One hundred years ago, the nations of Europe were locked in
a titanic struggle on the battlefields of Belgium and France. Millions of men faced off in elaborate
trenches across a desolate no-man’s land studded with barbed wire and swept by
machine guns. The First World War on the
Western Front was a bloody, brutal affair, and it was not unusual for thousands
of men to die horrible deaths to gain a mere few yards of ground. England, Germany, France, and Austria
suffered the near-annihilation of a generation of young men, and each nation
was left deeply scarred by the experience.
That experience led to World War I becoming known as “the
war to end all wars,” because no one could imagine any nation choosing to
reenter the meat grinder. Yet even as
the nations promised a lasting peace, they were wary – and each of the European
powers made some provision for a future conflict. England, America, and Japan built large
fleets of warships, Germany began secretly building submarines and aircraft,
and France built a series of massive fortifications called the Maginot Line.
The Maginot Line was a series of concrete fortifications on
France’s border with Germany. The theory
was that the Line’s pillboxes, gun emplacements, strongpoints, and concrete
obstacles would slow Germany down in any future conflict, allowing time for the
French Army to muster and mount a strong defense. In large part, this line of thought derived
from the reality of World War I: massive
armies were stymied by strong defensive works and fortifications, and offensive
strikes could be beaten back with relative ease. French military experts declared the Maginot
line a foolproof defense, even a work of genius.
The thing is, while the Maginot Line was a masterpiece in
defensive fortifications for a World War I-style assault, it was designed for
the last war. Military advances in the
20 years between WWI and WWII, including fast armored columns and deadly
bombers, rendered the Maginot Line obsolete before the first shot was
fired. Faced with seemingly-impenetrable
defensive fortifications along the border, the German Army simply went around
the line through Belgium and the Luftwaffe simply flew over it to strike French
targets in the rear. France fell within
6 weeks, and the Maginot Line contributed little to the nation’s defense –
because while French generals were fighting the last war, their enemy was
fighting the current war. Far from being
the linchpin of France’s national defense, what remains of the Maginot Line
today has been sold to private owners and turned into wine cellars, a mushroom
farm, and a disco.
Before we are too hard on the French generals, we might want
to remember that many of us, and many of our organizations and even churches, make
the same mistake. We go through an
experience in life, especially a traumatic or significant experience, and we
learn from it. We study the situation
that led to that experience, and we explore our response to it. We acknowledge our weaknesses and build up
our strengths. And if that same
experience came along again, we would know how to handle it better. If the last “war” was to happen again, we
would know how to fight it.
The thing is, the same war is never fought twice. Just as French defenses were ill-prepared for
the mobile strikes of World War II, we are not ready for a new experience in a
world that has fundamentally changed.
Look at our churches, for example.
In the 1980s and 1990s, churches began to notice that young people, the
Baby Boomers, were increasingly missing from church. What happened? Churches eventually developed new techniques –
praise music, coffee-shop atmospheres, and church buildings that looked more
like shopping malls than sanctuaries – and many were able to entice some baby
boomers back. The “seeker-sensitive”
movement became the success story of Christianity, and it seemed like every
church tried to copy what they had seen work somewhere else: the young, hip pastor, the edgy worship
leader, the big, bold youth ministry, and the like.
Yet then things changed.
Advances in communication technology and transportation made us a
less-connected, more mobile society.
Increases in violence and terrorism isolated us and changed the balance
of power in our world. Economic crises
and governmental scandals shook the foundations of our culture. And a new generation of young people – the Millenials
– grew up in this world. So what did
churches do? They rolled out their
praise bands, and their projector screens, and their flashy programs. They expected the Millenials to come back just
because they had mastered the techniques of the “seeker-sensitive” movement –
but they didn’t. Churches were prepared
to fight the last war, but guess what?
We’re losing ground, because the war has changed.
We shouldn’t feel too bad about this, for two reasons. The first is that we’re in good company. In the first chapter of Acts, we find that
Jesus, who has already defeated sin and death through the cross and
resurrection, is preparing to ascend to his Father. As he prepared to go, he gave his disciples
instructions to prepare for the task ahead of them: to continue his work and spread his Gospel to
the ends of the earth. Yet even at that
point, they didn’t get it. “Then they
gathered around him and asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore
the kingdom to Israel?’” (Acts 1:6) Even after 3 years and the miracles of Good
Friday and Easter, Jesus’ closest friends and followers were trying to fight
the last war. God’s new covenant wasn’t
the same as the old one – but they couldn’t see it just then. So if Peter, James, and the rest couldn’t
figure it out at first, we shouldn’t feel too bad that we can’t, either.
We may be fighting the last war, but God isn’t. God is on top of things, ready to engage our
changing world and save it through the love of Christ. All that he has chosen to need is us to get
on board. So really, the only question is
exactly what Isaiah says. “See, I am
doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do
you not perceive it?”
Admittedly, this can be hard for churches, pastors, and
Christians of all stripes. After all, we’ve
gotten pretty good at the old way of doing things – or at least, relatively
competent. If the 1950s or the 1980s
ever returned, most of our churches would be okay. But we don’t live in the 1950s or the 1980s
anymore. The world around us has
changed. Do we understand the new realities
around us? God does – and he can work
through us to accomplish his will, even though things are different. Are we willing to take risks, try fresh
techniques and approaches to ministry, and follow God on new paths to claim the
victory? Just what war are we fighting
for God – the last one, or this one?
In Christ,
Adam
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