God gave Israel their religious system to point them to Christ and carry them until he came. The Law, the Temple and the Sacrificial system were all design to show them how to live in relationship with God. it was to reveal to them their sins, to show them their need of salvation, and point them to the Messiah who could save them.
Now that Christ was here, the old system has served its purpose and it was time for Christ to fulfill what they pointed to. Christ is the Law. He is the Temple. He is the Sacrifice (Behold the lamb who takes away the sins of the world). He is the new wine given to them. He would be their source of salvation and righteousness. He would reverse the effects of sin and offer salvation and redemption through his blood poured out on the cross, not just for Israel, but for all of humanity and creation.
The people of Israel needed to embrace this new reality by putting through faith in Christ, believing he was both the Messiah and God. In order to do this, they would have to let go of their old wineskins and receive the new wineskins that Jesus was giving to them: His atoning death, the Holy Spirit, and the Church.
Unfortunately, Israel made the old system the source of their salvation. It would become a huge roadblock in their way of accepting Jesus as their Messiah and embrace the new reality he was ushering in. We see countless stories in the Gospels that show Israel's struggle with Jesus and his ministry, along with the anger that often arose with the people and the Pharisees. This new reality would be what ultimately got Jesus crucified, but he would rise from the dead to seal this new reality. He would commission the disciples to go out into the ends of the earth to preach the Gospel and make disciples. After Christ's Ascension into Heaven, the Holy Spirit would be given to Christ's followers, the Church (believers) would be established, and they would be empowered and emboldened to preach the Gospel.
Early on the church was made up of Jewish converts, but God would use persecution and the martyrdom of the first Christian to push them out of Jerusalem so they would preach the gospel in different areas and people would put their faith in Christ. Over time, the Church would grow and expand throughout the world as Christians proclaimed and taught the Gospel.
The Church and New Wineskins.
This is the story that we are caught up in today. God has still called us to go out into the world to proclaim the Gospel to all people groups near and far. He has called us to push back the darkness and evil in this world and magnify the name of Jesus so that people will believe in him. This is our purpose and mission. We are to continue this mission until Christ returns.
One of the ways the Church accomplishes this mission is through the local church. The local church is one of the by-products of the spreading of the Gospel. Whenever the Gospel was proclaimed in an area, a congregation of believers were formed. They would meet in homes and minister to the people in their area. When Christianity became legalized in 300 A.D, congregations began constructing buildings (churches) in order for them to meet for worship and have a place to minister from. Thanks to the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, many local churches would form their own denominations, core doctrines, traditions, ministry practices and programs.
Fast forward to today, the local church, more than ever, is in a prime position to be the beacon of light to the community, neighbourhood, and communities, and cities they find themselves in. Unfortunately, many churches have ceased to be this. Many have become internally focused on themselves and have disengaged from their communities. Many have been focused on preserving the past and keeping their building operational instead ministering to the community with the Gospel and looking to the future. Others, in the name of missions, have been more focused on filling seats and building their brand of the church instead of teaching and preaching the Gospel. Those things that were once meant to help us in our mission are now what we have built our hope around.
However, in order for the local church to move forward and be faithful to the Gospel and the mission of the Church in its context, it needs to embrace new wineskins in regards to how it does "church".
God is going to do great things. The Gospel will be proclaimed, people will get saved, and lives will be changed. God will see to it, but will we join him in it? This isn't a light decision, it is a heavy one because eternity hangs in the balance. Peoples' souls are on the line here. In order to do this, it means the Church needs to let go of its old wineskins and put on new ones. These wineskins will look different for some churches depending on its context and the needs around them, but they are necessary if we want to minister to those around us and glorify God
Here are four ways I see the new wineskins playing out for the local church.
1) Some churches will choose to close.
For some churches, the new wineskin that is needed for them is to simply close their doors and shut down their organization. It may seem that this is counter-intuitive, but there is truth to the saying that something needs to die in order for something new to start, In a time where many churches are doing whatever they can to keep the doors open, sacrificing God's truth and mission, in the process. I believe one of the godliest and obedient things a local church can do is decide to close and encourage each other to join churches that are Christ-centred and are mission focused.
It may seem harsh in suggesting this, but many of our churches are dead both spiritually and numerically. They have lost their heart for God and the community they have been placed in because the majority of the congregation has resisted change, they have become more concerned about themselves, and are focused on preserving the past instead of ministering in the present while looking to the future. There is no pastor, 40 days curriculum, Alpha program, or event that can resurrect this church, apart from a work of God. God is certainly able to restore a church and he may use a pastor, programs, curriculum, or even something in the community to do so. However, if a church is not interested in submitting to God and letting him have his way, it is best for them to be put out to pasture so God can start a new work in that community.
2) Some churches will leave their old buildings and move into a vacant space.
We have to admit that for some churches, the building itself is a hindrance to the ministry of the church and to the mission of God. It is either not capable of meeting the ministry needs of the congregation and community, or there is just too much history in the building that it is preventing the church from ministering in the present and moving towards the future.
Some churches are aware of this and have updated their buildings and made renovations, but there will come a point where they will no longer be able to do this and they will have to make a drastic decision. Some will decide to step out in faith and launch a million dollar building campaign. While others will decide to find a new space to worship God and do ministry in. This may involve buying a vacant building, leasing a commercial property, renting out the fire-hall, or renting the school gym and classrooms. I think this is a better option because it reduces upkeep, keeps the focus on God and the mission instead of the building campaign, and it provides new opportunities for partnerships and engagement with the communities, neighbourhoods, and cities God has placed us in.
