the valley. “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool,” God said (Isaiah 66:1). All of creation reflects the glory of God, and we need a spirituality that reflects that truth. We have reinforced the church’s fortress mentality and neglected the poor. More and more money is invested in marketing renewal, while less and less time and resources are invested in the poor and needy. We keep Christians so busy getting “touched” and “renewed” that they have no time to impact the lives of unbelievers around them.

Deliver us, Lord

Where at one time the church needed to learn about charismatic gifts, now we need to relearn love and community. We need saints of the everyday, loving their neighbours and practising hospitality, more than we need saints focused on gifts and miracles. We need a gospel of presence as much as a gospel of power. Miraculous gifts ought to be rejoined to the life of the church. Those with unusual anointing should do more equipping in their own towns and cities. If we can transform our local Christian communities into healed and loving bodies of disciples, we will take our country for God. We need to exalt character over gifts, and reestablish the more excellent way of love. We need to renew our focus on the body of Christ, with all gifts functioning to build the church (Ephesians 4). The ministry models we see exalted are too often individualistic and based on popularity or book sales. Bigger is not better. Centralization of power disempowers the laity and squelches freedom and creativity. Where centralization allows leaders to direct larger and larger organizations, it also tends to fragment relationships, the very glue of the church and the foundation of intimacy and personal growth. Size itself is not the issue, but wise leaders recognize that bigger isn’t always better. Passivity and dependence on leaders are huge issues when believers gather. There is little point in talking about the wonders of our inheritance and identity in Christ when our models demonstrate that the “priesthood” is limited to the few. Neither is adding small groups a solution. Small groups commonly mirror the philosophy of the larger gathering, recreating the same set of problems: passivity, dependence and, inevitably, boredom. It is probably impossible to create community in large churches apart from a complete transformation in ministry models. We need an incarnational understanding of life. The incarnation teaches us that God loves to work in the world in the flesh. The Lord meets us in ordinary things: listening to a symphony; ice skating under moonlight; bouncing a small child on the knee. The ordinary things are frequently a means of grace, but we need ears to hear and eyes to see. Henri Nouwen writes that “Our task is to help people concentrate on the real but often hidden event of God’s active Presence in their lives. Hence, the question that must guide all organizing activity in a parish is not how to keep them busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence.” An incarnational understanding can help safeguard us from the errors of the mountaintop. God is alive in the valley and even in the desert.

The only renewal that will last is one that deepens our connection to Christ and His body. If we fail to grow in love and obedience, renewal will fizzle and will never become revival. Only the whole body, knit together in love, with every part contributing its share, will build the Kingdom on firm foundations.

Len Hjalmarson lives in Kelowna B.C.

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Last modified October 6, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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