The Church Needs an Easter Reset in 2021
Easter Sunday was the ultimate reset for the followers of Jesus. The old order of things had passed away and the new had come. Jesus was vindicated as Truth-teller and Lord of the universe. His claims to be the divine Son of God and Savior of the world were fully verified.
The rule of death, sin, Satan, and Hell was forever overturned by the resurrection of Jesus. Gone are hopelessness and despair. Jesus is powerfully pouring out His life, love, light, and power to the ends of the earth.
Over the next 40 days, Jesus will spend time with His disciples, preparing them for His ascension into Heaven and for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Once endowed with the Spirit’s fire and power, this small band of disciples will explode out over all the ends of the earth, carrying the Good News that Jesus is Lord.
Kingdom and Christendom
Jesus is resurrected, ascended, and enthroned as the King of all kings. Every knee will bow before the King who died and rose for their salvation.
This Kingdom message has reverberated from Jerusalem for over 2,000 years and has reached billions of people. It is hard to fully articulate the impact that Jesus's life, death, and resurrection have had on this spinning planet we call Earth.
“This Kingdom message has reverberated from Jerusalem for over 2,000 years and has reached billions of people.”
As the Gospel spread in the earliest years, the followers of Jesus were persecuted by ruthless Roman emperors. Strangely enough, the early Church father Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Persecution caused the Church to grow exponentially in the first 300 years.
It took until the year 313 AD for the Roman emperor Constantine to declare religious tolerance toward Christianity. Within 10 years, Christianity would become the official religion of the Roman empire.
Scholars have long argued that ever since that pivotal moment in the 4th century, Western governments have both upheld and promoted the Christian faith. This led to both the expansion of Christianity but also to its privileged status in the West. We refer to this period of privilege hailing from the 4th century forward as Christendom.
Goodbye Christendom
Christendom is clearly faltering in the West due to the rapid growth of secularism. So much has been and is being written on this subject that I will not repeat the argument here.
Suffice it to say, Christianity is rapidly losing both its strength and position of privilege. This reality is most clearly seen throughout Europe where the Christian faith used to hold a significant position.
Census data in the United States continues to show a rapid decline of those who claim to be Christians. Increasing numbers of younger people are affirming that they are “nones,” meaning they select “none” on religious surveys.
Time will only tell how much damage the Church has sustained due to negative public opinions about child abuse, leadership scandals, participation in divisive politics, support of immoral leaders, and resistance to COVID-19 protocols. Keep in mind, that it was in 2011 that researcher David Kinnaman argued, in his book You Lost Me, that young people were leaving the Church due to the perception that Christians were anti-science, anti-environment, anti-women, and anti-LGBT.
As we wake to attend Easter services this 2021, many pastors and members are eager to see if attendance numbers will bounce back. Most churches have been shuttered for the better part of the last year and many will be opening for the first time on Easter. Most of the pastors I know have been predicting that they have lost about 20% of their congregations.
Christendom is crumbling and may have been hastened on by COVID-19.
Hello Easter Reset
“Easter Sunday is still the ultimate reset for the followers of Jesus”
Easter Sunday is still the ultimate reset for the followers of Jesus. Just as the Church was awakened to a bright new reality 2,000 years ago, so too, the modern Church should embrace again the life-giving power of the resurrection of Jesus.
I propose there are several affirmations the Church can make that will chart a new trajectory for generations to come. This Easter in the year 2021, the Church should affirm the following pledges:
We pledge our loyalty alone to Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. The ways we participate in American politics must change. Yes, we can still participate in the electoral process, but not with the same idolatrous, power-grabbing, partisan activity that has sullied the Church’s reputation. We can no longer afford to operate in partisan wars that pit us as Christians against other groups or each other as enemies. The Kingdom of God must become our first priority. If political parties call for loyalty that damages our Christian witness, we must prioritize our loyalty to King Jesus.
As the Body of Christ, we pledge to be loving bearers of the Good News of Jesus in word and deed. The Church must become known again by our love. Christ is the Head of the church, and we are His body. The pulpits of our churches must resound again with a clear Gospel message that reaches the heart of her people. Our members can be sent forth as ambassadors of the love of Christ into a world that is broken, despairing, and hurting. The Good News needs to begin to sound really, really good again. The Church has a long tradition of caring for the poor, of building hospitals and schools, of reaching people on the margins. When the world loses compassion and empathy, the Church will continue on in the spirit of Matthew 25:31-46. We will move on from the tiring and silly ways we have tried to be cool and relevant.
We pledge to live in loving Christian unity with each other. The Church is badly divided. Post-coronavirus, we should seek to find unity around the core essentials of the Christian faith. We can reaffirm our commitment to the early creeds of the Church and begin to respect our non-creedal doctrinal differences even while occupying the same congregations. Old denominational lines can be erased as we seek the strength that comes from loving one another and working in Christian mission together.
We pledge to make more disciples, especially of our own children. We can no longer afford to take a passive role toward disciple-making. We will establish thoughtful programs to reach those who do not yet believe and to form them into faithful and thoughtful followers of Jesus. Our worship services must become formative activities that engage the heart, mind, and souls of men, women, and children. We will equip parents to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord in the midst of an increasingly complex and dark age. We will not give up on the discipleship of our children but will dig in, relying on the wisdom and strength of the Holy Spirit. This will require that we prioritize faithfulness in our own lives and in our marriages. We will offer our time and resources so that discipleship is a priority.
We pledge to not be driven by fear but by faith. There will be numerous challenges in the generations to come toward the Christian faith. Technological advances, global conflict, the further advance of secularism, the prospect of discovery of aliens (yes this sounds nutty but everyone is talking about it), and the increasing sense that a 2,000-year-old religion is out of touch, will strike fear in the heart of many Christians. It may even seem for the remainder of our years that we are fighting a losing battle. The Lord Jesus promised to build His Church and that even the gates of Hell would not prevail. Our God will not be caught off guard. He is with us to the end of the age and we will not fear.
We pledge to work for the prosperity of Babylon while we look for a Better Country. We will return to the spirit of Jeremiah 29 where we seek the peace and prosperity of the foreign land we inhabit. We have forgotten that we are pilgrims and aliens in this place. We are longing for a Better Country (Hebrews 11:16). To that end, we will be people that are filled with tremendous hope as we face whatever lies ahead. Christ our Lord has gone ahead of us to prepare a better place (John 14), and one day we will inhabit a new heaven and a new earth where the glory and goodness of God will shine forever.
The Church of Jesus needs an Easter reset in 2021. Jesus is already at work to make all things new just as He was 2,000 years ago on that first Easter Sunday. May He once again do a new work in the Church He loves and may we be ready to join Him.