I believe as we move forward we will see God asking more churches to do this instead of entering a building campaign because God is calling us back to being a people who are sent out to engage with those around in order to minister to them and share the Gospel. For several decades we have made the Gospel a "come and see" message because a lot of people were coming to church. When that stopped happening, we tried to find ways to get people to come back, that is where techniques and building campaigns came into play because we believed "if we build it, they will come." This worked for some churches, but other churches were stuck with huge debt, empty pews and unused gyms. However, the Gospel is a "go and tell" message and God is bringing us back to that by getting us to leave our buildings and entering into new spaces, whether it is two blocks over or on the other side of town. We can go, trusting that God is going with us and that He will see to it that his purposes will be accomplished.
3) Big churches will get smaller.
For at least 20 years, many churches have been caught up in the "Big Church" model. I have become convinced that the multi-site church model is just another version of the Big Church model. We have gone to the conferences, we have bought the books, implemented their programs, and strategies. The result of this is that some churches shrunk while others grew. I am not denying that the Church has benefited from this movement, but it has also suffered a lot of damage from it because it encouraged church consumerism, it created competition between churches, it promoted CEO type leadership instead of undershepherd style leadership, it lacks depth and transparency, and it created a lot of false success stories. On top of that, the leadership guru's that championed the church growth movement have had moral failures in recent years, have been accused of bullying their people, and have admitted to having many ministry regrets.
I am all for church growth and seeing churches impact the areas they are in, but at what cost? What is the end goal? For some, it has become about being the biggest church in the city or region. I am not denying the impact and good that these churches have done, but if that is the goal it is shallow and futile. It is also a hoarding of financial resources, spiritual gifts, and talented people in one building instead of sharing these resources with churches who need it or sending people out to launch new ministries and partner with churches who need people to help them with their ministries.
I am convinced that the church growth movement is an old wineskin that needs to be put away because it is unable to help us engage the ever-changing world we live in, the growing needs of our communities, and the brokenness and sinfulness of the people. In order for the Church to step into the brokenness and reach the relational depth and transparency that is needed to share the gospel in these situations, the Church needs to get small.
As we move forward, I believe big churches will realize their need to get small. By saying they need to get small, I am not referring to small groups even though they are important for discipleship and healthy community. Instead, I am referring to big churches realizing their need to get small by strategically sending out groups of people to plant churches; either in their surrounding area or to a specific place (near or far). This means you are empowering, training, and releasing pockets of your congregation to go out and plant churches that are separate from the parent churches and have their own identity. This requires churches to exercise a lot of faith because this will be costly in many ways. This also requires the pastors of these big churches to exercise humility as the ministry and the spotlight shifts away from them because the church is now more concerned about planting other churches and building up other leaders, instead of growing big.
If you are a big church or a pastor of a big church (200 or more people), is it possible that God has built you up with the purpose of sending you out to plant churches? Both the Bible and history shows that this is how God operates.
The Village Church in Dallas, Texas is a church I have followed for many years and have benefited greatly from Pastor Matt Chandler and his preaching. When Pastor Matt started, the church had slightly over 100 people. Then within a few years, they grew to over 5000 people with multiple campuses throughout the Dallas region. This growth was unexpected and was definitely an act of God. However, in recent years they have felt God calling them to be a church who plants other churches. They have been helping many of their campuses transition to become their own individual churches and have sent out pockets of their congregation to plant other churches. For example, they have recently sent a group of people to plant a church just 5 miles down the road and have sent a few people to California to plant a church there. Why are they doing this? It is because they want to be faithful and obedient to God.
Is it possible that God is asking your church to do something similar?
4) There will be many non-denominational church plants.
I am a Baptist, through and through. I'm moderately conservative and I hold to a Reform theology. I pursued a call to ministry in High School because I believed God was calling me to pastor in the CABC (Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches of Canada). I have had the opportunity to pastor at two churches in that denomination, but my family and I currently attend the Moncton Wesleyan church ( many of you who know me would find that funny). However, I have become more and more convinced that as we move forward in church history we are seeing the end of denominationalism. You may not agree with me, but I believe in some ways that this is actually a good thing.
At one point, when you wanted to decide which church you wanted to belong to you could base it on the denomination because it was a good indication of what the church valued and what they were about. Sadly, this is no longer the case because many denominations are changing their beliefs and many pastors are all over the place in what they believe, regardless of the denomination. Now you have to base that decision on an individual church and not the denomination it associates with. So the question now has become: Is there a Bible believing, Jesus loving, mission-oriented church in my area? Depending on where you live, it may be the Baptist Church, it may be the Wesleyan Church, the Anglican Church, or the Pentecostal church.
As a result, there have been many church plants over the years that have identified as non-denominational because they don't want anyone to have preconceived notions of them and they want their identity to be rooted in the Bible, not a particular denomination. I think as we move forward, we are going to see that trend grow because most church plants want to be biblically grounded and mission oriented. Even though many denominations are trying to launch their own church plant initiatives, they may need to come to terms with this reality and may even partner with other denominations to plant new expressions of the church.
These are the four ways I see the new wineskins taking shape as we move forward. What about you? How do you see the local church taking shape as we move forward? Regardless, only the Lord knows what he has in store for his bride. May we join him in his mission and desire to glorify him in reaching people with the Gospel.
Christ dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)
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