Episode 191: Shepherding Through Reformational Change

“Plodding is a highly effective strategy for reformation…When everything is in disorder, you cannot fight every battle. You have to pick one. And if you're going to pick one battle, you want it to be the battle that is going to move the needle the most when accomplished. You want that battle to be the most strategic battle you can fight. Then, you go after that thing with what's been called Tactical Patience, or what I like to add Diligent Perseverance.” -Jason Ruis

Episode Manuscript

I wanted to begin this session by talking a little about the beginning of The Messy Reformation. Like I've mentioned over the years, it was a mentor who convinced me to stay in the CRCNA and fight for reformation. Yet, I was some nobody from Princeton, Minnesota. How in the world was I to even get in the game? I had no idea. But I started reading and studying in preparation for this fight. Like I mentioned last night, I read and studied the Conservative Resurgence. I studied and studied and studied the Reformation. I watched Synod livestreams, read church order, and read Synodical Procedure so that I could have some familiarity with the way things work. I went to Calvin Seminary, not because I thought I would get a world-class education but so that I would be well-connected in the CRCNA and more opportunity to get involved in the fight. I did all of this stuff with no idea if I would ever end up in the fight, but feeling a strong tug and pull from God that I would be in the fight eventually...maybe.

We all felt the pressure building up to the Human Sexuality Report, and I knew this would be a make or break moment for the denomination. I felt like I had to do something, but I had no idea what to do. I did a lot of walking and praying and brainstorming about what I could possibly do. I also remembered talking to guys who had been through the Women in Office battles in the 90's who said that the only reason we lost was that conservatives quite (I think that's not quite right, but that's what I was told). I also knew that I loved having conversations with other pastors about life and ministry and denominational stuff and I always walked away from those conversations thinking, "Wow, I think people would benefit from hearing this conversation." So, the idea of a podcast came to mind. A place where we could interview conservative pastors, give them a platform, talk about what's going on in the denomination, encourage those who felt like they were a voice in the wilderness, and help enroll people to get in the fight--or to use the language from last night, to enroll more peasants in the pitchfork rebellion.

As the idea was coming together, I heard someone talking about reformation. I don't even remember who it was or even the topic of the lecture. I just remember the phrase Messy Reformation was in the lecture. The moment I heard that phrase, I knew that's what we needed to call the podcast. I believed it was a necessary reminder to the conservatives throughout the CRCNA that reformations are always messy. Things are never as neat and tidy as we would like. Often it feels a little like a disaster. And I know that in my own heart, it's the messiness of things that often gets me frustrated and wanting to quit. So, I wanted to start something that would keep this reminder in front of the conservatives on a regular basis as we fight this fight so we keep on persevering in the fight and don't quit.

Now, I still recognize this tendency in myself. I want things to be neat and tidy. I want things to be done clean and easy. I want reformation to be easy and clean and tidy. I want my church revitalization to be clean and easy and tidy. AND often when I'm so frustrated about my church and my position or the denomination it's because I've fallen into this trap of expecting it to be easy and clean and tidy.

Yet, why in the world would I ever think that? What about church history would make me think that shepherding a congregation or a denomination would be easy? What from God's Word would make me think that this calling would be easy?

I mean, listen to these sentiments spoken by, or to, some leaders of God's people from God's Word. Moses says to God, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.” (Numbers 11:11–15, ESV). Why have you treated me like this? Why have you given me THESE people? All they do is complain about everything. This place is such a mess that it is impossible for me to give them everything they need. I didn't give birth to these people. You did. You take care of them. Been there?

How about this word from God to Jeremiah: “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD...I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands. But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.” (Jeremiah 1:7-8, 16–19, ESV). Nobody is going to listen to you. Not only are they going to ignore you, but they are going to fight against you. But you don't worry about it. You just do what I tell you to do, go where I tell you to go, and say what I tell you to say.

How about these words from Paul: “Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” (2 Corinthians 11:23–30, ESV). Why do we think it's going to be easy? It's ALWAYS messy.

The messiness come because reformation is always hard work. That's what we talked about last night. Reformation is costly and requires sacrifice and conviction. Reformation is about more than just coming up with an idea and telling people about. This past seek I listened to an excerpt from Steve Jobs talking about the problems that happened with Apple when he was away for a few years. He said, "One of the things that really hurt Apple was after I left, John Sculley got a very serious disease. That disease, I've seen other people get it too, is the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work. And that if you just tell all these other people, "Here's this great idea," then it will happen. The problem with that is that there's just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product. As you evolve that great idea, it changes and grows. It never comes out like it starts because you learn a lot more as you get into the subtleties of it. You also find there's tremendous trade-offs that you have to make. There are just certain things you can't make electrons do, certain things you can't make plastic do or glass do, or factories do, or robots do. As you get into all these things, designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain - these concepts and fitting them all together and continuing to push to fit them together in new and different ways to get what you want. Every day, you discover something new that is a new problem or new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently. It's that process that is the magic." A good idea is not enough. It's the messy work of figuring out how to make those ideas work that brings about something beautiful. It's the hard work of pounding away day after day, sermon after sermon, council meeting after council meeting, synod after synod, so that these great ideas become reality in our churches and in our denomination. That's what's beautiful, but it's very hard and it requires courage to keep moving forward.

