By Linda Rios Brook
I am honored to address you this evening. It's a privilege to stand before the governance of the Lutheran Church. There has been only one other time in my career when I have been allowed to address such a prestigious ecclesiastical gathering. Honesty demands I tell you about that.
It was in 1984 when I was appointed by the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas to the office of Lay Leader of Evangelism, and was invited to address the general convention. After my speech, the Bishop fired me and abolished the office. So perhaps you understand if I'm a bit nervous about talking to you tonight.
The letter of invitation said I should speak to you out of my area of expertise. Since expectation is the source of all disappointment, I've been concerned about your expectations regarding my message. So I reviewed my history to see if I had any area of expertise. I was so relieved to come up with something.
Card-carrying Lay Member
I am indeed an expert. I am an expert member of the laity. I have been a card carrying lay person in the Assembly of God Church, in the Baptist Church, in the Catholic Church, in the Episcopal Church, in the Evangelical church, and now in the Lutheran Church.
Some people have asked if I have been a part of so many churches because I couldn't find one I liked. The fact is, I have never found a church I didn't like. I love the institution of the church. I uphold the authority of the church. And I respect, revere and give thanks for you here who are the clergy and the lay leadership. It is out of that regard and awe for the church that I speak to you and tell you why I'm concerned about the church.
Over the last 18 months I had the privilege of speaking in some 150 churches and Christian gatherings.
Many were in Minnesota, others as far away as Oregon and Florida, and not confined to one denomination. As a result, I believe I have been given a unique perspective. These opportunities have come at a time of significant environmental change in this country, as the social acceptability of "the church" and "historic Christianity" has been in a free fall.
Religious War Coming
From those dynamics – a wide perspective across the body of Christ, and the social perspective afforded those in the media – I have formed an opinion as to what is about to happen regarding the church. I do not know if any of the clergy share this opinion or notùperhaps not. But I hope you will listen, because much of the laity does. I believe there is a religious war coming to this country.
Contrary to what you might think, it will not be a war between the denominations. Nor will it be a war between the church and a post-Christian America. It will be a war between the apostate church and the revived church of the Revelation generation. There is a prize in this war. It is the soul of the nominally Christian nation we have become.
Nehemiah said to his brother, "How's it going in Jerusalem?" His brother answered, "Not so good. Its walls have been torn down and the gates have been burned." Nehemiah sat down and wept because he knew what the loss of a city wall meant. People who were inside were vulnerable to their enemies.
What stands today as a wall around God's people in this country? What is the only line of defense against an encroaching secular environment which systematically devalues and discredits historic Christianity? It's the church!
But Where Are The Walls?
But it cannot be the church if the walls are torn down and its gates are burned. It cannot be the church if the church doesn't know what it believes any more.
Maybe you know what the church believes, but we who are out here in the laity, we're not as sure that we know. It cannot be the church if the church has lost its conviction to say that our hope and beliefs are based upon a personal God who talks. Who is knowable. Who has used language as a method of expressing His thoughts. And whose thoughts regarding righteousness can be checked out through history and have not changed.
It cannot be the church if the church has lost its courage to say that we shall not be mere participants in a social roulette. Frankly, I'm not as convinced as some that God is interested in every item on the social agenda. I shouldn't be surprised if there were some things about which God has no opinion. But those things which He has bothered to mention, appear to be things about which He is and has been clear, concise and consistent. The church suggests otherwise at some peril.
Perhaps you don't agree that the walls of the church have been torn down and its gates have been burned? But perhaps we could agree on the analogy of the church as a wall around God's people. If we can, then let's consider a simple question: How's the wall holding up? How's it going in Jerusalem? Let's look at a few statistics.
USA TODAY says that 85% of the mainline denominations in this country are losing membership. One in four adults in the nation and one in four high school students in Minnesota – the most churched state in the union – have a sexually transmitted disease. In this land of abortion, 9% of all babies in 1990 were born to single teenage girls. Is it a surprise that a recent teenage magazine survey concludes that the most depressed person in America is a teenage girl?
According to the University of Minnesota, one in four teenage girls in Minnesota attempts suicide. One in five boys and one in three girls will be sexually molested before their 18th birthday. The typical child molester will molest 380 children before he is caught. Murder of kids by kids has quadrupled in a decade. The teen violent death rate increased by 13% in five years. The number one killer of all teens is suicide.
And then there's the plague. It's spread by behavior. It's called AIDS, the impact of which we have not imagined. It descends upon our country, placing an entire generation at risk. How's it going in Jerusalem?
Rebuilding the Walls
Maybe you're not scared about the direction this country is going. But we ordinary laity, we're scared. We look at our children and we're scared. Do you know why?
Because we have moved from a position as the most prosperous and blessed nation in recorded world history, a nation which was founded upon a belief in a personal God who talks, to a nation that in one generation has participated in wholesale abandonment of its moral and spiritual culture, and is now a nation in chaos. We're scared because we can read history, and we know that no nation has ever survived the abandonment of its moral culture.
We're scared because the question is no longer, "Is there room for debate on moral issues between Christians and non-Christians?" Rather, "Is there room at all, anywhere. for the expression of a scriptural point of view on what the moral code of a society ought to be, without being labeled 'fundamentalist', 'religious right,' 'homophobic,' 'dangerous'"?
We don't think we ought to have to apologize for being Christian. We laity want this wall called the church "rebuilt" because when we look at
The Church Is A Wall
Our children, unless this wall holds, we know we're looking at the last generation of Bible-believing Christians. Is that an overstatement? I don't think so. The wall didn't hold in Europe. In 1960, 70% of the people in England attended church on Sunday. Today 3% attend. The cathedrals and the great churches are empty.
You who are the shepherds of God's flock, you have such a hard job. I've read your job description, and I don't want your job. We here in the flock know that most of us would fail at being held to the standard of accountability to which you are held by God's Word. We would tremble at the warning in Jeremiah 23: "I will bring disaster upon the shepherds of my sheep who destroy and scatter the very ones they were to care for."
How very hard it must be to minister God's Word faithfully in a world of such pervasive relativism. We pray for your discernment and we pray blessings and grace upon your royal priesthood.
We acknowledge that you are here by divine appointment. Your ministry will determine which side of the coming religious war this great church will be on. We who are your followers and who submit to the authority of your office, uphold you. But be assured, we are also calling you to action. We are calling you to courage. In a world of counterfeit Christianity we are calling you to hold fast to those things which you believed at first.
We call you to guide the destiny of this church with fear and trembling. The Spirit of the Lord says to the apostate church in Sardis, "I know your reputation as a live and active church; but you are dead! Wake up," says the Lord, "strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is at the point of death. Your deeds are far from right in the sight of God."
And to the faithful church in Philadelphia He says, "I know you well. You have tried to obey and have not denied my Name. Therefore I have opened a door to you that no one can shut," says the Lord. "I will force those supporting the causes of Satan while claiming to be mine – but they are not; they are lying – to fall at your feet and acknowledge that you are the ones I love. Because you have patiently obeyed me I will protect you from the time of Great Tribulation and temptation which will come upon the world to test everyone alive."
Hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the churches.
Let the wall be rebuilt! Let the church arise. And let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
*Brook is CEO, President and General Manager of TV station KLGT, channel 23, St. Paul, MN. She delivered this banquet address at the Assembly of the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.