We know this to be true in many aspects of life. I think about Reformation a lot because reformation is about way more than just a denomination. I believe Church Revitalization is the work of reformation on a local level. Even more locally, I believe that sanctification is a work of reformation in a person's life. Or say it in the opposite direction: Reformation is the work of sanctification carried out on a grander scale.

We know that sanctification is a messy process that takes a lot of work and energy. A good idea about how to change your life to become more like Jesus Christ is not good enough. It won't work. Rather, along with John Owen, we believe that we need to be killing sin or sin will be killing us. The work of sanctification is hard, gritty, messy work that takes a very, very long time. I really like Eugene Peterson's analogy of the Long Obedience in the Same direction applied to the idea of sanctification. Much of sanctification is putting one foot in front of the other, sometimes taking a few steps backwards, but then plodding on forward over a long period of time to the point where sins are slowly killed and defeated in your life. You eventually get to the point where some of you greatest struggles in life are not struggles at all. Yet, it is often a long, slow process. We know this from our work with people in our congregations and we know this from our own personal battles with sin. Why would we think it would be easy?

Here's why I've found this to be a very helpful way to think of reformation. On the one hand, it's a reminder that as we are leading reformation in our own lives, in our families, in our churches, classes, and denomination plodding is highly effective. It's very effective to keep plodding along in the same direction for a long time, making slow, steady progress. I mentioned last night that Richard asked if I was a runner and my response was that I run, but I'm not a runner. When I first tried running, I always started out too fast and I would be exhausted after a mile and quit because I couldn't go on. Eventually, I realized that if I slowed down, and kept on putting one foot in front of the other, I could go 3 or 4 or 5 miles. Plodding is a highly effective strategy for reformation.

Yet, it's also important to remember that we don't just plod around randomly without direction. That is NOT effective. Effectiveness is not a long obedience in an unknown number of directions. Rather, it's a long, plodding obedience in the same direction. That means we have to pick a direction and head in that direction slowly over time. And, of course, we need to pick a direction that is both strategic and feasible. It's no use pursuing something that isn't feasible. It's also no use pursuing something that has not strategic value. Rather, it's worth plodding in the same direction for a long time when we know that what we're plodding toward is possible AND it's going to make a difference or move the needle.

Here's why this is so important for us to understand in the midst of any reformation (and I'm talking about reformation of our life, our family, our church, our denomination). We can't pick every battle at once. We know that. It's impossible. I've mentioned before that Calvin said this about Geneva, "When I first came to this church, I found almost nothing in it...there was no reformation. Everything was in disorder…" When everything is in disorder, you cannot fight every battle. You have to pick one. And if you're going to pick one battle, you want it to be the battle that is going to move the needle the most when accomplished. You want that battle to be the most strategic battle you can fight. Then, you go after that thing with what's been called Tactical Patience, or what I like to add Diligent Perseverance. You keep on plodding in that direction, putting one foot in front of the other over and over and over and over again until you finally arrive in that place. Then you pick the next place and begin all over again. But in order to lead reformation in your church or in this denomination, you need to have tactical patience and/or diligent perseverance.

Here's how all of this connects and ties together with the theme of courageous leadership. It's extremely hard to be courageous if you don't know what you're doing or where you're going or what you're fighting for. Courage requires clarity (there, I've said it). How can you be courageous if you don't know what you need to be courageous for? If you don't know where you're going, then every setback is a failure and every loss is catastrophic. However, when you have clarity about where you're going and why you're going there, and you know that it is both strategic and feasible, setbacks and losses often turn into detours on the long obedience in the same direction. You can keep courageously leading your congregation, or denomination or family, in that direction no matter what comes your way, without being lost in the messiness of the reformation.

So, I want to wrap up by getting your brain thinking about these decisive points, not just in our denomination, but in your classis, church, family, and personal life. What aspect of your life do you need to focus on with tactical patience in order to be conformed into the image of Christ more fully? What area in your church requires a faithful, courageous, diligent perseverance that will help move the needle toward being a more effective and God-honoring congregation? Spend time thinking about what these things are, then start courageously plodding in that direction with reminder that it's going to be messy and it's going to be hard, remembering that the idea is the easy part an execution is the hard part, but also remembering that you are being strengthened and led by a faithful God as you keep plodding along in this messy reformation.